- Valve has pushed out SteamOS 3.8 as a stable release
- It includes “initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware”
- This groundwork being laid suggests that the Steam Machine is close now, and it’s backed up by a bunch of other rumors lately
It seems that the Steam Machine could really be on the verge of arriving, as the ground is now officially prepared for the device in SteamOS.
Valve announced the debut of SteamOS 3.8, which has the following line in the release notes: “Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware.”
In other words, basic support for the Steam Machine is now in the full, stable release of SteamOS, which is obviously one of the final steps towards the device hitting the shelves.
And this move comes on top of a bunch of other clues that Valve is about to launch the compact gaming PC. For starters, we know the release is set for summer, as Valve themselves have told us, meaning a June launch is possible (it’s either that, or July, or August).
Furthermore, the Steam Machine has been seen in various guises online recently, most notably a Vulkan compliance test, and there have also been Geekbench leaks (as highlighted by VideoCardz ), along with suggestions that reviewers already have the PC.
Elsewhere in SteamOS 3.8, Valve has delivered a number of fixes, including several general stability tweaks along with game performance and stability improvements via an updated GPU driver.
There’s also a very welcome upgrade to KDE Plasma version 6.4.3 with Wayland support, which should significantly improve Desktop Mode performance on the Steam deck (as well as support for external displays, including VRR).
Away from the Steam Deck, we have a few key changes, with Valve introducing “improved compatibility with newer Intel and AMD platforms”, meaning SteamOS will be smarter on rival handhelds, including those with Intel chips.
Valve also promises “greatly improved video memory management” for discrete GPUs, and this will obviously benefit the Steam Machine (which has a semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 discrete GPU with 8GB of VRAM).
Analysis: a mainstream machine or niche appeal?
Adding up all these clues, the expectation is that the Steam Machine is slated for a launch very soon – barring any last-minute hiccups. Also, a June launch would be nice to hit, as that would mean the device would just sneak into Valve’s planned release timeframe of the first half of 2026.
I also think the sooner the launch the better as it doesn’t look like the pressure of the RAM and component crisis on the PC market will ease anytime soon. In fact, based on the sentiment that has been prevalent this month, things are likely to get worse. That includes Nvidia’s CEO dropping a huge pessimistic cloud (no pun intended) by saying he expects the RAM crisis to last for “quite a few years.” There is very little hope of a recovery from price issues anytime soon based on what we have heard recently.
Of course, the main concern about the Steam Machine remains the price, and Valve hasn’t given us any real indication of where it might fall – other than the fact that the company won’t be subsidizing the hardware to drive adoption (which was hardly comforting to learn).
Expectations have been for an MSRP of $1,000 or more for the base model—recently, an analyst floated the idea of a $1,200 launch price in the US. The problem then is that this makes it very challenging to push the Steam Machine as a mainstream device to take over living rooms around the globe, when such pricing would give the compact PC a much more niche appeal.
Remember, we shouldn’t skip the price, so to speak, and maybe the cost of the Steam Machine won’t be quite as painful as the internet imagines. But in the current climate where everything is getting significantly more expensive—and you can add Apple’s Macs to that list starting today—it’s hard to stay positive about potential hardware costs.
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