Valve’s Steam Machine: Pricing Set (Oof!), Reservation Emails Sent, Shipping Soon

Valve will release its living room PC game console, called the Steam Machine, but it won’t be cheap, thanks to the ongoing memory shortage referred to as RAMageddon, which already shot up the price of the Steam Deck. The company finally unveiled the pricing for the Steam Machine, and it’s not for the faint of heart. 

The Steam Machine will start at $1,049 for the 512GB version that doesn’t come with a Steam Controller, according to the listing page Valve posted on Monday. Adding a controller to the package will bring the price up to $1,128. Willing to spend even more? With 2TB of storage, the cost jumps up to $1,349 without a controller. The 2TB model with a Steam Controller will set you back $1,428.

On Friday, Valve sent the first wave of reservation emails to those interested in buying a Steam Machine. The window to buy the console will start on June 29 and will be open for three days. Those who do not complete their purchase will lose their reservation, and it will go to someone else. Everyone else who did not get a reservation email will be put on a waitlist and will have to wait for when Valve restocks inventory to get an invite to purchase a Steam Machine. 

The Steam Machine is Valve’s gaming PC, built into a roughly 6-inch cube that’s designed to connect to a living room TV. The aim is to deliver a simplified PC gaming experience for a broad audience and for game developers to optimize for a single spec as they’ve done with the Steam Deck. 

Here’s everything we know about the Steam Machine.

When does the Steam Machine come out? 

The Steam Machine will be available for purchase starting June 29, but only for those who are picked to purchase it on the launch date.

Can I preorder the Steam Machine?

Preorders for the Steam Machine are closed. They opened on Monday and closed on Thursday. The first batch of reservation emails for those who will be able to order the week of June 29 has already gone out. They will get another email from Valve letting them know they can order their Steam Machine, and they will have 72 hours to complete their order. 

Anyone who was not selected to buy the Steam Machine on June 29 will be put on a wait list. When Valve restocks more units, another group from the wait list will be invited to purchase their Steam Machine. Valve didn’t provide a window of how long for people on the wait list will have to wait to buy a Steam Machine. Those who waited until after the June 25 deadline to sign up for a Steam Machine will be put at the end of the wait list. 

How much will the Steam Machine cost? 

The Steam Machine will start at $1,049 for the 512GB version without a Steam Controller. The other options include controllers or more storage: 

• 512GB with Steam Controller: $1,128
• 2TB without Steam Controller: $1,349
• 2TB with Steam Controller: $1,428

What are the Steam Machine specs? 

Valve released the final specs of the Steam Machine last week with the news of the official launch of the console.

What else is unique to the Steam Machine? 

Valve is doing a bit more than just making a tiny gaming PC. The company is offering some features that aren’t found on the PS5, Switch 2 or Xbox Series consoles. 

To start, there are removable face plates for the Steam Machine. This is similar to the faceplates for the Xbox 360, which offer a bit of customization for the console. 

Steam Machines are upgradable. You can increase storage by adding a microSD card to the console’s microSD card slot or by replacing the solid-state drive. There is also the possibility to upgrade the RAM, but that will take a few more steps versus the storage swapping. 

The Steam Machine will also be just a computer when needed. Connect it to a monitor with a mouse and keyboard, and the console will act just like a Linux desktop. There’s also the option to install Windows in lieu of SteamOS, which would make it still play PC games, although the experience won’t be as smooth as SteamOS.

The Steam Controller for the Steam Machine will connect seamlessly to the console. And, for multiplayer games, four controllers can connect with a console very easily.

Wait, didn’t Valve already have Steam Machines?

Kind of. Back in 2013, Valve revealed a new operating system called SteamOS. It’s what powers the Steam Deck and creates the Big Picture Mode, which allows gamers to play their PC games in a mostly console-like experience instead of the typical desktop experience of using a mouse to double-click a game to start. 

Along with the operating system, Valve also released its Steam Machine platform. This allowed computer hardware makers to develop computers shaped more like a home console instead of a desktop. Alienware and Dell were some of the notable companies that developed their own Steam Machines, but none of them really caught on, partly due to many games not being compatible with the Linux-based SteamOS. 

The Steam Machines fizzled out in the mid-2010s as making games compatible with SteamOS was not a priority for game developers at the time. It wasn’t until 2018 that Valve developed Proton, a compatibility layer for SteamOS to make it easier to run most Windows games. Proton currently supports more than 20,000 Windows games. 

Valve also ended up offering an alternative to getting a whole new piece of hardware. In 2015, the company released Steam Link, a device that allowed PC games to be streamed directly to a TV.