Valve engineer hints at Steam Machine price increase

The Steam Machine costs $1,049 with a 512 GB SSD and without a controller, while Valve is even charging $1,428 for the model with a 2 TB SSD and gamepad. However, the price being already very high at launch doesn’t necessarily mean that the Steam Machine won’t see further price increases. In an interview with Jason Schreier published by Bloomberg, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat commented on the DRAM crisis.

According to him, Valve was aware that there could be difficulties in sourcing chips, DRAM, and SSDs, but the extent of the crisis far exceeded the company’s expectations. The engineer also points out that the situation is currently continuing to worsen. The prices customers see in stores today are said to lag three to six months behind wholesale prices, meaning that the most recent DRAM price increases have not yet reached the retail price of the Steam Machine. Whether prices will fall again in the long term or stabilize at a high level cannot yet be predicted.

While Yazan Aldehayyat does not directly confirm that Valve is already planning a price increase for the Steam Machine, he does suggest that the DRAM crisis could get worse before any improvement is in sight. The Steam Machine was originally supposed to be significantly cheaper, but even before its launch, it saw a price increase as drastic as that of the Steam Deck. The high price does not appear to be standing in the way of the hybrid console’s success, as the Steam Machine is already sold out.