Steam Machine: “a very interesting offer” according to Valve, but at what price?
Ten days after the announcement of the Steam MachineValve has decided to do something about its first mini-PC running SteamOS. Six times more powerful than Steam Deckthe price is at the center of the discussions, and the first answers are gradually falling on this subject – between details and discretion.
A high price for the Steam Machine, at least for the general public, fans of traditional home consoles ©Valve
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What price for the Steam Machine? Not the one you dream of
In the podcast Friends Per Second shared this Saturday, November 22 on the Skill Up YouTube channel, Pierre-Loup Griffais and Lawrence Yang from Valve came to talk about the pricing strategy of the Steam Machine.
The first question directly puts the future mini-PC in competition by asking about the possibility that the console will be “subsidized”as is the case for Sony and Xbox for example – that is to say selling the hardware at a loss at the beginning to compensate with game sales later.
A strategy that would allow the Steam Machine to be sold at a price close to the PS5 or Xbox Series, but unfortunately… this is not on the program. “I think if you put the components of a PC together and you get the same level of performance overall, that’s the price we’re aiming for.”declared Pierre-Loup Griffais.
To put it simply: expect a gaming PC price with the same configuration. The optimization efforts carried out by Valve should also tend towards this price, particularly in terms of miniaturization. “Elements such as the compact size and the noise level we achieved, or rather the absence of noise, are truly impressive”underlined Griffais.
Still being finalized by Valve, the price would still be far from a positioning close to current home consoles, with the exception of the PS5 Prosold at €799. Indeed, if we rebuilt the Steam Machine with all the PC components announced, it would represent a cost of around €800-900.
