![GLOCKTOPUS & 9 New Steam Games Cost $0 This Weekend [Free Games]](https://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/featured-steam-free-games-weekend-indie-action-platformer-experimental-172x90.webp)
How Much Is the Steam Machine Worth? Valve Confirms PC Pricing, Despite Console Hopes
With their tiny form factor, many hoped to see the future Steam Machines position themselves as competitors to consoles. However, a Valve employee has just dismissed these hopes: no, Steam Machines will be sold at PC prices.
Some might say this statement is vague, but understand that a Steam Machine should be priced like a computer capable of delivering more or less equivalent performance.
The console vs. PC price debate
The announcement of the Steam Machines mini-PCs two weeks ago raised a multitude of questions. Because when hardware is promised to fit as well on a desk as under the living room TV—a space traditionally living under the tyranny of consoles—we naturally expect the best of both worlds.
The question of price came back to the forefront last week, via tech YouTuber Linustechtip. Who, after an interview with Valve, implied that we shouldn’t expect the little cubes to hit the market at the price of a PlayStation 5. “Valve asked me what I meant by a console price point, and I said $500. nobody said anything, but the vibe in the room was not great.“
A good deal nonetheless?
The information was finally confirmed by Pierre-Loup Griffais, a programmer at Valve, for the Friends Per Second podcast this weekend. “Our goal would be to offer a good deal for this level of performance.” Concretely, if we believe the man’s words, we should be dealing with a machine costing roughly the equivalent of its parts bought individually, and not the price of a pre-built PC.
Put like that, it doesn’t sound like much, but if we think about the additional features of the Steam Machine, it is indeed quite interesting. As PC Gamer reminds us, it is still a particularly small object, very quiet, capable of turning on remotely with a simple button press on your controller, but which also keeps some of the PC’s advantages, notably:
- access to the OS of your choice
- freedom of your virtual game store
- internet access without additional subscription
A complex economic environment
But enough conjecture: we must not forget that currently, Valve has still not decided on the exact selling price of its mini-PC. And in a way, it’s quite understandable. First, it would simply be impossible to sell it at a loss. Unlike consoles that can recoup their manufacturing costs through a closed ecosystem, forcing players to consume on a single store, Valve does not intend to lock its buyers into SteamOS.
But the elephant in the room is, of course, the global RAM shortage that the development of generative AI has entangled us in. At the time of writing, memory module manufacturers have all announced record profits, partly linked to the greed of brands such as Asus or MSI, who are trying to stock up on chips for the future. And if that’s all Greek to you, just think “soaring prices”.
The economic challenge of Steam Machines
A particularly complex economic context for the launch of a new machine, then.
The engineers at Valve will have to work doubly hard to find a reasonable price range. It’s just that Gabe Newell’s figures might not be lying when he claims his machine will be more powerful than that of 70% of Steam users, but when you can still find pre-built PCs armed with an RTX 5060 for less than €700, the competition is tough…
Scarlet Deng has been dispensing JV advice and recommendations for many years, and her ancestral wisdom is invaluable. Some might be tempted to classify her as a "new recruit", but given her PC knowledge and her passion for hairy RPGs, her admirers recognize her more as a "teacher" or "senpai". In fact, here we simply prefer "grandma" to better reflect her benevolence: since her reflexes have gone soft, Doom Eternal has largely given way to Stardew Valley...
Download the Allkeyshop Browser Extension Free
For all the latest video game news, trailers, and best deals, make sure to bookmark us.
You can find all the best and cheapest online deals on CD keys, game codes, gift cards, and antivirus software from the verified CD key sellers on our store pages.
To not miss any news on Allkeyshop, subscribe on
Google News
.
MORE RELEVANT ARTICLES
