While all eyes are on the Steam Machine right now to see if Valve's second attempt at a home console can knock it out of the park, there is one big question looming: the price. Already, Valve has eluded questions around the price of the console, but it is getting closer to revealing what this thing will cost as it eliminates some price predictions.
Speaking to YouTuber Linus Tech Tips recently (via GamingBolt), Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais was asked if the $500 price point could be reached, and it seems that's not something Valve is entertaining at this point. "Ideally, we'd be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we're working on refining that as we speak, and right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there's a lot of different things that are fluctuating," Griffais said.
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The price of the Steam Machine is "more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, 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," he continued. "Things like the small form factor and I think the noise level that we achieved or lack thereof is really impressive, and we're excited that the people are going to find out how quiet this thing is."
No confirmed price again, then, but an almost definite denial of a $500 cost. With rising console costs nowadays, it wouldn't be surprising to see Steam aim at the upper limit of video game console prices, but at the same time people are going to want to feel like they're getting a good deal no matter how great the performance may be. The PS5 Pro proved recently that while enthusiasts might spend whatever they like on a new console, not everyone is going to bite for better performance.