Steam Machine Release Marred by Hardware Price Hike

The Steam Machine release has been confirmed by Valve. Interested buyers can now order the living room gaming PC through its official page.

The ITX-sized PC is powered by a custom AMD Zen 4 CPU, configured with 6 cores and 12 threads. AMD’s RDNA 3 GPU will handle the graphics, which supports resolutions up to 4K 60 FPS. It supports AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution and ray-tracing.

Two storage configurations are available, 512 GB and 2 TB, expandable using an extra NVMe and MicroSD slots. The PC itself is customizable with an addressable LED bar, as well as a removable faceplate that can be modified.

Steam Machine will use SteamOS, a customized version of Arch Linux centered on gaming. The PC will boot straight into the Steam interface, but users can also switch to a traditional desktop interface and perform various tasks like a conventional computer.

But, despite generating hype since its announcement, the Steam Machine release has been a bit lukewarm due to its pricing.

Buyers can purchase the console as a standalone unit or bundled with the Steam Controller. A base 512 GB unit will cost USD 1,049, while the 2 TB version will cost USD 1,349.

If you decide to buy it with the Steam Controller, the price will increase to USD 1,128 for the 512 GB version and USD 1,428 for the 2 TB version.

In an interview with IGN, Valve was planning to price out the Steam Machine in the USD 700 range, but the increasing prices for hardware parts such as RAM, as well as the difficulty to source the parts itself, basically ruined their plan.

“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 six months,” said Valve.

The Steam Machine preorder will be open until June 25 to a limited number of buyers. Buyers must have a Steam account with good standings and have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026. Buyers who are eligible will be contacted via email to complete their purchase in 72 hours.