We still don’t know the price of the Steam Machine, and a recent interview with one of the video game industry’s leading analysts shows just how hard it is to predict.
Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella showed that was the case in a recent interview with GamesRadar. Piscatella told the publication that he “could see $1,000” as the system’s price tag, but also admitted that he “could see them going nuts and going under $700 if they want to eat some of those costs.”
The price of the Steam Machine is tough to predict because of factors outside of the video game industry itself. The United States’ tariffs and the rising costs of components like RAM make the production of video game hardware more expensive than it has ever been in recent memory. “If you want to bring out a new Steam Machine this year, trying to come out with an announced price point, given what’s going on in all these other areas of the market, is challenging,” Piscatella explained.
This has all contributed to why Valve delayed the launch of the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and why the go-to-market strategy for that hardware remains so mysterious. It’s tough for an analyst to predict how expensive the Steam Machine will be because Valve has not yet committed to a price. While the hardware is already facing some difficult changes ahead of release, Piscatella seems bullish on the Steam Machine.
“You have this built-in base of really loyal customers that have a huge library, in many cases, just waiting to be played. And on day one, when they hook up their Steam Machine, they’ve got all of that library with them, so it’s a very exciting prospect. But it’s all going to come down to that price point and how many they make. And those are big question marks,” Piscatella concluded.
Currently, Valve hopes to release the Steam Machine in the first half of 2026.
