Steam Machine could release a piece at a time – and we might see the first real soon

We were as excited as anyone when Valve announced its new Steam Machine at the end of last year, and even more when we learned that it would arrive in 2026. Since then though, a global shortage of RAM chips – dubbed RAMageddon – has cast doubt over its release.

Not only were there rumours of a delay, the unannounced price seemed to go up and up every time speculation appeared online. Through no fault of Valve's, it couldn't have picked a worse time to re-enter the home console market.

However, there are some signs that we might see the Steam Machine this year after all, with reports of hardware arriving in the US. Okay, it's not the console itself, but Valve is said to have taken a large delivery of the new Steam Controller it'll ship with (via The Independent). And some suggest it might decide to release at least that element soon.

That'd be great for those, like myself, who have built their own Steam Machines while they wait. I used a Geekom A7 Max Mini PC personally, which runs on Bazzite and plays a very healthy amount of games at 1080p 60fps (even 1440p with some titles) – including Cyberpunk 2077.

I currently use an 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller with my setup, but would jump at the opportunity to add an official Steam Controller. It would go someway to making my custom Steam Machine feel more like the real thing, giving me touchpads to play with too. And it'd set me up for when Valve finally manages to remove the barriers for its own console's release.

Hopefully, that'll still be in 2026, with Valve itself saying in February that it still planned to ship the Steam Machine, Steam Controller and Steam Frame VR headset in the first half of the year.

Admittedly, that was before the RAM shortages worsened a touch, leading to the brand also running out of Steam Deck stock. But hey, we can but hope.

By releasing the Steam Controller in the coming weeks, at least we can get a hint of what to expect when the full package arrives. And considering the prices of Mini PCs are going down, you might even consider building your own too.