Valve is taking a bit of a gamble, reintroducing us to the Steam Machine. As was announced yesterday, it's the headlining piece of a new round of hardware from Valve releasing early next year. The Gabecube, as some have called it, looks like a neat little box, but the one question on everyone's lips is how much will it cost?
Valve isn't quite ready to reveal that just yet, but in a conversation with IGN hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the price is competitive if you were planning to build a PC with similar specifications.
"If you're trying to make a PC that has similar features and similar performance, I think the Steam Machine is going to be a really competitive price to that and provide really good value to it," he said. "The affordability piece you mentioned is one of the reasons why we think a Steam Machine makes a lot of sense right now. So it's just something that we thought about every time we made a hardware decision, a feature decision, is to make sure that we keep it as approachable, as affordable as possible."
Considering the hardware is set to release relatively soon, we imagine that we'll have a price confirmed within the next few months. After the Steam Deck took off, it seems there's faith in Valve hardware again, and we'll just have to see if the Steam Machine can find its place on our TV stands. In today's world of $700 consoles, an affordable alternative could be the key to the Steam Machine making a name for itself.