By Dexerto | Created at 2026-06-05 10:40:40 | Updated at 2026-06-07 19:18:58
2 days ago
Valve has announced that both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame VR headset will begin shipping in summer 2026, and has also expanded its Steam Verified program to support the new hardware.
On June 4, Valve revealed how developers can prepare their games for the upcoming devices and explained how gamers will be able to identify compatible titles.
For those unaware, the game verification expansion builds upon Steam’s existing Steam Deck Verified program, which helps players see how well a game works out of the box on Valve’s portable device.
Steam Machine & Steam Frame get Steam Deck feature
According to the update, the same feature will now apply to both Steam Machine and Steam Frame. This is great news, as you won’t need to go through the hassle of going through the frustrations of buying a game only to find out it doesn’t work, or even worse, having to spend hours tinkering with various files and settings (shudders).
Games are evaluated based on factors such as controller support, graphics settings, and overall performance straight out of the box. However, Valve noted that developers whose games already perform well on Steam Deck likely won’t need to do any additional work for Steam Machine.
They also revealed that they’re already testing titles that previously fell below Steam Deck performance requirements. So, just because a game didn’t run on Deck or struggled to reach a buttery smooth FPS, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of luck when playing on the Steam Machine.
Valve“If your game already runs well on Deck, it will also run well on Machine with no extra work required from you. And if it doesn’t run great on Deck because of CPU or GPU performance, it may still run great on Machine,” said Valve.
“If you have games like this, you don’t have to take any action: We’re already testing every title on Machine that fell below our performance requirements on Deck,” they continued.
Alongside the Steam Machine PC, Valve also confirmed new verification standards for Steam Frame, a standalone VR headset that can stream games from a PC but is also capable of running games natively through SteamOS.
Steam Frame Standalone Verified feature also focuses on how games perform when running directly on the headset without a PC connection. Games will be assessed on graphics performance, UI readability, text clarity, and controller compatibility.
While Valve stopped short of announcing exact launch dates, the company confirmed that both Steam Machine and Steam Frame are scheduled to begin shipping sometime during summer 2026.
