// KOTAKU — GAMING
Valve Confirms Steam Machine Will Cost Over $1,000
Valve has finally revealed the price of its upcoming Steam Machine. The base model will cost $1,050. A version with more storage will cost $300 more. And if you want a bundled in Steam Controller, that will cost you even more. The price is high, but not unexpected, as companies like Valve navigate the ongoing RAMaggedon caused by AI hyperscalers buying up memory and PC parts.
On June 22, Valve announced that it will be selling four different Steam Machine bundles. Here are the options you can reserve now:
Bundle: Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: $1,128 USD
Bundle: Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: $1,428 USD (Includes two faceplates: red fabric, and solid walnut)
Valve is implementing a reservation system in an “effort to improve the purchase experience.” This system includes some randomization, too. Starting today, you can hop over to Steam and set a Steam Machine reservation for the bundle you want. You have until June 25 to do this. After that, Valve will do a one-time randomization that will determine the order of its waitlist and when people get a chance to spend $1,000+ on a Steam Machine.
On June 25, after the reservation period ends, Valve will send out emails indicating that users are either in a reservation queue and have a Steam Machine waiting for them to buy OR they have been added to a wishlist and will have to wait to get a chance to fork over the money to buy Valve’s console-like PC device.
Keep in mind that to even set a reservation for a Steam Machine, you’ll need to have a Steam account in “good standing” and you’ll have had to buy something on Steam prior to April 27. Valve is also limiting signups to one per household and says it will “use payment method, shipping address, and other information” to cancel peopel trying to get around this rule.
Valve explained in its big post revealing all the details about how to order a Steam Machine, that the company had “underestimated” how many people wanted a Steam Controller back when that thing launched earlier this year. So it wanted to “create a system that would be less frustrating and more fair for everyone.”
“A launch that starts at a specific day and time tends to reward bots, people with fast internet connections, talented gaming fingers for quick F5/refresh reactions, and those who can schedule their life around that moment,” said Valve. “By accepting reservation signups over the course of a few days, without any incentive to be first, we’re hoping to take away some of that friction. The longer timeframe also allows us to do some extra validation on the signups to make sure they’re real accounts, with only one per household.”
Meanwhile, Valve also talked about why the Steam Machine costs so much. The company explained that when it started sourcing parts for the Steam Machine back in 2023, it felt like it had a good “understanding” of how much everything would cost and how prices would change over time. But then, over the last 14 months or so, the everything changed.