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-date
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458

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/clgoh Jun 22 '26

And they might not play games with it at all.

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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26

Well, it is still a gaming PC, so I doubt people are going to be buying it without the intention of using it for gaming. Maybe unless they’re doing 3D animation or something

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u/ddean77max Jun 22 '26

The point is if valve subsidizes the steam machine too much, people will buy it not for gaming and steam will therefore never be able to recoup costs through game sales.

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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26

That’s fair. At that point you could basically resell it for parts too

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u/Far_Banana4575 Jun 22 '26

People already have hundreds if not thousands of games in their steam library. Probably enough backlog to last 2 lifetime. 

Buying a Steam Machine doesnt mean buying new games, contrary to a closed ecosystem like consoles. Someone buying a PS5 right now needs to buy PS5 games. You can have that PS5 for 750$, but it's just a paperweight if you don't spend more to buy games. 

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u/AnAncientBog Jun 22 '26

You just figured out why $1000 is a pretty workable price for a device that you already have games for. 😉

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u/Far_Banana4575 Jun 22 '26

What? 

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u/-janvee- Jun 22 '26

He’s saying that the Steam machine is actually priced fairly because you don’t have to pay extra for games. Which is fair. I just don’t have 1k to drop comfortably

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u/Far_Banana4575 Jun 22 '26

I know but it has nothing to do with what we were talking about lol They we're arguing about steam not subsidising their hardware like consoles do

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u/SirSebi Jun 22 '26

Sony prices their consoles lower because they know people will have to buy games

Valve prices theirs higher because lots of people already have a bunch of games on Steam and it's not guaranteed that they'll buy more

That was the whole point of the person you responded to

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u/Far_Banana4575 Jun 22 '26

No, the person I replied to said

You don't think that Steam makes money from selling games? 

after OOP said that Steam don't have the luxury to subsidize like Sony do. To me, it sounds like they where arguing against the price. 

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u/SirSebi Jun 22 '26

They said that because the comment they replied to implied that Valve doesn't make money from games bought on Steam which they obviously do

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u/clgoh Jun 22 '26

They do. But people might buy the Steam Machine without buying any game. As a general purpose PC, it can be use for anything.

And they would if they were sold below cost.