Valve wants to make Steam Machine cheaper, but it's not possible yet. Memory shortage is to blame

The gaming PC/console Steam Machine is finally going on sale, and its price has divided players. We wrote about its launch, features, and price a few days ago; now, a debate has emerged about why it turned out to be more expensive than many had hoped. Valve’s own engineers admit that they would prefer to sell the machine for less – but due to the ongoing memory shortage, no price reduction is promised in the foreseeable future.

Why Steam Machine turned out to be more expensive than fans expected

Let’s remember that the Steam Machine starts at approximately 25,000 CZK for the basic version with 512GB storage. For a small box under the TV, which by far does not offer better performance than a classic computer at the same price point, this is a relatively high amount. The reason lies not so much in the manufacturer’s margin as in the situation on the memory market: the prices of RAM chips and storage are driven up by the huge demand from data centers and artificial intelligence, causing hardware to become more expensive across the entire industry.

“The cheaper, the better,” says Valve

Indeed, Valve itself acknowledges the high price. In an interview with Digital Foundry, engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat openly admitted that they would like to offer the machine for less. “It makes no sense for us to keep the hardware at a high price,” said Griffais, adding that the computer’s primary purpose is to connect people with their games – and so a simple rule applies: the cheaper, the better.

Valve wants to make Steam Machine cheaper, but it's not possible yet. Memory shortage is to blame Adam Kurfürst News Adam Kurfürst News

However, his colleague immediately tempers expectations. “We would love to make the Steam Machine cheaper and get it to more people, but I don’t want to promise anyone that it will happen soon,” Aldehayyat stated. When asked if prices would drop once the memory shortage subsides, he added that he doesn’t expect anything like that in the foreseeable future.

When could memory prices drop?

And that’s the crux of the matter. Memory prices are primarily driven up by the arms race around artificial intelligence – data centers are buying up chips in large quantities, leaving fewer for consumer electronics. According to Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, the RAM shortage is expected to last until approximately 2027 and only gradually begin to improve in 2028. For a Czech buyer, this leads to a sober conclusion: if you’re postponing your purchase and relying on the Steam Machine to get cheaper soon, you might have to wait a year or two – and even then, it’s not certain.

Would you buy a Steam Machine even at the current price, or would you wait for a price reduction?

Sources: Digital Foundry, Notebookcheck