A new leak may have just given us our first idea of what the Steam Machine price will be. If true, players could be spending a lot more than PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X to get Valve’s new console system.
Valve Gives Hint About Steam Machine Prices
This latest update comes from a YouTube video by Linus Tech Tips on November 13. In the upload, the tech reviewer gets to preview the recently revealed Steam Machine early. Things get interesting, though, in a segment where Linus Tech Tips talks about the console’s potential pricing. According to the YouTuber, Valve was unable to provide him with a price range for the device.
However, LTT revealed that the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC, not a traditional gaming console. “Valve wasn’t able to give any specific numbers due to rapidly evolving market conditions. They did give me one hint, though. They said that while they expect it to be very competitively priced with a PC, that it will be priced like a PC. Rather than like a console with games subsidizing the upfront hardware price.”
The last part is important. Unlike Microsoft or Sony, Valve is reportedly not going to be selling the Steam Machine at a loss. Because, unlike their competitors, they aren’t banking on software sales to make up the difference.
With PS5 Pro currently being sold at $749, and Xbox Series X at $649, does that mean the Steam Machine will be $1000 or more? After all, as Linus Tech Tips points out, the Steam Machine is very much a PC. It can do everything a regular PC can do; it just has a more compact casing.
Steam Machine Might Be Competing With Next-Gen Xbox and Custom PCs Instead
This is interesting because leaks in October claimed that the next-gen Xbox would not be competing with the PS6. According to the rumor, Microsoft is going to make its next console an expensive PC-hybrid that would instead compete with custom-built gaming rigs. Does this sound familiar? Because, at least to my ears, this sounds exactly like the Steam Machine.
In a report posted by Tech Insider Moore’sLawIsDead, the hardware expert said the next-gen Xbox could sell between $1,100 and $1.3k based on its specs alone. So if the Steam Machine ends up in the same ballpark, we might see similar pricing. Although it’s important to note that Valve has not officially announced Steam Machine prices, this is just speculation at this point.
Will Steam Machine Cost Over $1,000?
However, many Steam users reacted to the Linus Tech Tips update with negativity. Over on Reddit, many players claimed the Steam Machine would struggle to sell if it’s really going to be priced as high as a gaming PC. “So the Steam Machine will be dead on arrival,” one player wrote, for example. Another user exclaimed, “It was always gonna be pretty niche. PC players already have PCs, and console players don’t want a PC.”
One confused Steam user argued, “I’m not quite clear who their customer is here. I could be wrong, but if someone is a fully paid-up PC gamer, won’t they already have a gaming PC and possibly a Steam Deck as well? So a third Steam device seems a bit like overkill. As a non-PC gamer (so no existing Steam library), it would probably need to be cheaper to get me to buy one.”
So yeah, it will be interesting to see how the Steam Machine performs if it ends up costing over $1,000. One of the main selling points of the Steam Deck is its incredible affordability. But then again, it really is all about perspective. A $1.2k Steam Machine would still be much cheaper than most custom gaming PCs.
So in that sense, Valve and Microsoft appear to be chasing after the same demographic, which isn’t home consoles.
The post Steam Machine Price Range May Have Leaked—and It’s Not Cheap appeared first on VICE.
