Valve hasn’t officially announced the price for its new Steam Machine yet, however, the cost may be higher than many expect and could exceed the hopes of the many fans who welcomed the system’s announcement with great enthusiasm.
Gaming PC-Level Hardware Driving the Cost
The company has stated that it wants to set a price in line with a gaming PC of similar specifications, which is exactly the factor that might drive up the cost — especially if consumers compare it to a console instead.
In terms of technical features, we’re talking about a machine equipped with a 6-core AMD Zen 4 CPU and an RDNA 3 GPU with 28 Compute Units. In a desktop setup, the nearest equivalent would be a configuration with a Ryzen 5 7600X and Radeon RX 7600M, which can already cost around $900.
Furthermore, the new Steam Machine will actually be a 15-centimetre cube (roughly six inches on a side), and such a small form factor necessarily implies engineering effort and selective components that translate into extra cost.
Will Valve Keep the Price Accessible?
Valve claims that the price of the Steam Machine will be accessible and there’s no doubt that the laptop market already includes products offering similar specifications at more affordable costs — so that is likely where the company will draw in efforts to bring a retail price that doesn’t discourage users.
That said, the manufacturer will need to strike a difficult balance between component costs and the small form-factor. It may reduce margins and rely on software sales through Steam to make up for the hardware cost.
So, how much will this Steam Machine cost? In light of all these considerations, analysts are talking about a range between $700 and $800, while a lower figure around $600 would imply a very significant effort from Valve.
In other news, the new Steam Machine is equal to or better than 70% of the PCs used by their users.
I think that the Steam Box price will depend partly on RAM prices and tariffs.
The GPU is more likely a 8500G equivalent than a 7600X one. Gemini estimated a build with a 8500G and Radeon 7600 at $750+. I imagine that Valve can get shave quite a bit from this (especially since the GPU is a slower variant of the 7600), so $600-700 sounds reasonable. I think it’s also likely that, like with the Steam Desk, Valve will sell this only on Steam, which will cut the retail overhead.
It’s true that Valve could charge for the engineering and other costs, but based on the Steam Deck, my feeling is that Valve will have a lean margin. This is clearly a budget box, and it makes sense to me that Valve will push it as such.
I cannot say what US tariffs are going to do to US prices. Nor the current RAM pricing rises.
But the BOM isn’t that high given these are not cutting edge components, and they’re cut down.
$599 feels possible (before tariffs, RAM increases), maybe £449 (no worries about tariffs here). I’m not as enthusiastic as Moore’s Law Is Dead who feels even more could be cut off but the BOM in his video feels reasonable.