Did the Steam Machine Price Leak? There’s an Intriguing Rumor
The Steam Machine could be the next big thing in gaming. The Steam Deck has sold well, but it can only play select Steam games. The upcoming Steam Machine, meanwhile, can play all your Steam games, and it will be more compact than a game system. It sounds great, but how much will it cost? Well, a new rumor has surfaced that might reveal how much the Steam Machine will cost.
What is the Steam Machine?
According to Steam’s official site, the Steam Machine is Valve’s next step in game systems after the handheld Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is a handheld system that can play a large number of Steam games, and it comes in three different varieties, the most expensive of which costs $649 (for comparison, the Nintendo Switch 2 costs $450, the PlayStation 5 Pro costs $749, and the 2 TB Xbox Series X costs $799.99). The Steam Deck is a great way for people to play their Steam games on the go, but not all games are supported.
The Steam Machine, however, supports all Steam games, and all you have to do is log into your Steam account. The official site states that the Steam Machine sports “over six times the horsepower of the Steam Deck.” It will come in two editions, one of which has 512 GB of storage, and one with 2 TB of storage. It can stream to your PC, TV, Steam Deck, and other devices.
The Steam Machine is, according to the official site, “powerful PC gaming packed into a roughly 6-inch (~160 mm) cube.” In addition to playing all your Steam games, it will also function as a PC, where you can install your own apps and even operating systems, though one has to wonder how well they will run.
This Sounds Great, but How Much Will it Cost?
All right, now we get to the elephant in the room. How much will this cost? Well, the official site doesn’t list any prices yet, but according to GameRant, a Reddit user allegedly shared prices from a Czech retailer that prices the 512 GB model at 19,826 CZK, and the 2TB model at 22,305 CZK. How much is that in American dollars? According to GameRant, that means the 512 GB model would cost $950, and the 2 TB model would cost $1070.
Obviously, people are going to rage about this, especially so soon after Nintendo slapped a $450 price tag on the Nintendo Switch 2 last year, but they need to remember that this information is not confirmed. As GameRant pointed out, these could be placeholder prices. The actual costs could be less than these alleged prices.
Of course, these prices could also be smaller than the actual prices, which might be a real possibility in this unstable economy full of rising prices. In any case, we can’t expect the Steam Machine to be cheap. With its massive power and features, a price tag of over a thousand dollars for the 2 TB edition is a definite possibility, which could affect sales, given that a lot of people just plain won’t be able to afford it.
Is This Worth The Price?
Of course, you also have to ask yourself if the Steam Machine is worth depleting your wallet for. Many people with Steam accounts already have a means of playing their games on their PC, Steam Deck, or both, which should make many consumers wonder if it’s worth shelling out hundreds of dollars for another way to play their Steam games. Gaming is already an expensive hobby, especially in this era of $70-80 games. Maybe you can use the money you would have spent on a Steam Machine to buy more games instead.
