TL;DR: Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine, set for release in 2026, aims to combine affordability and ease of use. Recent leaks suggest prices around $950 for a 512GB model and $1,070 for 2TB, comparable to high-end devices, though official pricing remains unconfirmed amid memory supply challenges.
Heads-up, the leak was from a non authorized retailer. So this has been confirmed to be more or less a retailers price speculation with added middle man mark-up. Take this leak for what it is, guesswork
ALSO: they include a 21% VAT
ALSO ALSO: They have said online that it was just a guess and that Reddit sucks
Especially when this specific retailers has the hight margin of them all, adding like 200$ to their steam deck prices…
“An iPhone” is such a weird comparison to make.
In my region I can buy new iPhones from €119 (iPhone SE 32GB) to €2400 (iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB).
I hope the steam machine is somewhere in between this range.
It’s just a way to clickbait.
An unconfirmed leak of an estimation puts the price somewhere between 100 and 2500.
I’m tired boss.
Yeah, I read the title and had no idea what number to expect. My first thought was 1.5-2k.
Also, that’s an easy wish right there. It will 100% be somewhere in between those numbers, don’t worry.
Also, that’s an easy wish right there. It will 100% be somewhere in between those numbers, don’t worry.
That was my joke.
Whether it’s true or not, I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about the possibility of a price point like this and it really blows my mind how twisted people’s expectations are about these price points. Like people line up overnight for a chance to buy iPhones, the same as the one already in their pocket but with a new function in the camera app or something, and then you get something that is almost an entirely new class of product and far more capable for the same price at a time when we’re facing unprecedented shortages, and people are pissed off about it? Double standards much?
I wish it was $200 too, but like, we don’t live in that world anymore. I’m sorry, but that world died from Covid and any medicine that could’ve cured it was lost in trade wars and its corpse was blown up in real wars. It’s not coming back.
People are accustomed to consoles being unnaturally cheap, and even as manufacturing costs sky-rocket manufacturers are still eating a lot of that increase because they don’t want to lose sales to the competition, and expect they can make money back later on game sales and online service subscriptions.
Valve meanwhile doesn’t have that approach, and will be selling the the Steam Box for at least what it costs.
It will be exactly the same story with the Steam Frame - everyone is hoping it will be price-competitive with the Meta Quest but I can almost guarantee it won’t. It will be FAR more expensive.
Why? Because Meta are making money back later with advertising, and selling your data, while Valve are just providing a device.
If you want a little privacy, Linux support, and hardware you control, you’ll have to be prepared to pay a premium for it.
That’s a few hundred dollars more than I hoped, but because of the slop-manufactured memory situation, I’m not surprised.
I’d expect at least the first wave to not be affected by slopocalypse pricing. To target a 1Q26 release date they had to have contracts well in advance.
Micron is altering the contract, pray they don’t alter it any further.
“Cost as much as an iPhone”, I’m not sure if you’re complaining about how expensive the iPhone is or the Steam Machine.
According to the site, the SM will be around $1,100 for the upgraded storage and the cheapest iPhone is around $1,000, so I fail to see the comparison.
Assuming it is around $1,000 that’s not a deal breaker. I heard that the leak came from a store in Europe so I would expect the price to be much lower because we won’t be spending retail.
In the US a Steam Deck is about $200-$300 more retail than if you buy it direct. So if they says $1,100 then I would expect the SM to be closer to $800, which would be closer to a lowerend gaming PC
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No it has not
It is speculation from an unauthorized reseller who is guessing.
As expected. It’s an expected price. It’s a pc for playing in a small cube form. I have no idea why anyone thought it would be cheaper. So many phones already are above that price point.
$950 is way too high.
Valve doesn’t sell hardware at a loss. $1k is pretty normal for a phone or laptop these days, and in line with what I would expect from a device like this.
Now, that may be more than you’re willing to pay for it, but I don’t think the price is exorbitant.
We dont know that Valve doesnt sell hardware at a loss. Its entirely possible the Steam Deck was sold at a loss on release. The only real thing Valve has said about the price was Newell describing it as “painful”.
It makes sense for Valve to sell hardware at a loss when breaking into a new market. Any purchases are very likely to lead to more purchases on Steam.
Yes, we do. Valve themselves have said it.
https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/valves-decision-not-sell-steam-171635100.html
The purpose of the Steam Deck is not to take over PC gaming or lock people into a store. It is to further Valve’s goal of enabling Linux for gaming and reduce dependency on Windows.
See also: Valve putting SteamOS on other hardware and allowing self-installs on any commodity hardware rig. Can I install XboxOS or PlayStationOS on my PC today?
Steam doesn’t need a lock-in. It is the de facto store for PC gaming already. Even Epic giving away free AAA games for years hasn’t made a meaningful dent in Steam’s dominance.
I was disagreeing with the statement “valve doesnt sell hardware at a loss”, which applies to more than just the Steam Machine.
I was unaware that they had said this, thanks for sharing it.
I wasnt trying to imply the idea was to somehow take over PC gaming. My point was just that creating new PC users by offering a console like experience will increase Steam sales.
AFAIK neither does Sony currently.
It’s essentially a specialized gaming laptop without the screen. Of course it’s going cost as much as a laptop.
If people want a cheaper alternative, the 512GB Steam Deck—which is weaker than the Machine and also essentially a laptop—costs $550, and it can connect to people’s TV’s as well.
Is this Valve’s way of gauging the market? Cause it sure feels like it
Well likely their cost for memory has gone up by a few hundred in the last month or 2
Not too surprising, subtract around $400 and that’s what the price probably would have been without ram prices exploding.
I was expecting PS5 performance at PS5 Pro prices.
The recent leaks will be including 21% VAT in Czech Republic too. It’s about the same as the PS5 Pro in the UK.
It’s not a great value proposition, but depends how much you value open source.
DOA at that price but I don’t believe it.
This is clickbait. Valve didn’t use third-party resellers with the Steam Deck for anti-scalping reasons, and it’s unlikely they would for the Steam Deck as well. I’m surprised how many news outlets are leaning into this.
I’m not saying the Steam Machine won’t be that price, though I certainly hope it won’t be. I’m just saying we shouldn’t take a random posting from a random Czech website at face value, considering Valve’s established business model.
I’ve been anticipating $800+, and with storage and ram now, I honestly doubt less than $900. Look at current gaming handheld and console pricing. 1k isn’t an insane prediction with current markets.
I paid about $450 for mid-range Mini PC and another $450 for a smallish egpu that should match the performance of what’s going in the Steam Machine. That was before the Rampocalypse, and I would still expect valve company to have contracted with manufacturers and component packages upstream from the public announcement so I’m still crossing my fingers people can buy these things for sub $1000.
Hot take: I think they should only allow any one Steam account to purchase one or two units total and require at least one paid game purchase in the account history, thus frustrating the efforts of scalpers and office businesses trying to get at productivity machines for cheap.
That works out to a $1 USD fee and an extra 3 minutes of effort, if they’re going to be cheap about it.
Ignoring that the source is absolute bullshit: If it’s that expensive, they can save themselves the trouble of developing, it’s dead on arrival.
