Price shock: What fans think about the Steam Machine's pricing

The Steam Machine has finally been unveiled, and as recent price comparisons show, it is significantly more expensive than more powerful gaming PCs. On Reddit, this has triggered an unusually large discussion, with more than 2,700 comments in less than 20 hours. The overall sentiment is clear: the Steam Machine is too expensive.

The top comment in the thread reads: "And that's without a controller [...]." Many fans are particularly annoyed that the Steam Controller is not included as standard. At the same time, offering the Steam Machine without a controller is not entirely unreasonable. Many potential buyers already own a controller and may not want to pay for another one. Ultimately, however, the criticism still comes down to price. Even the smaller configuration with a controller costs $1,128. Given the storage requirements of current AAA games, 512 GB is unlikely to be enough for many users. Valve charges $1,428 for the 2 TB version with a controller.

Fans naturally judge the Steam Machine's price in relation to its performance, and this is where the device struggles. Initial benchmarks suggest that it performs worse than the PlayStation 5 Pro, which costs roughly half as much as larger Steam Machine configurations with a controller. Comparable gaming PCs are already available from around $900. Reddit user u/Shimmitar sums up a common view: "You might as well just buy a pc at that point." That sentiment runs through many of the comments. For many gamers, the $1,000 mark appears to be an important psychological threshold, although fans are not blaming Valve alone. Many also point to the impact of the current memory supply shortages.

Almost no one expresses a clear intention to buy

Many users acknowledge that the Steam Machine has advantages, including its compact form factor and the convenient living-room PC experience enabled by SteamOS. Still, among thousands of Reddit comments, hardly anyone expresses a clear intention to buy one. Only a few users defend the price. u/Gucci_Unicorns, for example, argues that the real appeal of the Steam Machine lies in the existing Steam library. Anyone who has collected cheap Steam deals over the years does not have to start from scratch as they would with a new console. That comparison is limited, however, because the Steam Machine has to compete not only with consoles, but also with gaming PCs.

Given the initial reactions, it remains questionable whether the Steam Machine can meet commercial expectations. As Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed to The Verge, SteamOS 3.8 will allow gamers to build their own Steam Machines using any PC components. Under these conditions, it remains unclear how many players will choose Valve's official hardware instead. Delivery times could also play a role. Valve's new reservation system, which works by random selection, has been well received by fans, but exact unit numbers remain unknown. At the same time, Valve fans' loyalty should not be underestimated. u/ShogunDreams writes: "It will sellout because the hardcore Steam users buy everything." The coming weeks will show how well the Steam Machine ultimately sells.