The Steam Machine was originally planned at around $750, but Valve says it saw a price increase similar to the Steam Deck

After a long wait, Valve finally announced the price and release date of the Steam Machine today. This console-like PC will launch on June 30 with a starting price of $1,049. For months, there were leaks and rumors suggesting the price would go above $1,000, and that part turned out to be true. Still, many gamers were surprised when the official price was confirmed, because it is higher than what many expected. However, it seems like this was not Valve’s original plan for the device.

Recently, Jacqueline Thomas from IGN sat down with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat. During the interview, she asked how much the Steam Machine would have cost if there had been no memory crisis affecting the industry.. While neither of them gave a clear number, they explained that the price increase the Steam Machine is facing is similar to what happened with the Steam Deck.

For context, the Steam Deck 512GB model recently saw a major price jump of around 40%, which caused it to jump from $549 to $789. The 1TB model also increased from $649 to $949. Based on that same 40% increase, the Steam Machine could have originally been priced around $750 if conditions were normal. In other words, the $1,049 starting price seems like a direct result of these industry-wide changes rather than Valve simply aiming for a higher profit margin.

For now, if you want to secure a Steam Machine at launch, you cannot just buy it directly. Instead, you will need to join a registration list and hope you get selected. Only those picked from the list will be able to purchase the device at launch, making availability limited right from day one.