Steam Controller, Valve’s next-gen gamepad, is slated to launch on May 4th for $100, although you shouldn’t expect to see a big ‘buy’ button next to Steam Frame or Steam Machine.
Speaking to Polygon, Valve revealed that it’s only releasing Steam Controller next month for a pretty important (and slightly obvious) reason: Steam Controller “doesn’t have RAM in it,” Valve hardware engineer Steve Cardinali told Polygon.
“We wanted to build up quantity so that we could try to address everybody who wants one at launch,” Cardinali maintains.
Notably, Steam Machine is set to include at least two bundling options: one with a Steam Controller and one without, which could put a kink in Valve’s supply efforts to produce enough Steam Controllers, as Machine specifically features built-in support for the gamepad in an effort to make it more of a living room console.
In an IGN interview, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais spoke circumspect about why the company isn’t pushing out all three products as previously planned.
“For us, the controller is something that stands out on its own and we want to make sure that we can get that to customers in parallel to anything that might be happening with Steam Machine.”
While Griffais doesn’t specifically talk about issues with component sourcing, which have spurred RAM and storage prices to exponentially increase over the past year, Valve confirmed as much in February, noting the company had to “revisit” the pricing and release dates of both Steam Frame and Machine.
That said, Giffais again echoed that Valve doesn’t have exact details about the timeline (or price) for Steam Frame or Steam Machine, although he says the company is “hard at work on trying to get them out the door. I think we are definitely expecting to roll out some news soon about that, but in general, I think things are going well.”
Looking for more Steam Frame news?
Valve Unveils Steam Frame VR headset to Make Your Entire Steam Library Portable: Valve shows off Steam Frame, the standalone headset that can stream and natively play your entire Steam library—with only a few caveats right now.
Hands-on: Steam Frame Reveals Valve’s Modern Vision for VR and Growing Hardware Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s latest and greatest VR headset yet.
Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a few months after releasing Index, but no such luck for first-party content on Steam Frame.
Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.
Valve Plans to Offer Steam Frame Dev Kits to VR Developers: Steam Frame isn’t here yet; Valve says it needs more time with developers first so they can optimize their PC VR games.
Valve Announces SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Frame Headset in Mind: Find out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Frame.
Steam Frame vs. Quest 3 Specs: Better Streaming, Power & Hackability: Quest 3 can do a lot, but can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Frame?
Steam Frame vs. Valve Index Specs: Wireless VR Gameplay That’s Generations Ahead : Valve Index used to be the go-to PC VR headset, but the times have changed.
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