The Steam Machine got announced earlier today with an eye-watering $1049 asking price for the entry-level 512GB model. But that’s probably not the price Valve had in mind for its mini gaming PC.
When I got a chance to sit down with Valve Engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat last week to talk about the Steam Machine, I asked them what the Steam Machine would have cost before the current memory market. And while neither of them would give me a hard number, I was told that it was “probably similar” to the price increase that the Steam Machine experienced last month.
Some quick napkin math pins that Steam Deck price increase at around 35-36% above the handheld’s original $549 asking price, resulting in the new price of $789. If you do the same math for a hypothetical $749 pre-RAMflation Steam Machine, that would make the final $1049 price about 33% more expensive.
I was told that Valve hadn’t landed on a final price before it had to start tweaking the price to reflect the new reality that we’re living through, but a $749 price tag would put it in spitting distance with my original guess that the Steam Machine would cost about $800.
We’ve been hearing conflicting things about how long the current AI-fueled RAM crisis will be going on, but Valve isn’t the only gaming company that’s raising prices. Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 had price increases a couple months ago, and according to a memo by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, the hardware going into Xbox consoles will eventually cost five times more than it originally did, so those will probably see yet another price rise at some point.
But, who knows? Maybe the RAM bubble will burst and Valve will be able to bring down the price closer to its initial target. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra