A lot of people are expecting that the Steam Machine will bridge the gap between PC and consoles, and that’s certainly what Valve is hoping for. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks to be a really neat little PC, and Valve promises it can play games at up to 4K at 60 FPS. If you know anything about PC gaming, you know that’s no easy (or affordable) feat.
There’s been a lot of debate around the Steam Machine’s pricing, but Valve has now addressed the matter directly. In the Friends Per Second podcast, Valve’s Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais were asked tough questions about Valve’s ambitions with the console/PC hybrid, and they said the following regarding pricing:
“I think that if you build a PC from parts, and get to the same level of performance, that’s the general price window we aim to be at.”
The Duo also stated that the Steam Machine’s price would be closer to the expectations people have from the PC market. No exact figure was given, but for context, you can build a similar gaming PC to the Steam Machine for around $800, in terms of performance.
Will The Steam Machine Be Too Expensive For Most People?
As someone who is very in-tune with PC gaming hardware, I’m not surprised that the Steam Machine won’t be around $500. With the boom of AI, massive companies are buying up all the memory and storage they can get their hands on, inflating the price of DDR5 RAM kits and NVMe SSDs. Both of these components are highly important for modern gaming PCs, and with prices going higher, PCs are getting expensive once again.
I think this so-called “GabeCube” will cost anywhere between $700-$800. That puts it right next to the PS5 Pro in terms of pricing, and I reckon most casual gamers will pick the Sony console. Heck, most would go with the standard PS5 that sits at $550. In the same Friends Per Second podcast (great podcast, by the way, I watch it regularly), Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed that the Steam Machine won’t be subsidized hardware.
What that means is that Valve won’t be taking a loss on hardware and trying to recoup costs from game profits. So, it looks like the Steam Machine will still be a good entry point for new PC gamers, thanks to the streamlined SteamOS, but it won’t come cheap.
