Link: https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/45479024/view/675134162359812783

The steam hardware feed just published news about the reservation queue:

We launched Steam Frame last month, and with the reservation queues and waitlist in place we wanted to give folks a better idea of when they can expect to see an email with the option to purchase.

...

If you have a reservation
You can now check on your expected order window by going directly to the Steam Frame product page while logged in to your Steam account. Once there, you'll see confirmation that you'll receive your order email either by December, or in 2027. Those in the 2027 camp will receive further (more detailed) information on their expected order timing by January.

I don't know if they're rolling it out differently in different regions, but I cannot see it right now and I am in the reservation queue for Europe/Germany.

😐

Edit: Now it's telling me that I'm in the 2027 group. Oh well.

Damn, I'm in the 2027 group. At least most of bugs will be worked out by then hopefully.

It's not showing anything for me either, also Germany.

Edit: Oh wait, this is for the Reservation Queue, not the waitlist. Wtf. Their stock must be ridiculously low. I somehow thought that reservation queue meant getting it within the first few weeks.

Your estimated order availability: Between now and December 30, 2026

Christmas present, yay?

Why even bother with the whole waitlist/reservation thing in the first place?

My order availability is 2027, which makes having a "reservation" fucking meaningless.

I was put on the waitlist and until today I still had a little bit of hope I'd be able to purchase one this year. Haha, nope. I'll just resign myself to probably never getting one at this point.

Sad to be in 2027 group, but at least I won't get my hopes up every time I see the new email notification.

Welp. I guess "this year" is better than 2027. Thank you for the heads up.

And thank you for linking to the source and not some third party republishing the information with 1000 words of unnecessary context and ads.

Why even bother with the whole waitlist/reservation thing in the first place?

Disincentivize scalpers.

How does that work? They already enforce one unit per household.

People went from being on waitlist to being on reservation for Steam Machine recently, and people got Steam Controllers earlier than estimated time. Steam might be choosing to be more conservative on their estimates so still hope.

I'm in Germany I it is showing for me directly under the "Reservierung stornieren" Button:

Für Sie voraussichtlich bestellbar:
Zwischen jetzt und 30.Dezember.2026

\2027.
welp.
I will be on another continent for most of that year.
I guess I'll wait for 2028 when I'm back.

Now I can see that I'm in the 2027 group as well.

🤜🤛

I'll have to wait until '27. Good thing I bought the color camera early! That's already sitting on my desk...

Or people with the ability to buy chose not to

Where is it supposed to say if you’re getting an email before 2027? I don’t see anything about an estimate anywhere

Europe is always screwed when it comes to supply 🥀🥀🥀

Me too, I just hope the price won't go up before I can place my order.

Shuffling the order queue means that even ordering one with a scripted bot is senseless because it's not first come, first serve.

Not happy myself that I'm in the 2027 group but maybe some hero ports SteamOS to the Quest 3, then I could cancel my order and save money. I genuinely want one mainly as an unencumbered VLC player with a giant virtual screen.

If you're lucky, there will be an OLED version until then.

Was offered in the first batch. Had to decline at that price. Might’ve done it if I didn’t already have vr capability.

So reservations have to wait until 2027? Damn. I'm still on the wait list. I'll probably not get a chance to get one before 2027H2.

"Between now and Jan 31, 2027" for me. Still a pretty broad window. I'm going to assume the latter date is what's expected if nobody in front of me cancels, so I probably won't be getting it this year.

At this rate there's a realistic chance to get a used one at a reasonable price before getting a new one from the waitlist. As much as I like Valve I have to say they really dropped the ball on this one. Why even bother creating a market-changing device when you only produce it in minuscule numbers. Now they have neither an egg nor a hen.

"Waitlist" feels redundant with these timelines. I wonder what their plan was, really: "Let's create this game-changing headset, but only manufacture and sell a couple thousand of it. Yeah, that'll change the whole market for VR!"

I'm sure they completely decided on this course and this isn't because of the massive data-center driven hardware shortage.

I genuinely don't understand the distinction between the reservation queue and wait list. I was led to believe that the reservation queue meant "there's a specific physical device reserved in your name that will be made available for you to purchase shortly". It seems instead to have meant "you'll be able to buy one when we have one available and it's your turn", which seems indistinguishable from being on the waiting list?

My understanding is that the reservation queue is a mix of "we have a specific physical unit assigned to your name" and "we have a manufacturing order placed, of which one of the units is assigned to you". Whereas waitlist is more "we haven't even placed the order yet to manufacture your unit, so we can't guarantee it will even get made".

So the distinction is more about the likelihood of ever getting one.

I declined too, as I expected to wait longer (like with the steam machine). Couldn't swallow spending so much in a short timeframe, thought i'd have more time.

I see. Thanks for your reply and for sharing your understanding! If that's the case, I believe that Valve could have done a much better job messaging and managing expectations. As things stand, it seems reasonable that people in the reservation queue would have expected to be able to purchase a unit in the near-term (not 4-6 months (or more?) in the future). What an unnecessary buzzkill. :-/

I interpret the queue as having an actual ranking to it, whereas the waitlist does not. So if you're in the queue, you have some unknown position in the order. If you're in the waitlist, it's just an unordered list where you have a random chance of being periodically added to the end of the queue.

As an anti-scalping measure it has some value since people who got in early would have a large advantage otherwise, but perhaps the queue itself is a bit too long and should have been restricted to something close to "definitely coming this year".

Hmmm I might just join the waitlist now, then. Because I wanted to give myself a few months to think it over, anyway.

I completely agree with you. I think the intention behind their system was good, and is better than the alternatives they've used for the Steam Deck and Controller, but they really need to clarify and/or relabel both lists.

That being said, my comment was based on what I remember reading during the Steam Machine's release and I assume it applies to the Frame as well. But I don't remember at all if it was from an official source or simply what people were theorizing in various threads at the time.

Mine doesn't have a year specified.

I'd gotten the email to order one, but I was out of the country...

Steam support said they couldn't delay shipment or give me 2 extra days to order so I'd be back when it was delivered....

So I got kicked all the way to the end of the waitlist
Kinda killed my excitement, now

Valve definitely dropped the ball on communication, but there is a real distinction between the lists.

The reservation list likely ties to guaranteed inventory. This would cover everything from warehouse stock to parts awaiting manufacturing and/or assembly, RAM being the probable bottleneck. As long as a full bill of materials is confirmed and finalized, Valve would consider those allocatable units.

The waitlist would then be all demand beyond that, and since Valve might not have RAM or storage obtained for them, those people might see a price increase.

It’s literally on the faq of the steam frame page. Shame people don’t know how to read anymore.

And yet there are still scalpers. All it did was stop legit buyers from having a chance.

I have been against this stupid ass lottery since day 1.

I was able to get every single valve hardware on day 1 prior to the lottery. This is first time I didn’t get valve hardware at launch.

What would recommend when demand is higher than supply? In this scenario usually some group needs to wait.

My point was that there seems to be no functional difference? See my comment down thread if that doesn't clarify why your comment isn't meaningful

Thanks! That's possible as well, though I thought I recently saw a reference to waitlist position? In any event, I agree that the system has value for anti-scalping, and that there is some implied timing to "we have one for you to purchase" that shouldn't involve waiting multiple years.

Understood. Thanks for the clarification!

I believe this is specifically for the reservation queue (not the waiting list). Sorry it's not better news...

This news seems to suggest that the wait list might take a very long time (many months, possibly more than a year) to service?

I somehow thought that reservation queue meant getting it within the first few weeks.

Same here! It seems to me the wording for the reservation queue description naturally gave this impression. I think Valve could have done a much better job with messaging...

I'm in the 2027 gang, damn. Oh well, on the bright side I basically have an extra 1k disposable now.

What I don't understand is why Valve didn't share this information from the beginning. Their communication led to believe that everyone who landed into the reservation queue would receive theirs within weeks, or within 1-2 months at most. Making us first wait almost a month only to be like, 'btw, you're not getting yours until next year' is a really shitty way to treat your customers.

Waitlist here too.

I'm gutted, really.

Logically I know that a lottery was the right system, and I can't blame valve for the RAMpocalypse.

Emotionally, It feels like such a gut punch when I've been following this headset with great anticipation since day one, and I absolutely will never use a Meta headset even if it was free, because I care about privacy.

Looks like no VR for me until 2028.

I think it's the planned production run, not already produced units that'll all go to the reservation queue.

So if you're in the queue, you're guaranteed to get one. The wait-list will... have to wait.

Read again. The distinction is very clearly stated.

Reservation queue : There is a product for you in the current batch, just wait for it to be available before purchasing it.

Waitlist : There wasn't enough products in this batch to put you in the queue, but if someone in the queue decide not to buy, his product will be assigned to someone else, and a spot will be freed in the reservation queue, allowing someone (probably randomly chosen in the waitlist) to join the queue.