The opening of pre-orders for the Steam Machine inevitably sparked heated discussions about Valve's decision to price the base SKU (512GB with no controller) at $1049, with the most expensive option (2TB with a Steam Controller) priced at $1428.
That's a far, far cry from the $600 to 700 that people imagined when the console-like hardware was first announced in late November 2025. Some even hoped for $500, though Valve's choice not to subsidize the Steam Machine cut that option right away. Then came the massive price increases for both memory and storage components, which caused Valve's internal price targets to skyrocket, eventually spilling over into the retail pricing. The company even delayed the product release from its original early 2026 plans, but to no avail: pricing was heavily affected all the same.
Well, now that the official price is out, Valve is facing heavy criticism. AMD leaker Kepler_L2 tweeted:
Either Valve has a fat profit margin on the Steam Machine, or they're getting absolutely rinsed by their suppliers.
Another renowned leaker, Moore's Law Is Dead, sided heavily with the former option. In his latest video, he argued that any PC user can build a significantly more powerful PC for the same price or less, which undercuts the "supply chain costs forced their hand" defence. Indeed, you can discover a few such options of better sub-$1000 pre-built gaming PCs in this article from our Hardware colleagues.
Moore's Law Is Dead likens the Steam Machine launch to Sony's PlayStation 3, which famously struggled initially against the Xbox 360 due to its hefty debut price of $599, and blames mainly Gabe Newell himself, going as far as joking that the Steam Machine will fund him a new superyacht rather than supporting competition against Xbox or PlayStation.
It doesn't help that the first benchmarks from Digital Foundry show Valve's new hardware losing to Sony's PlayStation 5 console (launched in 2020) in most scenarios. The PS5 itself, despite two price increases caused by the aforementioned component crisis, remains far cheaper: the discless edition is available for $599.99, while the SKU with the disc drive is priced at $649.99.
Finally, in case the Steam Machine's high price instilled in you fears that the PlayStation 6 and next Xbox (Project Helix) would be similarly priced, Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Analysis just tweeted:
I don’t think Steam Machine pricing necessarily means that next-gen console pricing will be $1000+. Sony is better placed supply-chain -wise and has more hardware scale than Valve, putting it in a stronger position. In 2 years, there will be better component availability as well.
On the flip side, the upcoming consoles will include much more expensive components than the Steam Machine, so even if Sony has a better deal in place (Microsoft doesn't, according to rumors), the PS6 could still be very expensive.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
