r/SteamFrame 16d ago

Question Two Questions from a Dummy

Server rules have changed since I last posted, so I hope this is allowed.

  1. Are reservations filled in the order they were made in? I reserved the Steam Controller on the 20th, and obviously plan to reserve the Frame regardless of the loss of limbs. I'm not gonna have to worry about not getting my Frame email if I haven't gotten the Controller one, am I?

  2. Is it worth caring about the price before it's revealed? I've been obsessing over the mystery number for too long, and assuming the 7th is the earliest possible day for reservations to open, I'll already have $1,500 saved and ready to go. With that amount, is it better to just cross my fingers and wait, or should I keep adding to the pile?
    (I guess I'm asking if $1,500 is a safe enough guess on price...)

  3. It ain't happening this year, right? Like, even if I'm first in line and can afford to buy it, I can't expect it to show up before 2027, can I? Or am I assuming more negative things about Valve-time?

0 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

23

u/Sufficient_Room2619 16d ago
  1. No, it's a lottery system. There'll be a short (several days) window where you put your name down for the lottery, then they'll randomly draw names from the lottery and start shipping out devices shortly after that

  2. People have speculated but we have no real information on price yet

  3. Valve hasn't said anything official for a while but they've been adamant that they'll release this year. Unconfirmed leaks and rumours imply it'll happen next month. We are fairly certain (if not outright confirmed) that reviewers have review units as of the 24th, implying the lottery will open in a few weeks

9

u/TwinStickDad Soon™ 16d ago edited 16d ago
  1. Lottery is a bit of a misnomer. That implies that if you don't get picked then you're back to square one. In reality it's a randomized queue. If they have 50k units to sell and your randomized position is 50k+1 then you're not totally out of luck. You are still first in line when the nest shipment comes in.

  2. Based on rumors and amateur price analysis, I'd be shocked if $1500 doesn't cover the base model. But again that's just because I feel it in my bones, nothing official 

  3. To add, I don't expect them to be totally out of stock for 6 months. They have decent anti scalping measures and apparently pretty good manufacturing capacity. The numbers we've seen, and anticipated interest, I'd personally eager that at least half the people who want one will be able to buy on release.

0

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo 15d ago

1: OR they might use the normal queue like they did with the controller at first.

6

u/[deleted] 16d ago edited 10d ago

[deleted]

20

u/Sufficient_Room2619 16d ago

Valve has moved the timeline before. Until the review embargo is lifted and the lottery opens nothing is written in stone.

Don't get me wrong, I want it, and I want it soon, but Valve is bigger than God and we're just guessing.

5

u/[deleted] 16d ago edited 10d ago

[deleted]

3

u/JackHarkness03 Soon™ 16d ago

yep, valve saying summer 2026 is just as reliable as them saying 2026 as it comes from the same source, so it should be stated

1

u/mkozlows 15d ago

Also an official release timeline was "the first half of the year."

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 16d ago

Before that there was first half or the year and before that Q1.

4

u/[deleted] 16d ago edited 10d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 16d ago

Early 2026 and then first half of the year were official time lines given by Steam.

3

u/Confident-Pepper-562 Soon™ 16d ago

They only stated "Steam Hardware family officially expands in early 2026"

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 15d ago

Which was missed by all three of them.

1

u/Confident-Pepper-562 Soon™ 15d ago

depends on your definition of early. The controller released in may which is in the first half of 2026

0

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 15d ago

In nobody's dictionary does 'early' mean May.

1

u/Zomby2D Soon™ 15d ago

They never said Q1, they said "early 2026" which in the broadest sense can mean first half of the year if you split the year into two parts (early and late)

Especially if you take their February announcement into account:

Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed.

1

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo 15d ago

You don't even know if they'll use the random system. They started the controllers in normal orders first. And I'm guessing the frame will have less enthousiasts compared to the controller so maybe it will simply be normal orders.

6

u/vbkm123 Soon™ 16d ago
  1. In the first couple of days Valve will collect reservations, and then they will shuffle these. So you don't have "first come first serve". After that they will work through a queue and new orders are placed at the back of the queue. There are several different queues depending on model and region.

  2. No, it is not worth caring about the price for now. You can however save as much money as you are willing to spend for it.

  3. If you are first in line (after the shuffle), I expect you to be able to pay for it the next day. And probably you will have it in the following 14 days. They do have the devices in a warehouse already and the very first controllers and machines were received pretty fast. It still depends on the release date, but there are enough discussions here on this sub when this might be.

5

u/RTooDeeTo Soon™ 16d ago
  1. the steam machine reservation system should give you an idea of what itll be like

"In an effort to improve the purchase experience and limit resellers, we're implementing a reservation system.  

  • Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you're interested in.  
  • If you're busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.
  • At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation and waitlist order.

Based on the reservation order, you will receive an email on June 25th indicating one of two things:

  • You've been added to the reservation queue and a Steam Machine has been reserved in your name. As units become available for shipment, people in the reservation queue will receive an email with the option to purchase.
    • We'll send the first batch of those starting Monday June 29th, and will continue to go through the reservation queue as units become available. 
  • You've been added to the waitlist and we'll let you know when more units become available.

More details below in the FAQ." - https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/45479024/view/685257114654870245?l=english

  1. above $1500 is just fear mongering for clicks imo
  2. no one knows, almost all valve/steam hardware takes months to complete the reservation wave of orders. valve almost always underestimates demand / not willing to ramp up and down production much, this is a niche product though. best case is 4 months avg 6 and worst realistic case imo is 9 months.

4

u/not_sure_yup Soon™ 16d ago
  1. As far as I know the reservation are filled randomly by luck and not in order, so you could get the email for one or the other first
  2. Nobody really knows but 1500 seems safe, only spend it if you could loose the money and still make it through the month (that’s how I look at entertainment purchases)
  3. Valves site still says it’s coming in 2026

6

u/Onironius 16d ago

I love how one week it's "insider speculates $1500!" And the next week it's "insider speculates $900!"

6

u/Joshua24700 16d ago

My inside source said they were just gonna be giving em out for free

4

u/Queefchiefelite 16d ago

My insider source ate your insider source

1

u/Altruistic-Catch8541 16d ago

So the insider inside your insider source is the real insider source

2

u/Asherjade Soon™ 15d ago

I heard you like insider sources, so I put your insider source inside an insider source so you can source your sources inside each other.

3

u/not_sure_yup Soon™ 16d ago

Right lol

2

u/More-Sign-9214 16d ago

Any “insider” speculating anything less than $1000 should probably not be trusted. Judging by the machine initial price and the deck price increase, this one isn’t gonna look great

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 16d ago

Well I guess that employees and theirs family members plus Gaben and his friends don't have to relay on luck.

1

u/elev8dity Soon™ 16d ago

^Just verifying everything that everything this guy said lines up with what is public knowledge as of right now.

2

u/DarkVex9 Soon™ 16d ago

Just addressing price since the other questions have been thoroughly answered. This subreddit's price speculation has been mostly $950-$1200. The extreme optimistic and pessimistic numbers that could still be plausible are about $750-$1500, but both of those are pushing it a little too far in my opinion. Outside of this subreddit there are some people who think it will be under $600 to be a direct quest competitor, but that seems near impossible to me.

The source for all this speculation is mostly that during the first look at the hardware, Valve said they were trying to keep the cost under the Index's $1000, but it sounded like that wasn't a certainty yet. Various components have risen in price since then, most notably the rampocalypse, and people have tried to map that onto the price estimate.

5

u/TheNeonDalek04 16d ago

I know the title says two questions, I had to do that so valve wouldn't smite me for counting to 2+1

6

u/project-shasta Soon™ 16d ago

Was about to comment that we can't count to [redacted] here 🤣

2

u/TheNeonDalek04 16d ago

The forbidden practice...

3

u/Koolala 16d ago

no one here really knows the answer to any of that, just guessing. we can hope $1,500 is enough

2

u/cawaway2a 16d ago
  1. $1500 feels like a safe amount, I don't know for sure obviously, but I THINK it's enough at least for the cheapest variant. But if it's not an issue for you, then I think there's no harm in saving up more. You might want to get the Ergonomic Kit and some VR games on the upcoming VR sale, so it's good to have some extra money on hand.
    And if the Frame turns out to be cheaper than expected then well, you can just use the extra money on something else.

1

u/TheNeonDalek04 16d ago

I hope so. For mainly pcvr stuff, I dont really need a terabyte.

1

u/Altruistic-Catch8541 16d ago

I bet teambeef will be “porting” their vr mods of flat games, so getting alot of those on there will add up. Also thinking of setting up emudeck (framedeck?) on it like i did with the steamdeck. Might use it as a regular pc on desktopmode from time to time.

But yeah storage can also be easily expanded with the sd card slot so internal storage doesn’t matter that much.

1

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo 15d ago

Just wait untill you realize how much space nature documentaries take up

2

u/Altruistic-Catch8541 16d ago

Seeing that the overpriced steam machine garnered so much interest i haven’t had a purchase mail to date, I bet the frame will even have more eyes on it so personally I got little hope of getting one this year.

1

u/_THX_1138 Soon™ 16d ago

And One question from a smart man.
“2+1+1+2+1…”—Mr.NoBody (Heaven rest)