Steam Machine price starts at £879 and $1049 – pre-order lottery is now open

Valve has announced the starting price for its Steam Machine and it is going to put a major dent in people’s wallets. There are four purchase options available and the cheapest of those is £879 or $1049, going up to the most expensive option at £1,208 or $1349 with increased storage and a bundled Steam Controller.

Having learnt their lesson from other hardware launches, Valve has opened a waiting list and lottery system to ensure that scalpers can’t scoop up all the consoles. Join a waiting list through the Steam Machine page before June 25th 10 AM PT/6PM BST, at which point applications will close, and there will be a random draw with everyone getting an email with the result of whether you can buy a Steam Machine or not on this occasion.

There’s effectively two SKUs for the Steam Machine, with the only difference being a choice between 512GB in the entry level Machine and an expanded 2TB storage adding an eye-watering £270 / $300 to the price. If you want a Steam Controller, that’s an added extra, though comes at a discounted £59 / $79 when bundled in.

Early reviews have been positive, pointing out that the Steam Machine is a competent entry level gaming PC, showcasing the strengths of SteamOS, and coming with a compact form factor, low power and noise compared to a DIY or prebuilt PC from other vendors. That said, it is suspected that if you wish to sacrifice on form, you could get a similar or more performant PC for your money.

And it is the high price that is a sore spot, which is clearly now far higher than Valve had originally envisaged with the Steam Machine’s announcement last November. Rampant price rises and supply constraints for RAM and SSD storage have led to a shock price increase for the Steam Deck in recent weeks, and put further pressure on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as they try to maintain relatively attractive prices. With Valve unable or unwilling to subsidise the Steam Machine, it’s led to a high price.

Here’s the full pricing and specs.

• Steam Machine 512GB – £879 / $1049 / €1039

  • Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T
  • Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
  • 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
  • 512GB NVME SSD, microSD card slot
  • Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
  • Intergrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
  • Small form factor, 6 inch cube
  • SteamOS 3

• Steam Machine 512GB plus Steam Controller – £938 / $1128 / €1108

  • Same specs as above

• Steam Machine 2TB – £1149 / $1349 / €1359

  • Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T
  • Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
  • 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
  • 2TB NVME SSD, microSD card slot
  • Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit ethernet
  • Intergrated Steam Controller wireless adapter
  • Small form factor, 6 inch cube
  • SteamOS 3
  • Extra faceplates – red fabric and solid walnut

• Steam Machine 2TB plus Steam Controller – £1208 / $1428 / €1428

  • Same as above but with controller

Valve has previously noted that for the requirements for Steam Machine Verified are similar to Steam Deck Verified. The Steam Machine is around six times as powerful as the Steam Deck, so already compatible games could require no extra work from developers, while Valve are testing titles that they found fell short of performance requirements for Deck. With the price being announced, Valve is on course to deliver on its goal to release the Steam Machine this summer.

Source: Steam

Tags: Steam controller, Steam Deck, Steam Machine, SteamOS, valve