While Valve has confirmed the release date and price for its new Steam Controller, many are still left wondering how much the Linux-based Steam Machine will be priced. According to Polygon, the company has confirmed that, while it wanted to launch the controller closer to the Steam Machine, global memory shortages led to the decision to launch the Steam Controller now.
Valve’s hardware engineer Steve Cardinali noted that, “This doesn’t have RAM in it, and it’s not as complicated to start getting out the door for us.” He went on to say, “We’re ready for it. We wanted to build up quantity so that we could try to address everybody who wants one at launch, but it’s possible that the demand for it far exceeds our expectations.”
He did, however, confirm that a staggered release for the Steam Controller, the Steam Machine, and the Steam Frame was always part of the plan for Valve.
“From the beginning, these were all different products,” Cardinali said. “We had always thought, obviously we want them to work together well — especially the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller, they’re in a lot of ways a pair made in heaven — but we saw no need to ship the Controller at the same time as the Machine. The really only hard deadline is we didn’t want to ship the Steam Machine before the Steam Controller. We want to have that out for the Steam Machine… It wasn’t really ever the plan to ship them together unless it landed nicely that way. So there’s no point in holding it back while we work through the other stuff.”
Interestingly, the Steam Machine may have started suffering quite heavily due to memory shortages. According to notable Valve leaker Brad Lynch, the pre-built gaming PC’s price has “skyrocketed” from what the company had initially planned due to RAM sourcing issues.
“I’ve been told some Valve internal pricing targets they had before AND after RAM skyrocketed,” Lynch wrote. “Machine is affected the most. Frame is not as bad.”
Valve’s official confirmation about the release date and price for the Steam Controller came shortly after a pair of reviews were accidentally published too early. The controller is priced at $99 and will be out on May 4th.
When it comes to the Steam Machine, however, the company has remained largely silent since it first confirmed a delay in its launch back in February. In a statement, the company has said that it still intends to launch all three devices in the first half of the year.
“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained Valve. “But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”
No concrete details have been revealed about when the Steam Machine or Steam Frame will be released.
