Summary
- Valve will price the Steam Machine like a PC, not a subsidized console.
- Expect cost similar to a prebuilt PC with comparable parts, not console-low.
- No official price yet; it’s speculation, but it means better hardware, not a price war.
Ever since the Steam Machine got announced, there has been one question on everyone's minds: how much is it going to cost? As exciting as new Valve hardware is, the price will seriously make or break the device's popularity and could either catapult it into gaming history or send it the way of the 2015 Steam Machine.
To get a good guesstimate on the price, people wanted to know if the Steam Machine would be priced like a console or a PC, with the former being the cheaper path. And while people made a good case as to why Valve could price it like a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, it seems the company is treating it like a miniature computer.
You don't have to wait for the Steam Machine - I built my own
I'm too excited to wait until preorders open
The Steam Machine will have a PC-suitable price
As spotted by DigitalTrends, Valve's hardware director, Pierre-Loup Griffais, gave some hints on the company's plans for pricing the Steam Machine on Skill Up's Friends Per Second podcast. Griffais stated that Valve will price the Steam Machine as if it were a PC, rather than a console.
If you're unsure as to why that matters, there's a key difference between how consoles are priced versus PCs. Consoles are what's called "subsidised," meaning the console manufacturer actually prices the device below the cost of the parts and work required to make it. The idea is that, while the console company loses money on each console sold, they then make it back on game sales, subscriptions, and other purchases. This allows the console company to keep its hardware competitively priced without shooting itself in the foot too much.
People argued that Valve could subsidise the price of the Steam Machine. After all, the company is already making the majority of its profit through software sales, so it makes sense to cut the price of the Steam Machine and then make the money back on all the games people will purchase on the Steam store. However, Pierre-Loup Griffais stated that the Steam Machine will arrive "in the price window of a PC with similar parts," meaning you'll essentially be buying a prebuilt PC.
While this may be disappointing for people hoping for a cheaper Steam Machine, it does mean that Valve is keen to stay out of the "race to the bottom" versus the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. This, in turn, may mean fewer shortcuts taken on the hardware itself, and allows Valve to add quality stock without worrying about the competition outpricing them. Still, anything can happen, so until Valve officially announces the price, all this is just speculation. Still, even without an official price, the Steam Machine is already making some of us feel uneasy.