Back when Valve first announced the Steam Machine in November 2025, I was excited about it. I’m certainly not the target demographic for this thing; I already have a good enough PC build that does everything I need it to. But the idea behind it! With Proton and SteamOS, the Steam Machine becomes a very attractive prospect that’ll help folks get into PC gaming more easily.
While I raved about it and thought about who it was for, I also pointed out that it would all ultimately come down to the price tag. After all, whether Valve wants to admit it or not, the Steam Machine is going to be console competitor. It’s going up against PlayStation and Xbox as the de facto gaming box you put under your TV. While I have no doubt that Valve sees this as more of a niche product rather than a big box console you can sell in mainstream stores, the fact remains that console gamers are this thing’s target demographic, which is why pricing this right is so important.
Valve themselves have stated the following:
“We think of Steam Machine as an extension of PC gaming, not as a console. The traditional console model is to sell hardware at a loss and make up the revenue with subscription services or by selling games that are locked-in to the hardware. The strength of PC gaming is the ability to play the games you want on the hardware you want. Steam Machine is a solution to these problems (and we think it’s a great one), but it’s not the only solution, and we don’t want it to be.”
The Steam Machine is releasing several years after the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, which technically makes it older hardware. Now I know this console generation has been weird — with consoles going up in price as they get older instead of going down — but that doesn’t make the Steam Machine’s pricing any less disappointing. Here’s what you can expect to pay:
| Bundle | USD | GBP | EUR | CAD | AUD | PLN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Machine 515GB | $1,049 | £879 | €1,039 | C$1,509 | A$1,609 | zł4,389 |
| Steam Machine 515GB + Steam Controller | $1,128 | £938 | €1,108 | C$1,628 | A$1,728 | zł4,698 |
| Steam Machine 2TB | $1,349 | £1,149 | €1,359 | C$1919 | A$2,109 | zł5,739 |
| Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller | $1,428 | £1,208 | €1,428 | C$2,038 | A$2,228 | zł6,048 |
Now it’s worth pointing out that Valve had initially stated that the device’s pricing would be “pretty competitive”, but the original pricing plan is clearly no longer viable due to various factors like chip/RAM shortages, to say the least. So yeah, I get it. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.
It also means that I’m highly unlikely to buy one now, nor will I recommend it to my partner, who currently only games on a Switch 2, though I’m sure she’d have been thrilled to have this cute little cube that would give her access to my entire Steam library.
