Valve will not say what the Steam Machine‘s price is just yet, and in this information vacuum, people are offering all kinds of different theories and guesses as to what the six-inch cube-like system may cost. Now, Valve has yet again commented on the pricing question, providing potentially the best clue yet, while also saying the company cannot or will not disclose pricing yet due to “a lot of external things.”
Speaking to Skill Up–which is co-hosted by GameSpot’s Lucy James–Valve software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said people can expect the price of the Steam Machine to be close to what it might cost to build a PC with “basically the same level of performance.”
“I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” he said, as reported by IGN. “Ideally we’d be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we’re working on refining that as we speak. Right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things… a lot of external things.”
Those “external things” could be elements like tariffs, which have contributed to growing prices for all manner of goods in 2025 since US President Donald Trump controversially rolled them out.
Also in the interview, Griffais confirmed that Valve is not going to take the approach that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have in the past in terms of selling the system at a loss and making up the difference with game and accessory sales.
“No. It’s more in-line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance,” he said.
The Steam Machine price will also take into account the system’s unique small form factor and the noise level that Valve says it’s achieved. “We’re excited that people are going to find out how quiet this thing is,” he said. The Steam Machine also integrates HDMI and CEC, and allows people to turn their TV on and off straight from the device. Additionally, it makes use of new Bluetooth and wireless connectivity systems that Valve designed. “That’s all hard to do,” Griffais said.
“So being able to sit down on your couch, press one button on your controller, and the whole thing lights up like you’d expect for a thing that’s in your living room, I think that’s really valuable. And there’s not really a price point to that because it’s not really something that exists in the PC market right now,” he explained.
Another factor to consider is that your time is money, and some people would rather pay a little more for a company like Valve to do the work for them. “For me one of the benefits of Steam Machine is, I’m someone who used to build my PC in college and I am too old and tired to do that now!” designer Lawrence Yang explained.
Predictions about how much the Steam Machine may cost are all over the place. One expert believes $400 is the sweet spot for the entry model, while others believe it could be more than $1,000. Others believe it may be priced similarly to the PS5.
“Tariffs, surging memory / storage costs, supply chain volatility, and an inability to subsidize to the same extent as traditional console manufacturers are all working against Valve at the moment,” Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad said. “That being said, the specs suggest Valve wanted this to be in line with PS5 pricing.”
Officially, Valve has only said its goal is for the Steam Machine to be “affordable” and priced according to the value it offers. This is pretty much what every company says about their products, so these comments don’t tell us much of anything.
The Steam Machine launches in 2026, but preorders are not yet open and the exact launch timing has not been confirmed as of yet. For now, check out GameSpot’s rundown of everything we know about the Steam Machine.
