The Steam Machine is expensive. Following the recent price hike for the Steam Deck, Valve is launching its new SteamOS box for $1049, and that’s without an included Steam Controller (which are largely sold out anyway).
While consoles are also reeling from high prices, they haven’t yet hit the highs of PC gaming. This is because PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo use their price cut from game sales—around 30% of every purchase on their platforms—to subsidise the cost of their machines. While Valve also takes 30% of most game sales, they aren’t doing the same thing.
Speaking to The Verge, Valve said that subsidising the cost of the Steam Machine with game sales “doesn’t align with our beliefs about how healthy ecosystems are built”. The Steam Machine has been built with an open ecosystem, allowing users to use Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store or anything else they desire.
“If there’s anything we’re religious about at Valve, it’s our belief that open systems are better in the long run, for ourselves and customers,” the company said. “The openness of the PC ecosystem in particular has enabled it to be the primary driver of hardware and software innovation, because anyone with an idea for a way to do something better was able to take a shot at it. When companies sell their hardware under cost for competitive advantage, or buy exclusive content for it, they’re doing that to build a more closed system, one where you don’t get to choose what software you want to use.”
Valve said that they “don’t want that for PC hardware, and we don’t think you should want it either”. The company explained that they don’t want a future where fans “feel like you have to buy Valve hardware”, instead wanting it to be one option.
Speaking to YouTuber Linus Tech Tips, Valve “were explicit” that they would not be subsidiing the cost of the machine as there’s no guarantee that Steam Machine users will buy games on their platform. “They were explicit when I came down there for the reveal that it was not going to be subsidised by the 30% cut they take on games because they have no guarantee that people are going to run SteamOS on this or buy any games.”
Of course, gamers who buy the Steam Machine would absolutely be using Steam. Right now, Steam has such a large market share that Valve is being targeted for involuntary monopoly. PC gamers overwhelmingly prefer Steam to the point where free games on the Epic Games Store result in a surge of sales on Valve’s platform. The reality is that gamers buying games for the Steam Machine will be buying the vast majority through Steam.
However, the Steam Machine is not just a games machine. Instead, it’s a PC. This means that subsidising the hardware and making it cheaper than comparable PCs would see the hardware bought up by non-gamers including LLM farms, crypto miners, or even just office workers. That’s the unfortunate reality the Steam Machine faces, and the ongoing RAMageddon is only exacerbating the issue.
