Valve Confirms Summer Ship Date for Steam Machine and Frame

Valve confirmed that its Steam Machine console-like PC and Steam Frame VR headset will both ship this summer. The announcement came via a blog post on the official Steam website that also expanded the company's Verified program to the new devices.

Verified program expands to cover Steam Machine and Steam Frame. Valve stated that it is expanding the Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both of which are shipping this summer. The company did not provide any other details on specifically when the devices will ship or how much they will cost at launch.

The remainder of the blog post focused on how the Verified program will function for these devices.

Verified testing process stays consistent across devices. The program will work basically the same way as it does for the Steam Deck. Games will be tested by Valve, and if they pass they will receive a green check mark.

If a developer's game was not running well on Steam Deck it will be checked again to see if it runs better on Steam Machine. If it does it will receive a Steam Machine Verified badge. The same process will apply to Steam Frame.

Pricing remains undisclosed despite its importance. Price is going to be a very important factor in the success of the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame. After Valve recently increased the price of its popular handheld PC the Steam Deck by over $200 a lot of people are nervous about just how much a Steam Machine will cost.

Steam Machine offers six times the power of Steam Deck. Valve says the Steam Machine is six times as powerful as a Steam Deck which will mean more games can be played on it. This also suggests it is going to be vastly more expensive than the Steam Deck which now costs nearly $800 for the base OLED model.

Cost estimates for Steam Machine begin to circulate. Some are estimating that the Steam Machine could cost $1,200 or more. When factoring in ongoing RAM shortages as well as other factors the idea of a $1,200 Steam Machine sounds not only plausible but perhaps the best case scenario. It is possible the price is higher than that.