Valve reveals Steam Machine launch window, confirms easy compatibility with Steam Deck verified games

Valve will ship its new Steam Machine console PC and Steam Frame VR headset this summer, the company today confirmed.

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With the new $99 Steam Controller already out, Valve is preparing to launch its next hardware duo in the coming months. Both devices are set to launch sometime in summer 2026, Valve says, which is technically a span ranging between late June and late September.

"Today we are expanding the Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both of which are shipping this summer. As with Steam Deck Verified, the goal is to help customers understand the out-of-box experience for a given title on these new devices, and how smoothly a game will run with no user work or configuration required."

Valve also revealed important info on game compatibility on these new systems. The Steam Machine will basically fall under interoperability with the Steam Deck Verified program--any game that runs well on the Deck will also perform similarly well on the Machine.

"The hardware is roughly six times as powerful as a Steam Deck but the software that runs on Machine is the same as what runs on Deck, including SteamOS, the Steam interface, and Proton (our tool that enables your Windows games to run on SteamOS).

"The requirements for Steam Machine Verified are nearly identical to Steam Deck Verified, and focus on the customer experience out of the box. Long story short: If your game already runs well on Deck, it will also run well on Machine with no extra work required from you."

In the Steam Machine's design documentation, Valve recommends that developers test out their game's performance on a Steam Deck in order to simulate how it'll perform on a Steam Machine.

No exact launch timing was revealed by Valve, and everyone is wondering just how much the console-and-VR-headset combo will cost. Expectations put the system anywhere from $799 to even $999 due to the current rising costs of memory and storage.