Valve is reportedly 'close' to announcing the Steam Machine price and release date

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine went from being one of the most highly anticipated gaming hardware releases of early 2026 to being missing in action. The reason for this comes down to the ongoing memory crisis that has exponentially increased the prices of consumer memory and storage. Valve has officially confirmed this and stated that it still plans to ship both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame headset in 2026.

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According to a new report from Insider Gaming's Mike Straw, "Valve is getting closer to confirming everything" when it comes to the Steam Machine. Apparently, pricing is the big issue, with Valve actively debating whether it's willing to "take a loss" in the short term. This would mean Valve would lose money on every Steam Machine sold, with the idea being that it would recoup costs through users buying games on Steam.

Although we don't have a ballpark figure for any of the prices Valve is considering, a recent leak suggesting the Steam Controller will cost $100 makes it likely that the Steam Machine price will still be much higher than expected. Even if Valve is willing to take a loss or break even.

The price of the Steam Machine will factor into its overall value. Although it's six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, its AMD Zen 4 processor and RDNA 3 GPU with 8GB of VRAM paint the picture of a box that would be on par with a mainstream or entry-level gaming PC. Of course, the compact size and console-like nature of SteamOS are also major factors, as the Steam Machine has the potential to be the first 'PC as a gaming console' in terms of ease of use and plug-and-play.

Valve's Steam Machine will be available in 512GB and 1TB storage capacities, with pricing and availability still TBC.