Valve announces pricing and launch information for Steam Machines.

Valve has announced that its highly anticipated Steam Machines will hit the market this summer, starting at a price of $1,049. Following the release of the new Steam Controller in May and the upcoming Steam Frame VR headset, pre-orders for the Steam Machines will open on Thursday, June 25. Gamers can register for a chance to secure one through the Steam Machine’s dedicated page.

The Steam Machine will come in four different configurations, varying by storage capacity and bundled with the Steam Controller. The first units are set to ship to customers beginning June 29.

To combat scalping in light of limited availability, Valve is placing restrictions on the number of Steam Machines each customer can buy and who is eligible to purchase one. Interested buyers must meet specific criteria to register.

Since Valve announced its hardware initiative last November, the pricing of the Steam Machine has sparked considerable debate. While Valve aimed to create an “affordable” PC-console hybrid, concrete details were not provided until now.

Valve hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat previously stated that the Steam Machine would offer competitive pricing compared to building a similar PC, delivering great value for gamers.

However, since last November, Valve has faced significant hardware shortages that have impacted pricing across the industry. In May, the company raised the price of its Steam Deck handheld PC by several hundred dollars. In discussing the Steam Machine’s pricing and pre-order information, Valve acknowledged the challenges of launching hardware in the current climate, explaining the reasoning behind the price tag exceeding $1,000:

The Steam Machine, like other hardware products, consists of various components sourced from manufacturers worldwide. The selling price reflects the costs of these components. Initially, Valve had a solid understanding of how these costs might evolve when they began sourcing for the Steam Machine in 2023, based on historical trends in PC hardware pricing, which typically decreases over time with new technology.

However, the landscape has shifted dramatically over the past year, particularly for RAM and storage components, due to various factors affecting hardware production globally. This has rendered Valve’s original pricing strategy unfeasible, leading to the current prices that reflect the realities of manufacturing and component costs secured over the last six months.

Availability has also been impacted, with instances where certain components could not be sourced at any price, ultimately affecting the number of units ready for launch.

The cube-shaped Steam Machine will run on Steam OS, optimized for gaming, and designed to fit seamlessly next to your TV like a console or on your desk like a gaming PC. Being a PC, it allows users to install additional apps or even a different operating system. Just like the Steam Deck, signing into your Steam account grants access to your entire game library.

Valve claims the Steam Machine boasts “six times the horsepower” of the Steam Deck. Similar to the Steam Deck Verified system, Valve will implement ratings for the Steam Machine to indicate how well games perform on it, based on internal benchmarks.

While the Steam Machine is fully capable, it aims to carve out its own identity rather than simply being compared to traditional PCs.