Steam Machine has received a major internal price hike that may have made more expensive that a Steam Frame, it is claimed.
Extended Reality (XR) specialist Brad Lynch took to Twitter/X to share some Internal pricing targets he’s been told for Valve Corporation’s upcoming products, including the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both before and after the ongoing RAM shortage.
According to Lynch, the Steam Machine has received the most substantial price hike, while the Steam Frame is “not as bad.” He refrained from sharing specifics, saying that if he felt comfortable mentioning them publicly, he definitely would have. He also thinks we’ll be hearing about official prices very soon. It’s worth remembering Valve Corporation has yet to reveal official prices for both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame, so any pricing revisions that occur are the company’s internal affair.
On the Steam Frame not receiving a price hike as substantial as the Steam Machine, the XR specialist speculated that it may be due to mobile LPDDR RAM prices not being affected as much as mainstream RAM. As for whether the VR headset will be considered expensive, he said that it depends on people’s perception of what VR hardware should cost. According to him, it was never meant to receive Meta Quest-level pricing to begin with. His personal opinion is that if someone had asked him which device would cost more prior to the RAM shortage, he would have picked the Steam Frame. However, with the RAM shortage in effect, he implied that he’d pick the Steam Machine.
Last month, in a message published on Steam as part of the company’s Year in Review discussion, Valve Corporation acknowledged that supply issues have created complications for its new devices. “We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans.”
