Valve says Steam Machine price won't be subsidized, closer PC pricing, definitely won't be $499

Valve has confirmed that its new Steam Machine definitely won't be $499 during a chat with LinusTechTips, with pricing more in line with PC prices.

Valve says Steam Machine price won't be subsidized, closer PC pricing, definitely won't be $499
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Gaming Editor
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2 minutes & 45 seconds read time
TL;DR: Valve confirms its upcoming Steam Machine will not be subsidized and aims for competitive pricing comparable to building a PC. The console offers unique features like a compact form factor, low noise, HDMI CEC, and advanced Bluetooth support, targeting high performance without selling at a loss.

We know most of what we need to know about Valve's upcoming Steam Machine, but we're missing one key detail: its price, especially with suggestions that it'll cost $499... and there is NO subsidizing its price and Valve selling its new Steam Machine at a loss, says Valve.

Valve says Steam Machine price won't be subsidized, closer PC pricing, definitely won't be $499 05
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Valve has now confirmed that it will not be subsidizing the Steam Machine, unlike many generations ago where Microsoft and Sony heavily subsidized -- sold at a loss -- for their consoles, even if the real money for Valve is in games on Steam being sold.

There have been rumors from LinusTechTips commenting to Valve that the Steam Machine could be priced at $499, but said that the "energy wasn't great" when he said that. In earlier interviews with Wccftech, Valve Hardware Engineer, Yazan Aldehayyat, said that the Steam Machine pricing would be "really competitive" to the price of building your own PC at home.

However, in a new interview with Valve, YouTuber "SkillUp", asked directly if Valve would be subsidizing the price of its Steam Machine, asking: "But it's not going to be a sort of subsidized device, like, Valve is not going into this thinking we're going to eat a big loss on this so that we can grow market share or category or anything like that, correct?"

Pierre-Loup Griffais, Valve Software Engineer, said: "No, it's more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance. And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you are making your own gaming PC from parts. Things like the small form factor, the noise level that we achieved, or lack thereof, is really impressive and we are excited that people are going to find out how quiet this thing is. But also some integration features like HDMI CEC. The Bluetooth and wireless work that we've done, the four antennas, the very deliberate design so that you can have a great experience with four Bluetooth controllers".