The price of Valve Corporation’s Steam Machine may have been as high as 1000 US Dollars when it was announced prior to the RAM/SSD shortage.
During the latest episode of The Xbox Two, insider and co-host Jez Corden suggested that the Steam Machine may have originally been planned with a significantly higher than expected price tag. He mentioned hearing that the upcoming console-sized PC was expected to launch at around 1,000 US Dollars when it was first announced last year, prior to the RAM and SSD shortage. “I’ll be honest with you, Rand. I heard last year when it was first announced it was going to be $1,000,” Corden told his co-host Rand al Thor. He added that the information came from a “very, very good source.”
The Steam Machine price that Corden heard may have been for the 2TB model rather than the 512GB one. A similar estimate was provided by Extended Reality (XR) specialist Brad Lynch, who was told Valve Corporation’s original price estimate for the upcoming console-sized PC was higher than the newly raised price of the Steam Deck. Going by this information, the company may have initially planned to launch its console-sized PC starting at around 800 US Dollars.
Using the Steam Deck’s price hike metrics, if Valve Corporation had originally planned to sell the 512GB Steam Machine model for 800 US Dollars or more, it would now be expected to priced at $1,040 or higher. Meanwhile, if the 2TB variant was initially priced at 1,000 US Dollars, it would now sell for 1,420 US Dollars.
Valve Corporation officially raised prices for Steam Deck OLED models worldwide, with the increases taking effect immediately across multiple regions including the United States, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland. In the US, the 512GB OLED Steam Deck has increased from $549 to $789, marking a $240 jump. Meanwhile, the 1TB OLED model has risen from $649 to $949, representing a $300 increase.
