Valve's Steam Machine will run you at least a thousand dollars

Loath as I am to admit it, I think we may all have seen this coming after Valve raised the price of their Steam Deck. Naturally, this raised questions about how much Valve's flagship Steam Machine "living room PC" would cost — questions that have now unfortunately been answered.

The Steam Machine is here — well, kind of. At the very least, it's open for preorder — well, kind of. Rather than a straightforward preorder queue like the Steam Controller, which led to it selling out near-instantly for anyone who wasn't either a scalper or deeply unwell, the Steam Machine is being sold exclusively through a randomized reservation system. Place an order in the next few days, and it'll be shuffled around in a big bingo tumbler with all the other orders on determine when they'll be fulfilled.

Placing an order might be easier said than done, though. As many have feared, even the cheaper of the two Steam Machine models starts at over a thousand dollars: $1,049 for the 512GB model and $1,349 for the 2TB model respectively. Controller not included, of course, but you can add one on for about another hundred bucks.

For a rough comparison, that's a machine less powerful than the base PS5 for nearly twice the price, even after that console's own price jump. Once again, I can only circle back to the essential question of who the Steam Machine is actually for. Where is this niche of gamers that want to play on the couch, but don't already own a console, but are unwilling to get a console, but will happily shell out much more for an underpowered PC? Is it big enough to sustain this thing on its own?

Time will tell, but I can't help but think that releasing this thing a year ago for $200 cheaper would have given it a fighting chance.