Valve admits it struggled securing any components to build Steam Machine

Valve has published a lengthy blog post offering new context behind yesterday’s Steam Machine price announcement. As it turns out, the company’s component situation has been far more difficult than expected, forcing both higher pricing and lower launch‑day stock.

According to Valve, the Steam Machine is built from components sourced globally, and the company believed it had a solid understanding of how those costs would trend when development began in 2023. “That understanding was born from the many years of data we all have about the evolution of PC hardware prices – primarily, that it tends to get cheaper over time as new technology arrives,” Valve writes. “Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components.” With prices rising instead of falling, Valve says its “original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable”, adding that the final pricing reflects what it paid to secure components over the past six months.

Availability has also been hit hard. Valve explains that there were periods where it “couldn’t source some of our components at all, at any price”, directly limiting the number of units it could produce for launch.

A launch‑day Steam Machine analysis from Gamers Nexus estimates that the equivalent component cost for a DIY PC closely matching the system's specs would be around $979 with a 512GB SSD, just $71 under the $1050 cost of a base Steam Machine. However, the premium is much more evident for a 2TB system, where an equivalent DIY PC would cost you $1,139 while the Steam Machine 2TB is $1,350, a $211 difference.

If you would rather go DIY at this point, then Valve is also offering SteamOS 3.8 for free, so you can build your own Steam Machine with whatever components you can get. However, you will need an AMD CPU and GPU, as SteamOS does not yet have support for other other hardware platforms. Valve says it is “working on expanding” its hardware support in the future. The company is also currently working with AMD to bring improved FSR 4 upscaling features to Steam Machine.

KitGuru Says: Are you still thinking of getting a Steam Machine? It still looks like the base model is worth it based on current component prices, and you could always be on the lookout for a cheap SSD upgrade in the future.

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