Valve officially made the Steam Machine available (sort of but not really) today, and if you were hoping for the president of the Yacht Collectors’ Club to have found a loophole through the RAM and storage crisis, I’ll be the bearer of bad news: the base Steam Machine model with 512GB of storage and no controller costs $1049 or €1039. It’s clear that this price is significantly higher than Valve had originally anticipated, as the company dedicates the first part of its press announcement to this sticker shock.
Steam Machine, like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world. The price at which we sell our hardware is a direct result of the cost of these components. We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023. That understanding was born from the many years of data we all have about the evolution of PC hardware prices – primarily, that it tends to get cheaper over time as new technology arrives.
Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components. There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we’re sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we’ve secured them over the past 6 months.
Price wasn’t the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. There were periods where we found we couldn’t source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units we’ve been able to produce for launch.
↫ Valve press announcement
As Valve mentions, availability is also going to be an issue, and thus they’ve had to settle on a complex reservation and lottery system. Between now and 25 June, you can sign up for a model, after which the entire pool of reservations will be randomised to determine a waitlist order. As machines become available, they will simply go down the list from first to last as determined by that randomisation. In other words, you can’t just go out and buy one right away.
At this price and for the hardware the Steam Machine contains – an AMD Zen 4 CPU with 6c/12t up to 4.8 Ghz, a custom RDNA3 GPU, and 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of DDR6 video RAM – you’re probably better off sticking with what you already have. Until the “AI” bubble pops and prices come down again, that is.
Thanks, “AI” techbros. Everybody despises you.
Ahh, line up to contribute to GabeN’s megayacht.
They have a waitlist?
If the rumors were true, the original target price was $750. I don’t think it would still be a good value at that price myself, but I can see people clamoring for the demand.
At $1,000, I think Valve itself will need to wait for customers to come.
You underestimate Steam gamers. I sold my two year old Steam Deck OLED for more than I paid new, it’s insane how much demand there is right now for Steam hardware.
I’m not going to buy this (I’m actually living a Linux-free life for the time being), but if I ever feel like I want one, I already have a more capable gaming rig in a SFF case I can chuck under the TV with SteamOS installed.
Morgan,
Agreed. I was assuming for rational people. But not everybody is so.
Morgan,
I don’t like today’s pricing, but it is what it is. It’s possible that some would be PC builders could see $1050 as a bargain compared to the cost of a PC gaming rig they wanted to build themselves. It’s obviously a lot for a console and honestly I find the specs to be low for 2026. If I were sourcing components for a new build I wouldn’t be buying 16GB ram nor an 8GB GPU. At least it’s a dedicated GPU though rather than sharing system memory.
On the plus side, many gamers have been wanting publishers to focus more on gameplay and less of marginal graphics improvements so it’s possible that value’s lower specs incentivize publishers to target lower end components. It could be beneficial to consumers who are tired of the upgrade train. The Steam Machine’s adequacy will depend on publishers targeting it as their hardware baseline for the next several years.
Alfman,
I’m on that camp, but unfortunately we are in the. minority.
And that is led by influencers and “so called” gaming journalist that pick up the useless, worthless pieces, and do not actually enjoy games.
Take the journalist that could not pass the first room in Demon Souls, or the other one that could not get past the jumping tutorial in Cuphead.
And they still give advice to the wider gaming world, where they praise “mechanics” like drinking a soup in a game, but pick apart stealth in Starfield (which is another skill issue, where they try to use crouch to compensate for heavy metallic space suits in close quarters)
The wider public?
Unfortunately on their side
If the game does not adhere to “modern sensitivities” it becomes a critical and often commercial failiure.
“Is the game fair? Sorry, does it have checkpoints every 2 seconds?”
“Does it start in journalist, sorry very easy mode?”
“Does it provide solutions to all puzzles? Sorry is it accessible?”
“I can’t follow the main story, does it offer side quests? How many are there?”
“Can I write a review in 7 hours? I need to get back to GTA”
“Does it have RPG mechanics, collecting things is always good?”
Indeed, but like with the Steam Deck I expect Valve to pull off some magic with this hardware as well. The Deck had no business being as efficient and optimized as it was; on paper the hardware was mediocre at best but in practice it was simply amazing! The Steam Machine will likely be similar; my current main workstation is, again on paper, far more powerful especially comparing the GPU, but I’m willing to bet that at least at 1080p, the SM will be a solid performer in many modern games.
As both you and @sukru have said though, I feel game story and mechanics are more meaningful than pure graphics performance. A poorly optimized game won’t be fun to play of course, no matter the genre or content, but a highly performant game with no story or “soul” is just no fun at all. Sometimes it can be fun to jump into Doom 2016 and mindlessly kill demons from time to time, but it gets old quickly compared to games with depth and unique or challenging gameplay.
It doesn’t hurt that competing hardware isn’t exactly better…
Valve doesn’t really seem to do large manufacturing orders, hence why they are always out of stock. They have zero intention of storing a million unsold units in a warehouse.