Steam Machine launch is close as Valve receives a big shipment of 'Game Consoles'

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine hasn't launched yet because of the current memory and storage crisis affecting the consumer technology market. With prices doubling and tripling and availability becoming scarce, the discourse surrounding an affordable entry-level 'gaming console' PC from Valve has shifted from anticipation to questions about price and availability.

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For those gamers out there excited about the idea of a more powerful Steam Deck that connects to your TV as a SteamOS-powered gaming console, there is some great news. According to Brad Lynch, a well-known leaker of all things Valve, the company has been receiving "a ton" of shipments at its various US-based warehouses, with all of them marked as "Game Consoles."

Although there's no specific mention of the Steam Machine, odds are this is exactly what's being received. And as a "ton" implies a lot of stock, potentially in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, there's a good chance this means Valve is set to announce and launch the highly anticipated Steam Machine very soon.

Of course, with the current state of the memory and storage market being what it is, there's also a possibility that Valve sits on the stock, so to speak, as it sorts through supply chain deals to land on a Steam Machine price that doesn't start in one place and then doubles a few months down the road. However, we're inclined to believe that a launch is around the corner, as we heard similar stories of large quantities of controller shipments ahead of the recent Steam Controller launch.

The overall price will determine the gaming device's value for many gamers, as it's powered by a custom AMD 6-core Zen 4 processor and an RDNA 3 GPU with 8GB of VRAM and 28 Compute Units. The GPU specs put performance somewhere in the realm of the Radeon RX 7600 or the GeForce RTX 4060, albeit optimized by Valve for SteamOS and the Steam Machine. So yeah, here's hoping that it's good news all around - an imminent launch and a price point that positions the Steam Machine as a viable entry-level option for PC gaming on a couch.