Valve Confirms Steam Machine Will Cost Over $1,000

Valve has finally revealed the price of its upcoming Steam Machine. The base model will cost $1,050. A version with more storage will cost $300 more. And if you want a bundled in Steam Controller, that will cost you even more. The price is high, but not unexpected, as companies like Valve navigate the ongoing RAMaggedon caused by AI hyperscalers buying up memory and PC parts.

On June 22, Valve announced that it will be selling four different Steam Machine bundles. Here are the options you can reserve now:

• Steam Machine 512GB: $1,049 USD

• Bundle: Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: $1,128 USD

• Steam Machine 2TB: $1,349 USD

• Bundle: Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: $1,428 USD (Includes two faceplates: red fabric, and solid walnut)

Valve is implementing a reservation system in an “effort to improve the purchase experience.” This system includes some randomization, too. Starting today, you can hop over to Steam and set a Steam Machine reservation for the bundle you want. You have until June 25 to do this. After that, Valve will do a one-time randomization that will determine the order of its waitlist and when people get a chance to spend $1,000+ on a Steam Machine.

On June 25, after the reservation period ends, Valve will send out emails indicating that users are either in a reservation queue and have a Steam Machine waiting for them to buy OR they have been added to a wishlist and will have to wait to get a chance to fork over the money to buy Valve’s console-like PC device.

Why is Valve using a randomized pre-order system?

Valve explained in its big post revealing all the details about how to order a Steam Machine, that the company had “underestimated” how many people wanted a Steam Controller back when that thing launched earlier this year. So it wanted to “create a system that would be less frustrating and more fair for everyone.”

“A launch that starts at a specific day and time tends to reward bots, people with fast internet connections, talented gaming fingers for quick F5/refresh reactions, and those who can schedule their life around that moment,” said Valve. “By accepting reservation signups over the course of a few days, without any incentive to be first, we’re hoping to take away some of that friction. The longer timeframe also allows us to do some extra validation on the signups to make sure they’re real accounts, with only one per household.”

Meanwhile, Valve also talked about why the Steam Machine costs so much. The company explained that when it started sourcing parts for the Steam Machine back in 2023, it felt like it had a good “understanding” of how much everything would cost and how prices would change over time. But then, over the last 14 months or so, the everything changed.

“That has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components,” said Valve. “There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we’re sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we’ve secured them over the past 6 months.”

Valve also says availability has been impacted by increased part prices. “There were periods where we found we couldn’t source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units we’ve been able to produce for launch,” explained Valve.

In other words, it is going to be really tricky and pricey to get your hands on a Steam Machine this year.