Valve’s Steam Machine launches for $1049 and up (in limited quantities)

by · Liliputing

Valve’s Steam Deck is probably the most successful handheld gaming PC to date. Now Valve is expanding its hardware ambitions with the launch of a mini PC made for gaming. But there are a bunch of reasons to expect that the company’s first desktop computer might not make quite as big a splash.

For one thing, while the Steam Deck wasn’t the first handheld capable of playing PC games, the market wasn’t yet saturated and the Steam Deck had some of the best software and hardware features available at the time… and an attractive price point. But the Steam Machine which launches today is quite different. There are a lot of options available for folks that want a desktop gaming rig. And with prices starting at $1049, the Steam Machine costs more than twice as much as the Steam Deck did at launch. But Valve may not have had much choice in the matter.

When the company started designing the Steam Machine in 2023, Valve expected to be able to offer its gaming PC for a much lower price because components that Valve had sourced were expected to get cheaper over time. Thanks to the demands of AI, the opposite has happened – RAM and storage prices are through the roof.

Valve hasn’t explicitly said how much it was hoping to sell the Steam Machine for, it sounds like it was probably originally supposed to cost around $750. Meanwhile, the article announcing its availability spends a lot of words explaining that it’s going to cost more than anticipated and that there will be fewer units available at launch than Valve would like. The current prices are based on “the price of the components as we’ve secured them over the past 6 months,” which means there could also be price hikes in the coming years.

For what it’s worth, Valve recently raised the price of the Steam Deck for similar reasons, and even at the higher price point, the company has had a tough time producing enough handhelds to meet demand. They tend to go out of stock very quickly every time Valve announces more units are available.

So Valve is basically running a lottery for folks that want to be among the first to get their hands on a Steam Machine. From today through 1:00PM Eastern on June 25, customers can sign up for a chance to purchase one of the following options:

  • Steam Machine 512GB: $1,049 USD / 1,509 CAD / 1,039 EUR / 879 GBP / 1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
  • Bundle: Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: $1,128 USD / 1,628 CAD / 1,108 EUR / 938 GBP / 1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
  • Steam Machine 2TB: $1,349 USD / 1,919 CAD / 1,359 EUR / 1,149 GBP / 2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN (comes with red fabric and solid walnut face plates)
  • Bundle: Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: $1,428 USD / 2,038 CAD / 1,428 EUR / 1,208 GBP / 2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN

Valve will then randomize the signups and either place folks in a reservation queue or wait list. Those in the queue can then purchase a Steam Machine starting on June 29, but if they fail to do that within 72 hours, their spot will go to someone else.

OK, so the Steam Machine isn’t cheap, and it’s going to be tough to get your hands on. But is it any good?

The early verdict seems to be yes… but maybe not good enough to justify the price tag. Reviewers say that the compact, quiet PC with its custom AMD processor and Linux-based SteamOS software does a pretty good job with 1080p and 1440p gaming, but may not be enough for 4K gaming. And while the nearly cube-shaped computer looks a lot better next to your TV than a desktop tower, it offers fewer upgrade and expansion options.

Even at today’s prices, you could probably get similar performance from a DIY gaming PC, and reserve the possibility of swapping out the CPU, GPU, and other hardware in the future (if you can afford to do that). So it’s unsurprising that some folks would rather think of the Steam Machine as an alternative to a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo console… but while SteamOS offers a more console-like experience for managing your games than Windows, Valve wants to make it clear that the Steam Machine is a gaming PC and not a console, which helps explain why it’s priced like one: Valve isn’t subsidizing the hardware in hopes of making more money on games sales the way that console makers might.

If you want to read more about the Steam Machine, here are some reviews and hands-on impressions from folks who’ve spent time with it:

Website reviews

Video Reviews