The latest rumors around the price of Steam Machine falls badly for the players. A well-known leaker in the ecosystem ValveBrad Lynch, mentions internal price objectives revised significantly upwards, and the reactions on Reddit as on X show an already angry community.
As a reminder, the Steam Machine remains announced for 2026, Valve confirming that she is still “on course to ship in 2026” despite “challenges with memory and storage shortages”. At the same time, the new Steam Controller dated May 4 at $99 / €99 is added to the bill. Everything indicates that the Steam Machine price climbs, and that the final addition could really hurt PC players and console players alike.
Steam Machine: why the price increase is confirmed
The machine is designed like a PC/home console under SteamOScalibrated for 4K at 60 fps and announced as approximately six times more powerful than a Steam Deck. On paper, the concept ticks all the boxes for the compact box ready to plug under the TV.
But Brad Lynch threw cold water by declaring: “I’ve been told some Valve internal pricing targets they had before AND after RAM skyrocketed. Machine is affected the most. Frame is not as bad.” Reposted on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, its release triggered a barrage of skeptical comments, some calling for “price targets” rather than vague allusions.
Behind this concern lies a brutal reality: RAM has exploded. Overclock3D, cited by Gamingbible, speaks of an average increase in DRAM of +178% to +258% in three months. A 32GB Crucial DDR5‑6000 kit would have gone from around £79 to almost £226, then around £390 in early 2026. Gamers cited by Indy100 report that 64GB of DDR5 went from around $200 to over $900, and 32GB from $65 to over $400, with one summarizing the situation thus: “The whole RAM situation has been brutal across the board.”
Steam Machine too expensive: what impact for players?
According to several analyzes relayed by NoobFeed, the supposed initial target for the 512 GB model was around $500 to $600 (around €550). With the memory crisis, the same sources now mention a range of $650 to $700 for 512 GB, or around €720 to €780 including tax in France, and up to around $800 for a 2 TB model.
Worse, a leak from a Czech reseller, reported by Gamingbible, would place the 512 GB Steam Machine around $950 and the 2 TB version near $1,070 excluding taxes. Converted and with French VAT, we then flirt with €1,050 to €1,200 for the console alone, therefore more expensive than one PS5 Pro or a Xbox Series.
Added to this is the new Steam Controller at $99 / €99. Steve Cardinali, hardware engineer at Valve, explained to Polygon: “This doesn’t have RAM in it and it’s not as complicated to start getting out the door for us.” Understandable for Valve, but for the player, the addition of Steam Machine + controller entry can well exceed €800, or even €1,300 depending on the final price scenario.
Steam Machine: what real price should we expect in France?
Indy100 recalls that “The Steam Machine price has not been officially confirmed at the time of writing”. Officially, Valve is content to talk about “challenges with memory and storage shortages” while maintaining a launch in 2026. Unofficially, everything points to a machine much more expensive than expected.
On the player side, the tone is already very harsh. On Reddit, we read: “This thing is DOA not gonna lie. The market for this is tiny and the margins will be razor thin, if not nonexistent.” Another believes that the “Steam Machine is going to have absolutely no attractive feature to it” if the price is not competitive and emphasizes that it risks arriving “obsolete already considering it’s RDNA 3”. A fifth comments: “Valve chose to release this Machine at the worst possible timing, I don’t see a way out of this for them other than pricing the hardware higher than they wanted.”
For French players, the bad news is clear: if the leaks are confirmed, the Steam Machine will be positioned at the price of a good mid-range PC or a console + screen combo, without the flexibility of home assembly. As long as Valve has not announced an official price in euros, the wisest thing is to wait and monitor developments in the RAM market very closely before taking out the credit card.