Steam Machine Should Cost $700, Valve Admits

A hot topic of discussion in the gaming community these days is undoubtedly the price of Steam Machine. In Italy, the starting price is 1,039 euros, without a controller, for hardware that certainly doesn't scream miracles. In fact, the console/PC should cost significantly less, and this was revealed by two engineers from Valve.

During an interview with IGN, Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat admitted that the anticipated price for Steam Machine was indeed much lower: the console was supposed to cost over 1/3 less, but the current memory market left no choice but to significantly raise the price.

According to what the two developers explained, the price initially anticipated was about 33% lower than what was announced for the launch. Although Valve did not specify an exact figure, calculations made by IGN place the original list price in a range between $700 and $750, against the final price of $1,049.

The company had thus envisioned a much more competitive commercial proposal. A price well below $1,000 would have made Steam Machine a decidedly more competitive product and much more interesting for the PC audience. It would have been a perfect entry point into the Valve ecosystem, without needing to purchase a low-to-mid-range configuration and inevitably incurring higher costs.

Valve attributed the significant price increase to the RAM memory crisis, which has raised production costs. Griffais and Aldehayyat explained that the difference between the initially expected price and the final one is comparable to the recent increase seen in Steam Deck. The 512 GB model, for instance, jumped from $549 to $789 precisely because of the rising memory costs, an increase of over 40%.

According to Valve, Steam Machine represents one of the products that have been most affected by the industry crisis, as the price hike pushed it beyond the psychological threshold of $1,000, a value that would inevitably have influenced the product's perception at the time of its debut.

Despite the higher list price compared to initial plans, Valve highlighted that public interest in its hardware remains high. The company reminded that the latest batch of Steam Deck sold out quickly even after the price increase, a sign confirming sustained demand for Steam-branded devices.

For Steam Machine, the first shipments are expected to start from June 29. However, the company anticipates demand exceeding availability and for this reason has adopted a random selection system for buyers to prevent scalping and ensure fair and proper distribution of the platform.