Steam Machine Prices Make PS5 Pro Sound Like a Good Deal

I've had the Steam Machine on my radar since Valve teased it back in November. Not because I was itching to buy one, mind you. I'm more of a PlayStation and PC kind of person, so a living-room SteamOS box was always more of a "OK, that's pretty neat, but let's see how it shakes out" thing for me. Then, the Steam Machine prices finally dropped this week. And friend, even from the sidelines, it pulled a long sigh right out of me.

So What's the Damage?

Valve has confirmed the Steam Machine costs more than a thousand bucks. The cheapest model, the 512 GB version, starts at $1,049. The fully loaded 2TB model with a Steam Controller climbs all the way to $1,428. And yes, the base box doesn't even come with the new Steam Controller. You pay extra for that little luxury.

Here's the full lineup so you can see exactly what you're getting into.

Steam Machine Prices Make PS5 Pro Sound Like a Good Deal

Now, the PS5 Pro, which is Sony's current most powerful console, sits at $899.99 after its April price bump. The base Steam Machine is already $149 more than that. The 2TB model? $449 more. And the maxed-out 2TB box with a controller is a full $528 more than a PS5 Pro.

The thing that makes me chuckle is that we all know the Steam Machine isn't even as strong as the regular PS5 in raw graphics. It does have a very good AMD Zen 4 processor, but its graphics card and memory are weaker than what's inside the PS5. On top of that, games aren't specially optimized for the Steam Machine like they are for consoles. Instead, it relies on compatibility to run PC games. That means the hardware isn't doing as much heavy lifting as the PS5, even though the device costs a lot more.

Here are the differences so that you're not stuck guessing:

When Can You Actually Buy Steam Machine?

Pre-orders run through a randomized reservation list. You sign up, and Valve picks people at random for the first wave. You need a Steam account in good standing and a purchase made before April 27th, 2026, with a limit of one sign-up per household.

The reservation queue opens June 28th, and the first units ship June 29th, 2026. Here's the sign-up cutoff in your time zone

Is the Steam Machine Worth Buying?

Let me be straight with you: I'm not buying one. As a PlayStation-and-PC person, this just doesn't fill a gap in my setup, and at this price, I'd point my own money elsewhere. So that's where I land.

But that's my situation, and yours might be totally different, so let me actually be fair here. I love what the Steam Machine stands for. It runs SteamOS (Linux), it's open, you can install whatever you want, and it pushes PC gaming into the living room. So, if you've been wanting an open SteamOS machine under your TV, the Steam Machine actually offers something the consoles don't. For a certain kind of PC gamer, that freedom is the whole point, and no PS5 or Xbox gives you that.

However, over a grand for a box that's roughly base-PS5 powerful is a pretty hard ask. If all you want is an easy way to play the latest games, a PS5 Pro or even a Switch 2 will probably give you a better experience for less money. The Steam Machine makes more sense for people who like the flexibility of PC gaming and don't mind paying extra for it.

Valve says the original goal was to price the Steam Machine much closer to the Steam Deck, but rising RAM and storage costs pushed the price much higher. That's believable, especially with memory prices going up and other gaming hardware becoming more expensive, too. Still, understanding why it costs so much doesn't automatically make it a good value.

So my summary here for Steam Machine prices: not for me, maybe for you. Just go in knowing exactly what you're trading that extra money for.

FAQs