Valve has revealed the price of its upcoming Steam Machine, with all variants costing over $1,000.
Boasting “over six times the horsepower of Steam Deck,” the Steam Machine aims to make PC gaming more accessible with a console-style approach. It allows users to easily play their entire Steam library on a TV.
A specific release date has yet to be announced. The models and prices, as they appear on the official Steam store, are listed below:
- 512GB model – $1,049 / £879
- 512GB with Steam Controller – $1,128 / £938
- 2TB model – $1,349 / £1,149
- 2TB with Steam Controller – $1,428 / £1,208
Storage space aside, both the 512GB and 2TB share the same specifications, which are detailed on the product page.
In an official blog post, Valve explained how the price ended up becoming much higher than it originally envisioned.
“Steam Machine, like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world,” the company said.
“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.”
From now until June 25th at 10am PST, users can register their interest for any of the Steam Machine models. Any pre-orders placed after this window will be randomised and placed into a queue. Valve hopes this system will “improve the purchase experience and limit resellers.”
In an interview with Eurogamer, engineer Yazan Aldehayyat added that the Steam Machine’s final pricing is “significantly more” than Valve had wanted.
Despite Valve never officially disclosing the original price, Aldehayyat told IGN that the price hike was “probably similar” to the one that the Steam Deck received last month – with the publication estimating the Steam Machine’s price may have previously been around the $750 mark.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
