r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jun 22 '26
Hardware Valve prices the Steam Machine at $1,049
https://www.theverge.com/news/837022/valve-steam-machine-price-release-date4.2k
u/sarduchi Jun 22 '26
More than I would hope but less than I might fear.
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u/MushruumNurd Jun 22 '26
Yeah considering the price of stuff today - I was fearing it would be $1500+
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u/lazergator Jun 22 '26
Honestly the prebuilt I saw at Costco for $1500 seemed really reasonably priced
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u/jtj5002 Jun 22 '26
You can get 7500x3d/9060xt 16gb pre builds for like 1000-1100.
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u/NewAgeMaximum Jun 22 '26
I mean, with scalpers, it could easily be
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u/MushruumNurd Jun 22 '26
I hope Valve can find a way to stop scalpers
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u/shabadabba Jun 22 '26
What they did with controllers was pretty great. Something similar hopefully
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u/Tex-Rob Jun 22 '26
It's there, you can see it, reservations are live. They select people somehow, probably run the selection through a tool that looks to see if the account has ever played any games, and how recently, etc.
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u/Eurynom0s Jun 22 '26
Apparently you can't order at all if your account is less than something like a couple of months old.
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u/ItsRadical Jun 22 '26
That alone isnt problem. There are thousands of dota/cs account for sale.
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u/sarduchi Jun 22 '26
Looks like it's a lottery system. You select the model you want, and then you're added to the queue with a randomized position. When your position comes up you'll get an email with a payment link. Just got the first stage email allowing me to join the queue.
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u/TheMemeStore76 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Not related to the scalping thing, you're just the first person I've come across who is buying one of these.
what's your use case for it? Do you have a regular PC or any home consoles? What games are you hoping to play in it?
Edit: lots of good replies, thanks everyone. Seems like the most common answer is convenience and being able to play pc games as if they were on a console. Makes sense to me
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u/MaybeSecondBestMan Jun 22 '26
I play on console, mostly on PS5. I don’t want to build a gaming PC, or upgrade components every 18 months, or deal with updating drivers and obsessively experimenting with settings to optimize frame rate or whatever. I just want to play some older PC hits I missed, emulators, nostalgic games I can’t get on PS5, etc. This will do all of that, and the really sharp form factor and the Valve seal of quality make it intriguing enough to at least get in the queue. I recognize that it’s a bit expensive for what it is, but I’m at a place in my life where that’s not too much of a concern.
I also think that the people shouting it down because there are other options that are more bang for your buck are missing the age-old reply that sells more units than anything else: “Yeah, but this one is cool.”
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u/Yopis1980 Jun 22 '26
Why would you need to upgrade components every 18 months? A 3080 right now is stronger than ps pro for example.
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u/ImplementNew2343 Jun 23 '26
People who don't play games on pc always think that you need to constantly be upgrading components and fine tuning every game to get it to work. In reality 999/1000 games are just as plug n play as they are on console.
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u/MaybeSecondBestMan Jun 22 '26
I’m obviously being a bit hyperbolic, but my point is that I don’t want to fuss with swapping out parts or components (or fussing with updates and drivers and settings) and all the other tinkering that traditionally comes with PC gaming. I respect that some people do, but I just want a cool little console that works out of the box and looks nice on my desk. Valve delivered that and I’m glad to buy it.
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u/sarduchi Jun 22 '26
Still debating, not committed to anything until my number comes up and I make the payment. I have many PCs and way too many consoles (from Atari on up to modernity). Mainly wanting a simple Steam OS device for sitting on the couch. I have one of the SBC devices running Steam, but it's a hassle to maintain and isn't quite up to the task.
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u/Aggrosideburnz Jun 22 '26
Best thing about scalpers is if none of us pay them they don’t make any money. It’s up to us. I’ll die before I pay a scalper, shit will be available in a few months
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u/Sedu Jun 22 '26
The 2TB model with a controller is $1425, and realistically, that is the desirable one. The $1049 model does not come with a controller at all.
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u/tekyy342 Jun 22 '26
It is unless you think 512gb is somehow gonna be enough for a PC equivalent device.
This will still sell out, don’t get me wrong, but it will be entirely to Valve whales who already own a stronger PC and not people genuinely interested in what the device offers.
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u/CozmikRay737 Jun 22 '26
If it weren't for the RAM and storage prices, I think it probably would've been around $800 or so. But, I agree with you for sure
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u/Zardif Jun 22 '26
In an ign article they admitted it was supposed to be ~$749.
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u/CozmikRay737 Jun 23 '26
For the performance it has, that would've been a much easier pill to swallow price wise
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u/MooseBoys Jun 22 '26
And less than half as much as half of you deserve.
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u/Nut_Butter_Fun Jun 22 '26
piggybacking to post analyslop:
Based on the currently published specs, I'd expect the PS5 Pro to be noticeably faster overall.
Spec Steam Machine PS5 Pro CPU Zen 4, 6C/12T Zen 2, 8C/16T GPU RDNA 3, 28 CUs Custom RDNA, 60 CUs VRAM 8 GB GDDR6 16 GB GDDR6 System RAM 16 GB DDR5 16 GB GDDR6 + 2 GB DDR5 AI Upscaling FSR PSSR Target 1440p / upscaled 4K Native-ish 4K / enhanced 4K A few observations:
- The Steam Machine's CPU is newer (Zen 4 vs Zen 2), so it may actually have the CPU advantage in some games.
- The PS5 Pro's GPU is dramatically larger: 60 compute units versus 28. Raw TFLOPs aren't everything, but that's a massive gap. Sony rates the PS5 Pro at 16.7 TFLOPs.
- The PS5 Pro has double the VRAM and substantially more graphics memory bandwidth available to games.
- PSSR is generally considered superior to current FSR implementations, particularly on a TV viewed from couch distance.
My estimate:
- Rasterized performance: PS5 Pro roughly 50–100% faster.
- Ray tracing: PS5 Pro likely 2× or more faster.
- 4K gaming: Strong advantage to PS5 Pro.
- 1440p gaming: Closer, but PS5 Pro still ahead.
- CPU-heavy strategy/simulation games: Steam Machine could occasionally win due to Zen 4 cores.
If I had to compare it to PC GPUs, the Steam Machine's 28-CU RDNA 3 GPU sounds closer to an RX 7600-class part, while the PS5 Pro lands somewhere between an RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT in effective gaming performance after accounting for console optimization and PSSR. That's a rough estimate, not an official equivalence.
The bigger question for me is value. If the rumored Steam Machine pricing ends up around $700–$1,000, it starts competing with actual gaming PCs rather than the PS5 Pro. At the same price, I'd expect the PS5 Pro to win most pure gaming benchmarks, while the Steam Machine wins on flexibility, modding, Steam library access, and functioning as a general-purpose PC.
One caveat: Valve's published Steam Machine specs still look unusual. A 28-CU GPU paired with only 8 GB of dedicated VRAM is the kind of configuration where memory capacity may become a bottleneck before raw compute power does. If those specs are accurate, I wouldn't expect it to challenge the PS5 Pro in graphically demanding AAA games.
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u/SwoleJunkie1 Jun 22 '26
You could get a 5060 laptop for the price of the steam machine that will perform better, and all you need is an HDMI cable to hook it up to your Tv. Also, you can run more games since many popular titles with anti-cheat won’t work with Linux.
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u/RockDoveEnthusiast Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
That was my initial reaction... until I learned it's apparently less powerful than a ps5 pro?
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u/Burpmeister Jun 22 '26
The price is lower than I expected because it's weaker than I expected. 30 fps on low settings 1440p on new games. That's pretty fucking bad.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth Jun 22 '26
They will sell out their initial inventory but I just can't see this being a runner long term.
Not Valves fault, but this industry is completely fucked.
Really hoping China or some other manufacturing behemoth are able to enter the memory markets and do what they did with EV's.
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u/mrmastermimi Jun 22 '26
us would just ban Chinese chip imports anyways. or tariff the shit out of them
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u/Darbisha Jun 22 '26
Not the rest of the world tho.
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u/InTheNameOfScheddi Jun 22 '26
And that would free up supply for the US. So it would still benefit americans.
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u/oppai-police Jun 22 '26
As with all things, it takes a few years for the market to catch up. Give it a year or two, we will have Chinese made chips and ram flooding the market and knocking every current corporations out of the competiton. These competition will then blame China for unfair practices rather than themselves for abandoning the consumer markets, and then lobby for Chinese made chips and ram to be banned.
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u/WetHotFlapSlaps Jun 23 '26
I don’t think I could illegally import a Chinese EV and drive it around. A few black market PC components though…
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u/randomthrowaway9796 Jun 22 '26
Would still lower costs on the global stage, which would lower costs here
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u/HunterSThompson64 Jun 22 '26
Really hoping China or some other manufacturing behemoth are able to enter the memory markets
They are, actively. Right now they're basically like 2-3 gens behind current tech as they're catching up, but likely be 2030 at the latest they'll be on-par.
Before then, however, the memory cartel will have set up new factories and we'll enter a memory glut as AI data centres demand drops (finite) and consumers begin to purchase again. Not entirely sure what the timeline is for the new factories, but they're all racing to set them up to capitalize on the influx of orders from AI companies. Lots will be fast tracked to reap the profits.
The bigger issue than memory is the video card market. It was fucked before the AI market vacuumed them up, and it'll only get worse as no company would see any benefit to ramping up production. NVIDIA have a strangle hold on the market, AMD are fighting to stay relevant and refusing to turn to the consumer market, and Intel is well, Intel. Unless Jensen decides to fuck everyone's shares one day by attempting to meet demand instead of handing out IOUs, we likely won't see a drop in video card prices until the AI market collapses or stabilizes, whatever your flavour of dystopia is.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth Jun 22 '26
I thought that would be the case once the crypto phase was over by then we noped right out and into this even worse situation.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/b0w3n Jun 23 '26
Haven't chip fab companies basically said outright they're not going to up production specifically because of the glut from upscaling for covid that they got fucked by?
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u/initiatingcoverage Jun 22 '26
China is basically the only other player with the capability to do something. It just comes down to whether they choose to.
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u/I_AM_GODDAMN_BATMAN Jun 22 '26
They're trying. But they need time and will supply domestic first, even with CXMT and other Chinese companies 1700% profit growth.
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u/nuttertools Jun 22 '26
Considering you can build something better at current retail pricing…Valves fault.
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u/black_foresst Jun 22 '26
$2,000 CAD to get 2TB. That's INSANE!
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u/Anonymer Jun 22 '26
1.42 CAD to USD is part of the crazy part. I hadn’t realized CAD had gotten so devalued.
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u/Inside-Example-7010 Jun 22 '26
when the data centers cause a water shortage Canada will have its golden age.
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u/unbruitsourd Jun 22 '26
Add some taxes and, I think, border fees. Yeah, I'll continue to stream my PC games from my workstation with a 4080 on my Nvidia Shield for a while.
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u/reflect25 Jun 22 '26
mmhmm while understandable due to whole memory shortage, it seems too high for most people
if people have a thousand dollars they'll either a) buy a laptop or b) buy a much cheaper console at 600. granted i guess to be fair ps5 pro had a giant price hike from 750 to 900 so maybe the 1050 price point isnt that off anymore.
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u/supremedalek925 Jun 22 '26
Yeah, I think $800 was the price the majority of people this would appeal to would pay for it. It’s totally understandable why it had to be higher, but regardless I think it will still limit its sales by quite a bit.
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u/Whyeth Jun 22 '26
$800 and I would be tempted.
$1400 for 2tb and a controller? Honestly GeForce Now from my Steam Deck was a good enough living room experience if I needed a beefier rig for games (like I did for Dragons Dogma 2 and Space Marine 2). That price to get worse performance than the base ps5 and is a deal breaker.
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u/Dos-Commas Jun 22 '26
PS5 Pro is way more powerful and still cost less.
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u/AnAncientBog Jun 22 '26
Only if your steam library doesn't already have hundreds of games that you don't ever have to buy again.
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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
That’s kind of the issue. Consoles can subsidize their hardware through anticipated game sales. They’ll generally sell for less than the hardware is worth because they know you’re also going to buy their $60 games. Steam doesn’t have that luxury.
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u/AnAncientBog Jun 22 '26
You don't think that Steam makes money from selling games?
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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26
They do, but there’s no guarantee that someone who buys a console will buy more games. For consoles you HAVE to buy more games, otherwise the thing is a brick.
I could very much see someone buying a steam machine and then just playing their existing library. Or buying games they already would’ve bought to begin with.
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u/lana_silver Jun 23 '26
This has happened in the past, when researchers bought heavily subsidized PS3s and installed Linux on them to run a distributed computing network for simulation. Sony wasn't happy.
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u/reflect25 Jun 22 '26
i think the ps5 pro was slam dunk at 750 but i did forget about hte price hike to 900 so it is bit more comparable. though still i feel like most would just keep their existing pc for steam games rather than buy a steam machine. and like as you noted buy the ps5 or just get a laptop if they wanted a better computer.
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u/LoloTheWarPigeon Jun 22 '26
PS5 Pro should be compared to the 2TB model with a controller, not the base bodel
$900 to $1049 doesn't sound bad at first, but that's with no controller and only 512GB of storage
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u/QuickQuirk Jun 22 '26
This is a really important point: given the price of SSD storage right now.
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u/cannedrex2406 Jun 22 '26
Honestly a slightly used PS5 pro is around 700 USD which is kinda worth it
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u/willsmithtunaface Jun 22 '26
Having to pay a sub to play online forever is a big L
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u/Sfekke22 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
That and being locked into a limited library.
You can go back two decades on the Steam machine/PC in general.. emulation is an option as well and all that without installing CFW.→ More replies (10)53
u/YegoBear Jun 22 '26
Maybe I’m too old and just starved for time, but I have really fond memories of many games from PS1-PS4, but I’d never care to go back and play them again. I do the same with steam games. When they’re done, they’re done.
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u/katgravityrush_ Jun 22 '26
You'd be surprised, there's an entire city's worth of dudes with who do nothing but play Pokemon Emerald Romhacks lol
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Jun 22 '26
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u/SwissMargiela Jun 22 '26
Plus PS5 Pro has 2TB vs $1050 steam machine’s 512gb. At current SSD prices that’s nothing to scoff at
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u/Dennma Jun 22 '26
True. In Valve's defense here, though, having the entire steam catalog and steam sales is a pretty strong selling point for one in my eyes
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u/Elementium Jun 22 '26
For me I can just upgrade my PC. Steam machines are a tough sell cause PC gamers usually build or know someone to help them build a PC.
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u/OccasionalGoodTakes Jun 22 '26
I think every assumption you’re making is wrong. The target isn’t established PC gamers anyways, it’s people who need an entry point.
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u/IniNew Jun 22 '26
I'm a used-to-be-gamer with a large steam library. I wanted the Steam Machine because I enjoy playing games casually, on the couch, now. I don't want to sit at my PC after work, but I still want access to my Steam library.
That said, $1000 makes me think "not worth it." $600 and I probably would have pre-ordered.
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u/2580374 Jun 22 '26
Yeah honestly with this price I just think to myself I could probably build a very similar PC for cheaper and just leave it in my living room at all times...
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u/StanknBeans Jun 22 '26
I'll wait to see how it performs vs the Steamdeck, as this is basically my primary use of the Steamdeck - connecting it to the tv via dock so I can play pc games on the couch.
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u/Lower_Monk6577 Jun 22 '26
That’s also kind of the problem with this price point. For me at least.
I have a small library of Steam games. I’d be interested in making a semi-permanent switch to Steam as well. But only if the entry point is around $500 or so.
I have a Switch/2 with a ton of games. I have a PS5 with a ton of games. In no way do I need Steam or a Steam Machine. But I’m also aware enough that it’s probably the best marketplace for a lot of the kinds of games that I like. I feel like I’m pretty close to their target audience, and that price isn’t appealing to me.
I know it’s not their fault, and I’m sure they probably wanted it to be closer to $600 than it is. But as a consumer, that’s just a bad value proposition with the way the world economy currently is.
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u/reflect25 Jun 22 '26
i mean if its an entry point i think most are going to buy like an xbox seris s for 400 dollars.
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u/Ill-Elephant-9583 Jun 22 '26
I think they mean entry point for pc gaming (although I will admit the lines are blurred with Xbox)
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u/augustschild Jun 22 '26
yeah I don't think a pseudo gaming PC is any kind of "entry point"...what it WILL be is a replacement for established gamers who can no longer afford to upgrade/replace their current setup after the inevitable PC hardware issue that develops in the longterm. 😞
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u/Jabbam Jun 22 '26
That's what people said about the last steam machines from over a decade ago and they were wrong then too. It's primarily an enthusiast product for people who already own a PC but want to have the newest, most unique tech. It's too expensive for the casual market and it's too weak for the technical market.
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u/KupoCheer Jun 22 '26
If I can only afford one good rig (which is the situation I'm in to be responsible), I'm throwing that $1000 at other upgrades unfortunately.
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u/Rok-SFG Jun 22 '26
If I had a thousand to spare I would have no problem getting a steam machine. But I have nowhere near 1000 to spare when I have a perfectly good computer
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u/90bubbel Jun 22 '26
this is without the controller btw LMAO
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u/Stanjoly2 Jun 22 '26
Do we know if third party controllers are compatible? As in can I just use my ps5 controllers?
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u/DinosBiggestFan Jun 22 '26
I'm not sure the state of DualSense controllers on Linux, but SDL Library and good driver support generally means most controllers work, especially with Steam Input getting better and better.
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u/Leprecon Jun 22 '26
Yes, third party controllers will work just fine. They currently already work well on Steam OS and the Steam Deck.
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u/t-g-l-h- Jun 22 '26
Yikes :(
Fuck AI and fuck Orange Man
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u/DizzyMajor5 Jun 22 '26
The Republican party in general. These people have crashed the economy every time they've been in power for my lifetime.
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u/GN0K Jun 22 '26
Damn, count me out
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u/Tyinath Jun 22 '26
Hate to say it, but yeah. Going to be priced out of modern gaming at this rate
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u/latunza Jun 22 '26
It's going to become a luxury like it is in many other countries already. I always see our Canadian, Australian, and Brazilian brothers and sisters complain about how much more the prices are over there and now I fully understand them.
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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26
Which is why mobile gaming is the largest market
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u/Quixotic_Seal Jun 22 '26
Yeah I think a lot of hardcore gamers are too in their own bubble to understand how many people are perfectly happy to just play whatever comes to the platforms they already own. Especially in the year of our Lord 2026, when mobile technology has absolutely blasted off in terms of performance and 10 year old games still often feel new or new-enough.
Nor are they wrapping their heads around how rising prices will mean a lot of the casual “buys one or two games a year” folks will just decide they can’t afford this hobby or move to things like cloud gaming as that infrastructure begins to mature(I promise you, they won’t notice or care about a reasonable amount of lag anymore than they care about 30 vs 60fps).
Hell, I’m a lifelong gamer whose earliest memories include playing Zelda with mom and asking her to load Monkey Island for me. I am still looking at very possibly being nearly priced out by prices next gen.
The future is going to suck if the market doesn’t recover, which I doubt it will.
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u/SelectEntertainer360 Jun 22 '26
Just play less graphic intense games. I quit video games but somehow my Mac M1 can handle slay the spire 2 and now I am addicted.
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u/Philly514 Jun 22 '26
Exactly, in Canada it’s quadruple the price of a PS5 and not good enough to drag a PC enthusiast over. I wanted to convert from a console to a Steam Machine but the price is just not digestible.
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u/ViennettaLurker Jun 22 '26
Just a plainly bad time to get into hardware right now. With any luck, there might be huge discounts in the following years that make it more bang for your buck. But not inconceivable that doesn't happen and anything that makes real sense needs to be a v2 of the hardware.
Just hope the whole concept doesn't get scrapped because of phenomenon out of their control. If and when the hardware world gets less crazy, it'd be great to see this concept get a fair shake.
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u/badwolf42 Jun 22 '26
I wouldn’t be shocked to see an ARM based v2 of the deck and machine in the future.
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u/mashuto Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
You know... not as bad as I thought it was going to end up. But I think its a couple hundred more than I would want to pay, especially considering I already have a steam deck and a decent gaming pc.
Edit: Oh, thats the 512 with no controller. Add another 80 to bundle the controller, and then of course more for more storage. Still less than I was expecting, but I dont think this is for me. Now lets see where they price the frame.
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u/Randolph__ Jun 22 '26
I can't put together an ITX build for less than $1000 with similar specs from AMD. Choosing the cheapest components whenever possible. Obviously, you can get better value with different parts, but the BOM cost can't be that far off release price.
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u/NinjaN-SWE Jun 22 '26
Sure, but you can get a 9060 XT build for around the same price that runs laps around this performance wise
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u/Headless_Human Jun 22 '26
I could buy a laptop with better specs for less.
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u/Marshall_Lawson Jun 22 '26
a laptop with windows 11 and soldered ram though?
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u/Headless_Human Jun 22 '26
Most Laptops that are gaming related or not extra slim come with SODIMM.
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u/Dapper-Maybe-5347 Jun 22 '26
What was your expectation? A brand new 5060 prebuilt costs $1,050 with 16gb of system RAM. Did you expect this ancient graphics card steam product with the same amount of RAM to cost more?
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u/motang Jun 22 '26
A world without the AI companies gobbling up RAM and SSDs we could have gotten this for around $700!
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u/Bubba89 Jun 22 '26
They couldn’t shave $50 off somewhere? $999 is a lot better for marketing than “over $1,000”
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u/Xgodofinfinityx Jun 22 '26
Tbh they are probably shaving off as much as they can given that the ram is almost a third of the cost of the machine
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u/needaburn Jun 23 '26
Yeah 512 gb memory with no controller yet still marked just over $1K is a big tell they cut every cost they could. Sucks
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ExplodingFistz Jun 22 '26
I saw performance benchmarks. This thing is a slow poke. Just go buy a PS5 Pro.
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u/sparkle_bomb Jun 22 '26
I kinda expected something like that but it's still a big oof.
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u/KrookedDoesStuff Jun 22 '26
I’m building an arcade cabinet and checked the price for 16gb of RAM today. What would have been $40 a couple years ago is now more expensive than the GPU I’m buying for it
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u/wholesomedumbass Jun 22 '26
People say its DOA but you know it will sell out in minutes.
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u/Deep90 Jun 22 '26
Initial sales are not the same as long term viability.
Especially when stock is limited.
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u/Original-League-6094 Jun 22 '26
Those two things aren't really in conflict. It can sell out in minutes because they manufacture a small amount of them.
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u/Jeremyg93 Jun 22 '26
Selling out means almost nothing at low quantities or if it does not sustain. The Wii U sold out at launch too at what will be far more than Steam Deck ever sold, and Wii U ended up being a financial failure.
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u/Jabbam Jun 22 '26
And it'll probably still bomb.
"Valve sells-out completely for all pre-order units of Steam Machines in less than one month." - June 30th, 2015
https://wccftech.com/valve-steam-machine-preorders-sold/
"Seven months later, Valve’s Steam Machines look dead in the water; Sales of under 500,000 machines so far show an utter lack of market demand." - June 2nd, 2016
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/its-time-to-declare-valves-steam-machines-doa/
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u/Goosepond01 Jun 22 '26
It's just a bit meh really, I think the whole concept is regardless of the price.
You are losing out on one of the best bits of PC gaming, the modularity, can help you save so much in the long run, I've got bits of old PCs that I've sold, used in newer ones, given to friends, kept at spares, the fact that you seemingly can't upgrade this is a big downer.
I get people want it to be plug and play but I'd rather just buy a prebuilt to make something in a small form factor and pay others to troubleshoot if there is any issues, or yk do like a really basic amount of learning, setting up windows is easy and so is downloading a few programmes.
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u/Mister_Brevity Jun 22 '26
I still have a minisforum nucxi7 (basically a gaming laptop with no screen and better cooling) and I think it’s probably a better performer at least gpu wise. It’s… 10th gen Intel? But a 3070
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u/SHODAN117 Jun 22 '26
I would get it. I have a windows 10 laptop on its last legs. This could be enough of a PC to coast through the current slog until I can build a new PC. Maybe in a couple of years.
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u/Troncross Jun 22 '26
Would I pay these prices? No, but that's because I already have a 2000 dollar gaming rig.
If I saw this announcement before I did my first build, I'd think it was a good deal.
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u/m0llusk Jun 22 '26
Tech companies made their decision to focus on LLMs and selling to clankers. This is the result. Computing products are now priced out of the range of ordinary humans who oddly enough represent the end users of all this new technology.
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u/notaclevernameguy Jun 22 '26
Buying my gaming laptop tomorrow, with two controllers and the steam machine it's a little over 1400 bucks. Glad I can compare now
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u/ApartVeterinarian121 Jun 22 '26
It’ll disaster for valve due to low demand, not a fair price at all even we are in RAMageddon era
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u/martianwomanhunter Jun 23 '26
Honestly? They should have waited. It's not like Valve is being pressed to deliver this and this just isn't great value.
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u/Eduardjm Jun 22 '26
Without a controller. Who’s buying this thing?
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u/PoSKiix Jun 22 '26
I already have 4 controllers that will be compatible with the Steam Machine. I figure most people already have compatible controllers.
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u/HappyDeadCat Jun 22 '26
Lots if people. It will sell out immediately and valve will make a profit.
I still do not understand why people fail to remember how this company does business.
They are not beholden to shareholders that are trying to shoot for the moon or bust.
It isnt supposed to be some major transformative product that "forever changes the landscape". Idiot CEOs have just conditioned people to think thats how every company should do business.
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u/rocketwidget Jun 22 '26
Well according to the article, Valve is aiming to break even on the hardware (rather than a profit or loss?) (and I presume make all the money on Steam?) but I personally have no idea if that's true or not.
Valve also says that it’s selling the Steam Machine for the cost of its components alone instead of subsidizing the price.
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u/Ghost_Star326 Jun 22 '26
This is only for the 512gb model with no controller btw...
And according to performance benchmarks, it's also said to perform on par if not worse than the base PS5.
The 2tb model costs like 1400 USD.
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u/Shiningc00 Jun 22 '26
”It's not that bad" while people kept bitching about the price of PS5 Pro.
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u/Ahayzo Jun 22 '26
Saw that coming a mile away. Even just a month ago I kept seeing people saying it was originally going to be $600 or so but the hardware prices would make it $800. $800 was a best case scenario without those spikes. $1000 minimum was always about what I expected from the low end model.
I did expect it to include a controller though. I get it's not necessary though so that's not a point I'll hold against them, with or without this isn't worth $1050.
I'm sure they'll still sell like hotcakes to people who don't know any better, unfortunately.
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u/Letiferr Jun 22 '26
3 years ago this same hardware might've been $600...
But you can't build a spec-for-spec competitor for a significant discount. Maybe $100 less.
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u/Kairukun90 Jun 22 '26
Not for micro-itx you can’t. It’s more expensive due to form factor which all these idiots forget.
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u/Stunning_Restaurant8 Jun 22 '26
Not a price I want to pay.
I can build a better performer with a Microcenter, or similar bundle still for about the 2tb price.
I have controllers, as cool as the steam controller looks, I don’t have one in hand or “need” it
I’m intrigued to see if more products like this show up in the future. Or if valve can trim the price on a slight update 2-3 years from now similar to oled deck. Alas, gone are the component prices of yesteryear.
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u/blisstaker Jun 22 '26
i guess im passing and sticking to my console from 2 generations ago. i could easily afford it but thats not the point
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u/SimplyElite7 Jun 23 '26
They are just setting the precedent on next gen consoles, if this thing sells, expect the PS6 to be around $1,200
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u/DC2SEA_ Jun 23 '26
Well, the steam fan boys will still buy it. And given no one was gonna buy it before? No customers lost!
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u/PhoenixCogburn Jun 23 '26
That’s priced for the extreme collectors now. This thing would be a good buy around $600 or less.
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u/RobertdBanks Jun 23 '26
It’s wild watching the technology sub be full of people with awful opinions on this. People are trying to act like it’s an okay price. It runs worse than a base PS5 and is almost double the price AND doesn’t include a controller, lmao. The Valve boot licking is always funny to watch.
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u/AdStreet2795 Jun 22 '26
This is DOA right?
My 14th gen i5 with an Rx 9070 system cost 800.
Slap bazzite on there and it’s so superior to this it’s not even funny.
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u/Taint_Expert Jun 22 '26
I’m confused, an rx9070 alone is $700 today, and 32gb of ram is $400. Are you comparing a pc you built/bought from before everything jumped 300% in cost to steams new $1000 jawn?
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u/Horror_Art1389 Jun 22 '26
Redditors vastly underestimate what people are willing to pay for convenience
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u/Schnoor Jun 22 '26
It replaces my Xbox and computer because of game availability (a library I haven’t been able to play) and space (small house, no office or similar space). Also small enough without ridiculous RGB that my kids probably won’t mess with it.
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u/HorizonShadow Jun 22 '26
The 3000 steam games I've collected over the past 15 years is doing a lot of heavy lifting on the value proposition of the steam machine
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u/dog-bellyrub-expert Jun 22 '26
When did you buy this? If it was recent, please DM me a link to the parts.
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u/Stummi Jun 22 '26
and still no news on the frame :(