80%
Probable
Yesterday, we got the official confirmation from Valve that the first of the three new hardware products it revealed last year, the Steam Controller, will launch in just a few days from the time of this writing on May 4, 2026, and it'll retail for $99 USD / $149 CAD / €99 / £85 / $149 AUD. While that price isn't entirely outrageous for modern premium controllers, Valve did confirm that it is higher than initially intended, and according to a well-known insider for information on Valve, the Steam Controller's $99 price tag is the least of our worries, and the biggest price hike has hit the one bit of hardware everyone is most excited about: the Steam Machine.
Brad Lynch, who has a reputation for being a reliable source of information related to Valve, took to X (formerly Twitter) to comment on how Valve confirmed that part of why the Steam Controller is the first to hit the market is because, as hardware engineer Steve Cardinali told Polygon, the controller "doesn't have RAM in it, and it's not as complicated to start getting out the door."
While the Steam Controller avoided any RAM sourcing issues, Lynch then added the claim that for the other two products that do have RAM, the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both saw an internal price hike compared to what they were before the RAM shortage really kicked into gear.
"I've been told some Valve internal pricing targets they had before AND after RAM skyrocketed," Lynch wrote. "Machine is affected the most. Frame is not as bad."
When Valve confirmed that the Steam Controller's price was higher than it initially intended, since the issue couldn't be RAM sourcing, it instead cited how much shipping costs have increased recently. With the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, we have both to worry about, and while we can still only guess at the price of the upcoming PC box and VR headset, it is increasingly looking like we should take our nightmare guesses and add a few more dollars to them.
Other manufacturers, like EmuDeck, have made their own versions of a PC built for couch gaming, with their version of a machine built to run Steam, landing at €1,139. At this point, it seems like that kind of a price point for the Steam Machine is something we can only dream about.
Hopefully, that's not the case, and we'll see the GabeCube come in at a reasonable rate that doesn't immediately price it out of the hands of players who were hoping it could become their new be-all-end-all gaming device.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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