Price shock: What fans think about the Steam Machine's pricing

[Redaktion]

The Steam Machine was eagerly anticipated for months. After the official price reveal, however, the mood in the community has become noticeably subdued. Among more than 2,700 Reddit comments, hardly anyone says they actually plans to buy one.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Price-shock-What-fans-think-about-the-Steam-Machine-s-pricing.1327234.0.html

[GeorgeS]

Ok sure while the R7(780m)/32GB/1TB "Mini-PC" I purchased for $400USD in Nov 2025 now costs ~$795USD in June 2026 there are price point economics at work here.

Historically a "gaming console" was priced at ~1/4-1/2 as much as a "gaming PC".
However with the Playstation, Xbox (and even Nintendo Switch2!) costing > $500USD (and getting near $1000!) while many "low end" PC parts and systems costing the same or less than consoles it is difficult to recommend any of the consoles.

Granted the 'consoles' have the 'plug & play' feature where PC gaming often involves lots of 'fiddling' to get titles to work properly.

The 'SteamOS' and likely the Steam Machine can and does remove much of whatever "pain points" that PC gaming may have however at the current price point I would not be surprised that the Steam Machine does not sell well.

[Out of stock]

It's still half the price of this thing. The PS5 base model. And faster too, can run Linux on it now, if you can find one with old firmware.

And it will sell out because Valve only made ~30k per region (US, EU, Asia) but the demand is in 2-3 millions.

780m isn't even comparable. Slower than switch 2 and yes, still costs almost double..

Not that you need to compare with consoles. Desktop prebuilts cost less or the same with significantly better components.

The only thing this has it's very quiet and small compact chassis. But idk if that's worth waiting ~6-12 months for delayed shipment reservation queue order.

No wonder Valve are advocating for people to just install it on their hardware and had to explain a statement regarding the entire launch, to get some kind of sympathy.

Not falling for it, Mega Yacht Gabe! 8-)