Steam recently announced new official hardware entering the console market in early 2026. The Steam Machine and Steam Frame are designed to welcome new fans to the Steam ecosystem with consistent convenience, like a console, while providing decent modern gaming specs like a PC. This decision left many players wondering about the current price, which caught many analysts by surprise.
Linus Tech Tips dives into what the offerings for the upcoming Steam hardware, especially the price. Valve wasn’t able to give a specific price window due to the ever-changing market, though the company is varying its hardware’s value, similar to the current PC market. The Steam Frame and Steam Machine are designed to function like a PC, which Valve is taking into account when finalizing its current market price for an appropriate performance.
“While they expect it to be competitively priced with a PC, that it will be priced like a PC.”
Any possibility for the new Steam hardware to subsidize its price for more average, broad consumers is minimal to none. Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais represented Valve during Skill Up’s interview to explain how the upcoming prices are based on the current PC market and the provided benefits. The Steam Machine offers a lot of convenience for players to invest in the Steam platform, like controlling the TV remotely, utilizing improved Bluetooth, and other satisfying features. It even provides large accessibility by connecting with both old and new Steam devices. More details about the new devices will be confirmed near the official launch in 2026.
“It’s more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market; our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance and then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you’re making your own gaming PC from parts.”
