Valve has finally announced the pricing for its upcoming Steam Machine consoles, with the cheapest model starting at £879. The company has acknowledged that the price is higher than originally intended due to rising costs of memory and storage components, driven by demand from AI data centres.
Steam Machine UK Prices
The Steam Machine is available in two models with four bundles:
- Steam Machine 512GB: £879
- Steam Machine 512GB + Steam Controller: £938
- Steam Machine 2TB: £1,149
- Steam Machine 2TB + Steam Controller: £1,208
The top-tier bundle includes exclusive red fabric and solid walnut face plates. These prices exceed even the £789.99 PS5 Pro, which was already the most expensive console ever released.
Why the Price Hike?
In a blog post on Steam, Valve explained that the cost of components, particularly RAM and storage, has increased significantly over the past year. 'We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023,' the company wrote. 'Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components.'
Valve noted that the original price goal is no longer viable due to these global manufacturing cost increases. The prices reflect the cost of components secured over the past six months.
Limited Availability
Availability has also been impacted. 'There were periods where we found we couldn't source some of our components at all, at any price,' Valve stated. 'More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units we've been able to produce for launch.'
The company previously increased the price of the Steam Deck for similar reasons, indicating that the Steam Machine would not reach mainstream pricing.
What Is the Steam Machine?
The Steam Machine concept originated in 2013 as a cross between a console and a gaming PC, capable of playing most Steam games with easier maintenance than a PC and more upgrade options than a console. After third-party manufacturers failed to gain traction, Valve revived the idea last year as a first-party device.
Tech specs include a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6-core/12-thread CPU, AMD RDNA3 28 Compute Units GPU, 16GB DDR5 plus 8GB GDDR6 VRAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit Ethernet, and SteamOS 3.
Pre-Order Details
The Steam Machine is not yet available for pre-order. Interested buyers can join a waiting list until June 25 at 6pm BST. Valve will then randomize the list and invite an unspecified number of fans to pre-order. Requirements include a Steam account with no bans and a purchase made before April 27, 2026.
Valve has a history of handling pre-orders poorly, and stock allocation outside the US remains uncertain. The release date is vaguely slated for late summer, possibly July but could be later.
According to GameCentral, the high price undermines the Steam Machine's purpose: '£1,000+ is perfectly normal for a gaming PC but at this price the benefits of the Steam Machine are greatly reduced and if you've got that sort of money you might as well just buy a gaming PC tailored to your own specific needs.'
