Monday, July 20th 2026
Valve Doubles Down on Steam Machine Pricing Pessimism
Since the launch of the Steam Machine, which has been blasted online for its high pricing and middling performance, Valve has been fairly transparent about pricing woes relating to the hybrid console, with engineers previously going so far as to say that pricing before the AI-fuelled RAMpocalypse was as much as 30% cheaper than launch pricing, and that the light at the end of the tunnel is faint.
More recently, in a new interview with Bloomberg, Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat, have once again reiterated that pricing of the Steam Machine, and hardware in general, "is lagging what we're seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months." In other words, the pricing for the Steam Machine and other PC components that have been impacted by the RAM crisis in mid-July are, at best, prices from February. If true, it also means that Valve effectively has a bit of clairvoyance when it comes to hardware pricing, as one would when working closely with suppliers, and the engineers only see it getting worse, at least for the next three to six months.
As Aldehayyat says, "honestly, it's still getting worse," although he adds that pricing will eventually course-correct, in the sense that memory prices will eventually come down, or those prices will eventually become the new normal, which will make the Steam Machine more competitive. Reading between the lines, it seems as though Valve has priced the Steam Machine based on a more long-term prognosis, which means that launch pricing for the console was not as competitive as it could have been.
Previously, Lenovo has commented that it predicts that memory price hikes will become the new normal, adding credence to Valve's comments in this most recent interview.
The Valve representatives also touched on exclusive games—a hot topic of debate in recent weeks, with Sony and Microsoft both recommitting to hardware exclusives as a way to make their consoles more viable in light of 2026 hardware pricing. Griffais said that "Restricting where people can play a game I don't think is a great model, at least for us...We're much more interested in having the whole PC catalog as our launch exclusive."
Source:
Bloomberg
More recently, in a new interview with Bloomberg, Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat, have once again reiterated that pricing of the Steam Machine, and hardware in general, "is lagging what we're seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months." In other words, the pricing for the Steam Machine and other PC components that have been impacted by the RAM crisis in mid-July are, at best, prices from February. If true, it also means that Valve effectively has a bit of clairvoyance when it comes to hardware pricing, as one would when working closely with suppliers, and the engineers only see it getting worse, at least for the next three to six months.
Previously, Lenovo has commented that it predicts that memory price hikes will become the new normal, adding credence to Valve's comments in this most recent interview.
The Valve representatives also touched on exclusive games—a hot topic of debate in recent weeks, with Sony and Microsoft both recommitting to hardware exclusives as a way to make their consoles more viable in light of 2026 hardware pricing. Griffais said that "Restricting where people can play a game I don't think is a great model, at least for us...We're much more interested in having the whole PC catalog as our launch exclusive."
20 Comments on Valve Doubles Down on Steam Machine Pricing Pessimism
New launches of any hardware has been painful, with RAM and SSD's not being under pre-rampocalypse pricing.
12k units/week sold is too small numbers. I really hope the data I found is not accurate.
I hoped SM will shift the balance a bit...:(
DDR4 could be cheaper - it depends - but Valve clearly intends the box to have a long lifetime. This is also evidenced by things like Steam Deck which is still going on. Manufacturers have said that plans are to stop DDR4 production in the end of this year. This by itself would make using DDR4 less than ideal.
Also, we should not forget that the planning and development of the box was well under way before the RAMocalypse hit.
I do wonder how long it will be before I upgrade my PC. At these prices, the jump would have to be at least 100% improvement. It was one thing to get a 30% boost for a few hundred, it is another thing to pay 1k+ for 30%. My rig is already pushing 4 years, feels like another 4 to 5 years before any upgrades.
I guess I should be happy in a since I built the whole family computers 2 to 3 years ago when prices were OK.
that 6700k really is massive cpu bottleneck at this point, that I need to use FG to make diffrence, which dont help much if 30fps experience isnt smooth
Fairytales like this are moving billions in stocks now days, I would be not surprised the "long tail... Thingy to be just a fake booster.
Even if is a really reservation que for SM, DDR cartel can't give a shit, DDR production for end users was strangulated in order to increase the profits.
I believe when I see it. Wait! I can't! Steam are not obliged to share anything.
Ignoring that valve did not know this memory price situation was going to happen when they chose the parts.
Still I don't believe SM will make an impact(despite the analytics), time is too short, production is too low IMO, even if I take in consideration reservations are full till next March.
Their production capacity for SM can be crippled by few factors almost impossible to control, one being DDR price and reservations.
What is thrown to them from the "law" side looks very dirty. Can be crippling, but if they win them all, will help their SM integration. Popularity can be a jewel.
Time will tell, I really hope I'm wrong, cause Valve deserve a good slice of the market.
I still want one, but not at that price.