Steam Machine was supposed to cost around $750, but the crisis messed up Valve's plans

The company was not ready to sell the device at a loss, as console manufacturers do.

Valve commented on the cost of its new Steam Machine, which caused a wave of criticism. The basic version of the device with a 512 GB drive and without a controller is priced at $1049, while the top-end modification with 2 TB of memory and a Steam Controller will cost buyers $1428.

Such prices unpleasantly surprised many fans of the platform who expected a more affordable device. Valve admits that they themselves did not expect such a high cost, but claim that they became hostages of the current situation in the component market.

Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais told Gamers Nexus that memory and storage suppliers effectively dictate terms to manufacturers. According to him, companies offer limited volumes of components at a set price every month, and refusing a deal could lead to losing access to supplies in the future.

Additional details emerged in an IGN interview, where engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat hinted that the Steam Machine suffered from the same market factors that recently led to a sharp increase in the price of the Steam Deck OLED. Recall that Valve's portable system returned to sale with significantly increased price tags: the 512 GB version increased in price from $549 to $789, and the 1 TB model from $649 to $949.

If we focus on a similar price increase within 43–46%, then without a crisis in the memory and storage market, the basic version of the Steam Machine could have cost approximately $718 to $734. Even in this case, the device would still be more expensive than the PlayStation 5, but the difference would no longer seem so critical.

At the same time, the question of the novelty's competitiveness remains open. According to the first tests, the Steam Machine is inferior in performance to the current Sony console, which makes it a niche offering primarily for PC gaming fans who want a console format without abandoning their computer game library.