Valve has shared an explanation as to why the Steam Machine is listed at a price as high as $1,049 to start. Gamers’ concerns that the price of the Steam Machine would be considerably higher than consoles have been found to be correct, and Valve has offered some reasons as to why it’s so much more expensive than other gaming options available.
The price of the Steam Machine was finally revealed in June 2026, and there’s been a fair amount of sticker shock for interested gamers. The PS5 price went up recently, bringing the PS5 Pro to $899.99, while the 2TB version of the Xbox Series X is $799.99, but the Steam Machine costs even more.
Valve Issues Official Statement on Steam Controller Restock
Valve acknowledges the widespread complaints about the Steam Controller’s availability and reassures fans that help is on the way.
Valve Talks Steam Machine Pricing
Valve has shared some statements about the Steam Machine and its cost, making it clear that the company didn’t have much of a choice in the pricing. When planning for the Steam Machine began, Valve expected prices of components to gradually drop over time, as is typical with the industry. However, largely the opposite has happened. In a statement to The Verge, a Valve representative explained that the Steam Machine is being sold at a price as close to the cost of parts and labor as possible, with even narrower margins than the pricing of the Steam Deck.
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The company also reiterated its stance on choosing to not subsidize the Steam Machine. The Steam Machine is considerably pricier than consoles, even with the cost of consoles rising recently. However, Valve explains that it wants to maintain an “open ecosystem,” and that consoles have traditionally been sold at a loss, with manufacturers recouping the cost and gaining profit by customers being “locked-in to the hardware” and selling games and subscription services to them. Subsidizing the cost wouldn’t make financial sense for the company, as a result.
Valve’s decision to not lock users into utilizing Steam and thus not subsidizing the Steam Machine is in keeping with what Valve has claimed about its store in the past. Valve and Steam have been accused of having a monopoly on the industry, but co-founder Gabe Newell has said that gamers are free to buy titles from whatever storefront they like. Forcing buyers to use Steam exclusively on the new hardware would also mean limiting its capability as a PC, which has been a selling point for the device.
With the Steam Machine and Steam Controller now officially available for reservation, the only piece of hardware remaining is the Steam Frame VR headset. Presumably, gamers will be able to reserve it soon, as Valve has reiterated that it intends to release both the Steam Frame and Steam Machine during this summer. Given the pricing of the Steam Machine, though, gamers will likely want to brace themselves for a price that’s considerably higher than the Meta Quest line of headsets. Supply of the headset may also be limited, given Valve admitted that it was only able to produce about 2/3 of the intended supply of Steam Machines due to parts being in such high demand. With AI data centers buying up much of the available supply and some companies that used to produce consumer-level PC parts exiting that market, it’s unlikely that the situation will improve considerably in the near future.
