Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Valve’s Steam Machine launches June 25th at $1,049, featuring AMD Zen 4 processor, RDNA3 8GB graphics, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and 512GB SSD.
- The pricing appears competitive compared to building a similar PC, though upgrades to 2TB storage cost an additional $300 and Steam Controllers add $78.
- Limited supply is expected with a lottery system for initial orders, making this pre-assembled gaming PC option significant for those seeking console alternatives.
We’ve been waiting for the better part of a year to see when the revamped Steam Machine would land, and perhaps, more importantly, how much Valve would charge for it. Today we’ve got the answers. The Steam Machine will be available for purchase starting on June 25th, three days from now. In the US, the base model without a controller will cost $1,049.
That version of the hardware gets a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 processor with six cores, an RDNA3 8GB graphics card, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Here are the five options offered up for early reserve on the Steam Store:
- Base 512GB model — $1,049
- Base 512GB model, with Steam Controller — $1,128
- 2TB upgrade model (same RAM, processor) — $1,349
- 2TB upgrade model with Steam Controller — $1,428
So yeah, pretty straightforward. Swapping out 512GB to 2TB costs $300 — a lot, but not unreasonable considering the current market that’s already delayed the launch of all of Valve’s 2026 hardware. Adding in a Steam Controller, which is in very short supply, costs $78, a nice discount off the $100 separate purchase. Obviously prices will differ in other territories.
The starting price is… bad. Or at least, it’s bad from the perspective of someone who’s been watching this space like a hawk since last November. But as you probably know, the PC hardware market has gone insane in the interim, and for the first time in decades it’s a lot cheaper to buy a pre-assembled PC than it is to build your own. Roughly parting out the Steam Deck’s hardware with current equivalents — using an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, Radeon RX 7600 GPU, and 512GB SSD — costs $1072.72 on PCPartPicker today. And that’s a best-case scenario.
PCPartPicker
So yes, the Steam Machine is expensive compared to a game console, the market it’s meant to compete with directly. But viewed as a stand-alone gaming PC, it’s not unreasonable. Especially if you consider that it’s tiny and stylish and comes with a lot more software and product support than you’d get from a home build, or arguably even a white-box PC.
It’s worth pointing out that the PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch have all been forced to raise their prices in the middle of a generation, another unprecedented bit of fallout from the RAM crisis. The cheapest Xbox Series X is $600, ditto for the cheapest PS5, and their more deluxe editions creep towards that $1,000 mark. And presumably, Valve isn’t selling the more powerful and versatile Steam Machine as a loss leader.
I was hoping for something closer to $700-800 when the Steam Machine was announced, but as Valve was forced to push the launch back, it became clear that that would be an impossible target. It looks like supply will be extremely limited at launch, too: Valve is already relying on a sign-up and lottery system for those who want to order the initial batches. I wouldn’t count on being able to get a Steam Machine this year without some luck.
The last pillar of Valve’s 2026 hardware push, the Steam Frame VR headset, has yet to receive an official launch date. Its Snapdragon-based hardware is similar to the Galaxy XR, which costs about $1,800. At the very least, the below-market price of the Steam Machine indicates that the Frame might cost a little less than that.