Valve appears to be gearing up for Steam Machine launch as the company imports 50 tons of "Game Consoles" in just two days

The Steam Controller officially launched today, but many are still waiting for Valve to reveal the release date and pricing for the Steam Machine. While there has been no official announcement yet, new information suggests that the device might be arriving sooner than expected.

Import records reveal massive shipments of game consoles

According to import records viewed by The Verge, Valve has brought in a massive shipment of “Game Consoles” into the United States. In just two days, between April 30 and May 1, the company imported around 50 tons of these products. This comes shortly after reports from insider Brad Lynch, who had already pointed out that shipments were starting to increase again.

What makes this interesting is that these shipments may not just be more Steam Deck units. The Steam Deck was also labeled as a “Game Console” in shipping records before, but the weight and pattern of these new shipments look different. That has led to speculation that these containers could include the upcoming Steam Machine or even the Steam Frame.

Over the past couple of months, Valve has imported close to 100 tons of hardware into the US. Ships like Ever Logic and Ever Shine have delivered multiple 40-foot containers from China to ports in Los Angeles and Tacoma. In total, these shipments weighed over 127,000 kilograms, though part of that weight comes from the containers themselves.

Looking closer, each container usually carried around 42 packages with a total weight of about 14,500kg. But newer shipments have been lighter, averaging around 12,600kg while still carrying the same number of packages. This change suggests that the contents inside may be different from earlier batches.

When you subtract the weight of the containers, the recent shipments add up to roughly 50 tons of actual products, including packaging and accessories. Even then, it may not be as large as it sounds. Based on Valve’s own numbers, the Steam Machine weighs about 2.6kg per unit. That means these shipments could represent fewer than 20,000 units.

That said, Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais recently mentioned that the company will share more details about the Steam Machine’s release date soon. On top of that, the latest SteamOS beta update added further support for the device, which suggests that Valve may be preparing for its launch.