Valve Reveals Steam Frame And Steam Machine Verified Process At GDC 2026

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There’s been a lot of hype and discussion revolving around Valve’s new hardware that they announced. The Steam Machine and Steam Frame both look like incredible devices, and even though it seems like Valve is quietly delaying their release to sometime this year, I still couldn’t be more excited. In that excitement is just going to continue because over at GDC, Valve detailed what the Verified process will look like for both devices, and it seems to all initially rely on the Steam Deck.

In Valve’s GDC slides, it shows that for both devices, it all starts with the Steam Deck test. From there, it will look at why the game got the rating it had, and then section it into a new rating system for both devices.

For the Steam Machine, anything rated Verified or Playable because of legibility or resolution problems will automatically be Steam Machine Verified. Otherwise, if a game is rated Playable for any other reasons, it will be Steam Machine Playable. Now, if a game is rated Steam Deck Unsupported because of SteamOS compatibility, then the game will automatically be rated Steam Machine Unsupported. But, if it’s rated Unsupported because of performance issues, then it will go into a specific Steam Machine test.

As detailed on a separate slide, Valve will be aiming for a solid 30 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution. The Steam Machine test will not really be testing anything else, with Valve specifically noting that it will not test resolution or text legibility. They also mentioned that the input will be identical to the Steam Deck, so it’s safe to assume they aren’t testing that either.

For the Steam Frame, it won’t be as automatic. Anything rated Steam Deck Verified, Playable, or Unsupported because of VR-only gameplay will go through a dedicated Steam Frame test. However, if a game is rated Unsupported because of performance or SteamOS, it will automatically be Steam Frame Unsupported.

As for the specific Steam Frame test, it will be more in-depth than the Steam Machine test. They will be testing to make sure input is good with the Steam Frame controllers, that the UI is legible, and they will have two different performance metrics to measure. VR games will be required to run at 90 FPS, while non-VR games will be required to run at 30 FPS at 1280x720 resolution. Streaming from a host PC is not going to be rated since it’s not running natively on the Steam Frame.

Ultimately, I hope this leads to refinements of the system. I don’t think there will be as many Verified games for the Steam Machine or Steam Frame that shouldn’t have the appropriate badge as much as the Steam Deck, but time will tell. The structure they have for both devices makes a lot of sense to me, though, so I am more on the optimistic side. Now, we just need Valve to give us a release date so I can grab both devices already!

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