Valve has released two out of three of its 2026 hardware lineup, with the Steam Controller arriving in May and the Steam Machine last month. To complete the set, we’re waiting for the Steam Frame VR headset to be launched. The good news is that Valve has already announced a summer release window, and lately everything seems to be pointing towards its imminent launch.

Just as we saw with the previous two launches, reports of Steam Frame shipments have been picking up, which shows signs of life and is a good indicator of an impending announcement. Last month saw a leaked Steam Frame Welcome Tour surface online, and even earlier than that, “Initial Support” for the device was added to the SteamOS Manager daemon.

Steam Frame coming soon?

According to an unofficial news account, Valve has received a total of 15 Steam Frame shipments, labeled as ‘Virtual Reality Devices’ in a shipping manifest shared online. It’s not immediately clear just how many units are included in each one of these shipments, but rumor has it Valve could have the Frame ready to launch within a matter of weeks with this kind of stock.

Another clue that suggests the Steam Frame launch is around the corner is the new ‘Great On Frame’ page now publicly viewable on the Steam store. Anyone with a Steam Deck will know that the device displays an equivalent screen when you open the Steam store, largely featuring Verified titles ideal for the device, so this is exactly the same thing – but for the VR headset.

Portal 2 became the first game to get a Steam Frame compatibility rating, starting at Playable, but now upgraded to Verified after Valve reviewed its requirements for 2D games. ‘Flat’ games are no longer tested for native display resolution support in the same way VR games are, likely because the headset’s 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye resolution isn’t relevant to conventional 2D games.

At the time of writing, just four titles are featured on the ‘Great On Frame’ page:

• Portal 2
• Into Black
• Aperture Hand Lab
• The Lab

Steam Frame is closer than ever, and we could see Valve announcing its release in the coming weeks. Once it launches, we can expect the Frame to have a similar reservation queue program to give fans a better chance of securing their headset. Early hands-on reviews of the headset have been positive, and we’ve already seen game devs preparing for launch (VRChat in particular).

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.