Are you ready to shell out $1,000 for a Steam Machine? Some analysts say you might have to. But it's a tricky call!
Ask any random gamer what they think Valve's Steam Machine will cost, and you'll get a wide range of guesses. Ask the analysts who follow the gaming industry for a living, and you'll still get a wide range of (slightly more informed) guesses.
At the high end of those guesses, analysts like Michael Futter from F-Squared predict a starting price of $799 to $899 for the entry-level 512GB Steam Machine and a whopping $1,000 to $1,100 for the 2TB version. With specs that rival a PS5 and maybe even hit PS5 Pro performance, Futter expects a "hefty price tag" from Valve's new console-like effort. However, since Valve is "positioning this as a dedicated, powerful gaming PC," Futter suspects the price will be lower than a similarly capable traditional desktop.
David Cole from DFC Intelligence agrees, expecting the Steam Machine to start at around $800 and go up to around $1,000 for the 2TB model. Cole believes Valve will aim for "very low margins" or even break-even pricing on the hardware, which would likely result in a price "below a gaming PC but slightly above a high-end console."
On the other end of the spectrum, Joost Van Dreunen from Superdata Research predicts the entry-level Steam Machine could come in as low as $549, rising to $749 for the 2TB version (plus an additional $50 for bundles including a Steam Controller). Van Dreunen argues that Valve's unique position as a private company with a loyal fan base means it can "price its hardware to hit its own strategic sweet spot rather than mirror the competition." In this case, that could mean taking a "modest" loss on the hardware as a way to get more gamers invested in SteamOS.
Getting people to buy more games on SteamOS could be worth a lot more to Valve than any Steam Machine hardware profits. "Just like Sony and Microsoft, the real money isn't in the box, it's in the ecosystem you enter once you buy it," Van Dreunen said. "To me, the question isn't whether Valve can afford to eat margin. It's whether they want the SteamOS footprint to grow fast enough to justify it. ... Strategically, this is about expanding the platform, not squeezing the hardware."
