The Steam Machine’s key to eating the market will be the price. And there Valve has an ace up its sleeve

The video game world is revolutionized. It’s not every day that a new “PC-console” is announced, but even rarer is that the device comes from Valve. They have just presented the Steam Machinea console-shaped PC that has been posed as a direct threat to Xbox and PS5but also for the Windows PC itself.

Much has changed since Steam Machines from a decade ago and, with the new model, Valve will not take timid steps. Steam Deck has shown them that they have a lot to say in the field of hardware, but as always, success will depend on the price of the Steam Machine. It has to be attractive to gain a foothold.

And Valve has a wild card called 30%.

The price of the Steam Machine and the 30% wildcard

A decade ago, Valve already took a hit with the first Steam Machines. He said that they were a timid bet because Valve developed the system, but between the fact that there were not so many games available for it (based on Linux) and that the machines were not designed by Valve, but rather delegated to companies like Asus and AlienWare (which set prices that were not competitive), well the thing ended… badly.

The situation has changed a lot by three factors:

• In the shadows they continued to develop the Steam OS systemmaking it compatible with both Linux and Windows games.
• They launched a Steam Deck with which they have shown that they know how to make competitive hardware.
• Although threats such as Amazon and Epic Games have appeared, their platform remains the undisputed queen when we talk about PC gaming.

The Steam Machine will arrive (accompanied by a new controller and a virtual reality viewer named Steam Frame) at the beginning of 2026. We do not know the specific date, nor the price. And, of course, once the initial excitement of the announcement had passed, the conversation turned to theorizing about the price of the Steam Machine.

Here I want to be cautious because whenever hypotheses are launched about the price of hardware there are a lot of factors that come into play. We can take the components as a reference and say “To build a PC like this is about 700 euros”but then there are the design costs (it is very small and that increases the price), development, logistics…

The last time the price of a console was theorized was with nintendo switch 2and their 470 euros They ended up surprising (although the 90 of some of their games were more surprising). Therefore, I don’t want to venture to say whether the Steam Machine will cost more or less.

There are some clues. The Verge is one of the media outlets that has had the machine nearby and claims that Valve plans a price “similar to a PC with similar features.” From the middle they point about $800, but that’s only in components (without the system and other costs, for example), but the components are customized and look like versions of laptop CPUs and GPUs, not the ones we can buy for a desktop.

From the technical media Digital Foundry take for granted that the range will be between 500 and 600 euros, but again: it is difficult to estimate because there is not much to scratch.

Now, my reflection is that, if the objective of Steam is to punch the table and wants to take part of the pie from both the consoles Like the PC itself, the Steam Machine will be sold at a loss. Because? Because if there is a company that can afford it, it is Valve.

For starters, it’s a private company. Gabe Newel, Valve’s boss, owns 51% of the shares. This implies that they do not have to give explanations to shareholders. This is why we do not have public figures for Steam profits or Steam Deck sales (although it is esteem which dominates the -small- consolidated PC market).

But the reason why Valve can sell a console at a loss, or not care so much about not making money per machine sold, is because all the ones they sell have Steam as launcher and store, and the company keeps a significant percentage per game sold on the platform.

That percentage is around 30%which implies that if a million copies of a game are sold, Valve’s share of the pie is considerable. And, although not all games sell millions, thousands of video games are released every month. that “solely” for setting up the servers and hosting the games developed by other companies. Besides, there is the matter of the stickersa market in which Steam also keeps a good percentage of each transaction. AND It is something that moves dizzying figures.

On the Steam Machine, as on the Steam Deck, you can run games from platforms such as GOG, Epic or Rockstar, but in the end The PC marketplace par excellence is Steam. It is the mainstream platform and each of those Steam Machines will be a window to a store that has offers every now and then and that is very well positioned at a time when console games are more and more expensive. The consoles themselves are much more expensive than when they were launched five years ago.

Therefore, although it is impossible to guess a price for the Steam Machine, as I said, If there is someone who can sell their machine at a loss because it will recover the difference with the software, that is Valve. And if they launch an affordable machine, with the market as it is, they can deal a tremendous blow to their direct competitors: consoles. But also to the PC itself.

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