Valve's new Steam Machine goes on sale June 29, but you may not get one right away

Valve has opened Steam Machine reservations ahead of its June 29 sale, using a randomised queue instead of first come, first served. The system is meant to curb scalpers and bots, even as the device's high price draws attention.

In Short

• Valve opens Steam Machine reservations with a randomised queue system
• Prices start at around Rs 98,600 and go up to Rs 1.34 lakh
• Valve blames AI-driven component shortages for the higher prices

Valve has finally opened reservations for its new Steam Machine, a compact gaming PC that is designed to work like a console while offering the flexibility of a full-fledged computer. The company has announced that the Steam Machine will officially go on sale on June 29, with prices starting at $1,049 (around Rs 98,600). Reservations are now open on Steam, and interested buyers can sign up until June 25. Instead of following the traditional first-come, first-served approach, Valve is using a randomised reservation system. Once registrations close, the company will shuffle all entries and decide the order in which people can purchase the device.

The move is aimed at solving a problem that has frustrated gamers for years: scalpers and bots.

No advantage for fast internet or bots

Popular gaming consoles and graphics cards are often sold out within minutes because automated bots buy large numbers of units and resell them at higher prices. Valve says it wants to make sure that ordinary gamers get a fair chance.

Once the sign-up period ends, users will receive one of two emails. They will either secure a place in the reservation queue, meaning a Steam Machine has been allocated to them, or they will be placed on a waiting list for future batches. People on the waiting list may get a console if existing reservations are cancelled or when Valve produces more units.

The price may surprise gamers

The biggest talking point, however, is the price. The base Steam Machine with 512GB of storage costs $1,049 (around Rs 98,600). Buyers who want Valve's Steam Controller bundled with the device will have to pay $1,128 (around Rs 1,06,000). Valve is also offering a premium model with 2TB of storage. It is priced at $1,349 (around Rs 1,26,800), while the bundle with the Steam Controller costs $1,428 (around Rs 1,34,200).

The company is sweetening the deal for buyers of the 2TB version by including additional faceplates for customisation. Two exclusive faceplates with red fabric and walnut finishes are also part of the package.

Even so, the Steam Machine is considerably more expensive than traditional gaming consoles. For comparison, Sony's PlayStation 5 currently starts at $600 (around Rs 56,400), while the PlayStation 5 Pro costs $900 (around Rs 84,600). Nintendo's Switch 2, meanwhile, is priced at $500 (around Rs 47,000).

AI boom has made gaming hardware more expensive

Valve says it did not intend to price the Steam Machine this high. The company has blamed the rising cost of memory chips and other components for the increase, pointing to the ongoing AI boom as a major reason behind the shortages. Generative AI companies are buying huge quantities of high-performance chips, memory and computing hardware to train their models. This surge in demand has pushed up component prices across the industry.

"The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable," Valve said in a blog post, adding that the final pricing reflects the cost of components the company has secured over the past six months.

A console and a PC rolled into one

Despite its steep price, Valve believes the Steam Machine offers something that traditional consoles do not. The device runs SteamOS, Valve's Linux-based operating system, and can access the vast Steam library that many gamers have spent years or even decades building. Unlike a PlayStation or Nintendo console, the Steam Machine is also a full PC. Users can install software, customise the operating system and tweak settings according to their needs.

Under the hood, the device packs a custom six-core AMD Zen 4 processor with a peak clock speed of 4.8GHz. It also features an integrated AMD RDNA3 graphics chip with 28 compute units and 8GB of dedicated GDDR6 video memory. The system comes with an additional 16GB of DDR5 RAM, which should be enough to run modern PC games smoothly on a TV, especially when paired with upscaling technologies.

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