Valve has officially confirmed the Steam Machine and Steam Frame devices will ship this summer, zeroing in on the launch of the highly-anticipated devices that has been in flux since the start of the year.
The company made the reveal in a Steamworks post saying it was expanding its Verified program to include the two upcoming devices.
"Today we are expanding the Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both of which are shipping this summer," the company wrote.
"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 confirmed that Steam Machine's requirements are nearly identical to those of the Steam Deck, whilst the Steam Frame criteria is also similar. When it comes to Steam Frame, the "default graphics configuration needs to perform well, text and UI elements need to be clear and legible on the built-in display, and the default controller configuration needs to work well with the Steam Frame Controllers."
Valve also said that games will be checked for Steam Machine and Steam Frame compatibility and both platforms will use a badge system similar to the Steam Deck. Gamers will be able to see at-a-glance if titles will run smoothly on each device.
The question remains: how much are these devices going to cost?
Valve may have confirmed we'll be getting these devices in the next couple of months, but the company still hasn't revealed just how much they'll cost. With the current prices of PC gaming devices skyrocketing due to the RAM crisis, it's probably the thing gamers want to know the most.
Some price leaks back in January suggested between $900 and $1,100 for the different configurations of Steam Machine which would be a tough pill to swallow for a machine designed to compete with the Xbox and PS5. Costs have only gone up since January and Valve recently raised the price of the Steam Deck to compensate.
Over on Reddit, the discussion over Valve's lack of clarity on the pricing is in full swing.
"Anything but release the prices," wrote Reddit user u/jjj44j, while others were under no illusion it's going to be costly. Redditor u/KingoKings365 wrote simply: "my wallet gonna cry" while user u/yeaaahwehere summed it up nicely: "just dipped into my child’s college fund 🙏 can’t wait for this"
Steam Machine and Frame are set to be released this summer, Valve report today from r/steammachine
