The latest rumored Steam Machine prices aren't anywhere near as bad as I thought – but I'm still fearing the worst

Valve's Steam Machine is poised for an early 2026 launch following its November 2025 reveal, and questions have lingered regarding its potential pricing. However, a recent discovery might give us an idea of what to expect.

A Czech retailer's pricing for the Steam Machine has surfaced online, suggesting $950 for the 512GB model, and $1,070 for the 2TB model, spotted on Reddit (by a user going by the name of Pajman64).

It's important to note that these purported third-party prices are based on conversions made from Czech Koruna (Czech currency) to US dollars before tax, so if legitimate, it likely won't be the exact pricing once the mini-gaming PC is available.

Perhaps a more important aspect here, though, is that Valve is likely going to be the only seller of the Steam Machine, as it was for the Steam Deck, which is only available via third parties at much higher prices.

This means that these rumored prices for the Steam Machine are either placeholders that won't have anything to do with the final price (as it's an external retailer) or they're slightly higher than what Valve has planned for the console-like PC, since external retailers often charge more than buying direct from Valve.

That may be enough to provide hope that the Steam Machine won't be as costly as most were expecting; slightly lower pricing than the rumored $950 and $1,070 would place it around the same ballpark as the PS5 Pro, which many (including me) may see as a big win.

However, we can't forget that there's a major ongoing RAM crisis impacting the PC gaming market, which has seen pricing for RAM kits (and even GPUs) skyrocket, and I'd be shocked if this didn't have a significant impact on the Steam Machine's price.

Fortunately, Valve has been generous with pricing in the past, specifically with the Steam Deck, by selling at a loss. While I'm sure that would have been possible with the Steam Machine before, this RAM problem has likely changed the entire plan for Valve, and I suspect that's why the company has been so quiet on pricing so far.

Frankly, the rumored pricing would be a big surprise (though a welcome one), as I expected it to cost over $1,070 just for the 512GB model alone.

I'm still very concerned about pricing

The current RAM crisis couldn't have arrived at a worse time, as this is Valve's second attempt at introducing PC gaming to the console space, and it may very well be marred due to the AI bubble, resulting in a higher demand for memory.

Only 8GB of VRAM will be available on the Steam Machine, which has already been a point of contention among consumers. With my recent MSI Katana 15HX B14W gaming laptop test, I can say that those concerns aren't unwarranted, as 8GB isn't obsolete yet, but is very much in danger of being so as the system requirements demanded from modern games increase.

Unfortunately, there are also no USB 4 or Thunderbolt ports on the Steam Machine, so there's no room to use an eGPU for more GPU horsepower. All of these factors may end up being major blunders if the Steam Machine's price is out of whack, and I'm already bracing myself for that to be the case.

I'm actively hoping that the rumored Czech retailer prices have some legitimacy to them, because it would likely mean Valve's official pricing will be cheaper, but I'm not afraid to admit that that's wishful thinking.