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Valve has detailed why the price on the Steam Machine had to be set higher than many fans may have wanted. Although the SteamOS-powered gaming PC will launch at a rather premium $1,049 price point for the smallest 512GB version, Valve claims that wasn’t always the goal.
That said, engineers Pierre- Loub Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat detail how unexpected memory market conditions during development changed everything. “The biggest factor impacting our ability to launch at a lower price point has been the rise in memory prices,” the statement said.
While Valve did not state a number, when taking Steam Deck price jumps into consideration, an educated guess can be made at what Valve originally wanted to price the Steam Machine at. As Techradar reports, Valve implied that price increases on the Steam Deck were around the same percentage as the Steam Machine.
With that in mind, Valve’s original goal was probably around the $750 price point before memory became more expensive.Valve explains in the statement that RAM and storage are mostly to blame for the jump. The Steam Machine sports 16GB of DDR5 RAM as well as 8GB of GDDR6 graphics RAM. Both have experienced significant price increases over the last year.That price hike also changes how prospective buyers will look at the Steam Machine.
Had the price stayed near $750, Valve would have found itself strongly competing against traditional consoles. At $1,049, the company will have to do a better job of convincing customers.However, consoles and the Steam Machine aren’t really competing for the same players. While a traditional console will play games, the Steam Machine is a full-fledged SteamOS desktop PC.
Not only can it play any game you already own on Steam, it also acts as a Linux computer you can use in your living room.There’s even a chance prices will go down should memory prices return to normal. While Valve has given no indication price cuts are coming, it did state the current prices are completely circumstantial and out of their control.
Pre-orders for the Steam Machine begin June 25 with worldwide release coming on June 30. As exciting as the Steam Machine itself is, keep an eye out for stories diving into what the system could have looked like at its original price point.
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