Valve’s Hotly Anticipated Steam Machine Is $1,049—and That’s Without a Controller
Valve has confirmed that its buzzy Steam Machine starts at $1,049 without a controller. The updated Steam Controller, which has been so popular that new orders likely won’t be delivered until 2027, costs an additional $99 when sold separately or $1,128 in a base-model bundle.
That base model comes with 512GB of NVMe storage, while the upgrade offers 2TB SSD for $1,349 ($1,428 bundled with a controller). These prices place the Steam Machine well within mid-tier gaming PC territory and far above the average console—two product categories that the Steam Machine straddles, despite technically being a PC.
The Steam Machine uses a semi‑custom AMD platform with a Zen 4 six‑core, twelve‑thread CPU. Its RDNA 3 GPU has 28 compute units and 8GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory. Valve pairs this with 16GB of DDR5 system RAM and a much more compact case than your typical tower-style gaming PC. The system supports 4K output and runs on SteamOS, Valve’s Linux‑based operating system, to play games from the Steam library via native Linux builds and Proton translation.
Credit: Valve
In terms of connectivity, the Steam Machine features four USB-A ports, and one port each for USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort outputs, Ethernet, and microSD. The PC also supports Wi‑Fi 6E and Bluetooth.
In a way, by omitting a controller by default, Valve has kept the Steam Machine configuration pricing flexible for players who already own gamepads, keyboards, and other accessories—but the price point stings either way.
To get your hands on a Steam Machine, select your model or bundle of choice before 10 a.m. PT on Thursday, June 25. At that point, Valve will use a one-time random shuffle to determine the order of its reservations and waitlist. Receiving a reservation notification on June 25 means you’ve successfully nabbed a unit and are first in line for shipments; a waitlist notification means you’re up once more units become available.
