AMD CEO Reveals Next-Gen Xbox And Valve Steam Machine Launch Details

The PC memory market is in shambles thanks to unprecedented demand for chips in the AI sector, and so it was fair to wonder if this would impact the launch timing of Valve's upcoming Steam Machine, due out this year, or next-generation game consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The answer for at least two of the three upcoming systems is a flat out 'No', if recent comments made by AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su are any indication.

Dr. Su addressed both the Steam Machine and next-generation Xbox console during an earnings call to discuss AMD's fourth quarter earnings. Starting with Valve's latest foray into hardware, she confirmed that Valve remains on track to "begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year."

While the plan was always to release the Steam Machine in 2026, the status had been in question after PC memory prices began to skyrocket out of control. There's already some anxiety over pricing after Valve confirmed that the Steam Machine won't be priced like a game console, but more like a PC built with parts that would offer similar performance (see our simulated Steam Machine article for an idea of what those parts look like).

That revelation left things open-ended, especially with rising DRAM and storage costs in the consumer space. Whatever price point Valve may have initially considered may not necessarily be the final MSRP. This led to speculation that a Steam Machine delay could happen, but as far as Dr. Su is concerned, that is not the case.

There are also several questions surrounding Microsoft's future console plans, including whether Xbox has a future as a dedicated system. Microsoft's been pushing its tagline, 'This is an Xbox' in reference to enabling most devices to stream Xbox games via its Game Pass service, including smartphones, smart TVs, and so forth.

Dr. Su addressed this as well, saying "development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC [system-on-chip] is progressing well to support a launch in 2027." And in case anyone thought she may have misspoken, Dr. Su doubled down on the statement towards the end of the earnings call when asked about the trajectory of a volatile gaming business.

"Now that you're talking about this year being down, then the next-gen Xbox ramping in 2027, I just hope to get some color on what you see as kind of the annual trajectory there," Ross Seymore, managing director and senior equity analyst at Deutsche Bank, asked.

Dr. Su responded by saying there will be more "talk about that going forward, but as we ramp the new generation, you would expect a reversal of that." More important is what she didn't say—this would have been the time to hedge or walk back earlier remarks about a next-gen Xbox console coming out in 2027, but she didn't do that.

This isn't surprising, given that AMD and Microsoft announced a strategic, multi-year partnership last June that will see the former supply chips for the latter's Xbox devices "in your living room, and in your hands."

Still, plans can and do often change, and that partnership was announced before AI demand cause a big shortage of memory and storage chips. So while not necessarily surprising, it's still reassuring for AMD to confirm that another Xbox console is in the works.