Earlier this afternoon, Valve finally released its PC gaming console pricing and reserve details. After delays and waiting, the Steam Machine console won’t have a welcoming price tag. It will go on sale on June 29, start at $1,049, and that option doesn’t even include a Steam controller.
Valve will offer four options for its PC gaming console, with a 512GB model for $1,049; a 512GB model with a Steam controller for $1,128; a 2TB model for $1,349; and a 2TB model with a controller for $1,428. The larger 2TB options will include swappable faceplates of red fabric and solid walnut.
For those of you interested, you can buy one from the Valve reservation system (similar to buying Jordans), which randomizes everyone for a queue set for this Thursday, June 25th, at 1 PM ET. Anyone who misses out will be added to the end of the waitlist.
For a hardware recap, the Steam Machine offers a semi-custom AMD CPU with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, expandable storage via a microSD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and a USB-C port. You can connect it to a display via the DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 ports, and it supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E.
Early reviews put the Steam Machine’s performance on par with the PS5, which is $400 cheaper. Hell, even the $900 PS5 Pro is mildly cheaper than this. So you really need a vast library of Steam games for your purchase to make sense. Hopefully, Microsoft’s forthcoming Xbox console won’t cost this much, but with the ongoing RAM crisis, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
