Valve confirms Steam Machine will be priced ‘like a PC with the same level of performance’

Valve has said that the price of its console-style PC, the Steam Machine, will be in line with comparable-spec PCs, and not subsidised to reach lower price points, as is often the case with PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Announced earlier this week, Steam Machine is a six-inch console-like cube with “over six times the horsepower of Steam Deck”, which is designed to allow PC games to be played on the TV.

Officially, the device is launching next year, but there’s currently no word on a price point. According to a Linus Tech Tips video published alongside the reveal, Steam Machine will be priced “like a PC, rather than like a console”, and a Valve developer has now confirmed that will indeed be the case.

Speaking to the Friends Per Second podcast, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais claimed that the Steam Machine price had not been nailed down internally, but that Valve’s aim was to offer a “good deal” in line with equivalently powered PCs.

“I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” he said.

“Ideally, we’d be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we’re working on refining that as we speak, and right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things that are fluctuating.”

Asked if Valve would subsidise the cost of Steam Machine in order to be more competitively priced, Griffais claimed it would not.

“No, it’s more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market,” he said. “Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance. And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you’re making your own gaming PC from parts.

“Things like the small form factor and I think the noise level that we achieved or lack thereof is really impressive and we’re excited that the people are going to find out how quiet this thing is.”

Currently, PS5 retails for $500-$550, with PS5 Pro retailing for $750, and Xbox Series X starting from $600. Both platform holders have raised prices this year.

According to Ampere Analysis, much of the device’s success will depend on its price point. “Uptake will be heavily dependent on pricing,” it said. “The specification of the Steam Machine is relatively low-powered compared to high-end gaming PCs, so ideally it should be priced in-line with these expectations. “