Dread it, run from it, try and cope that the cost will go down. The doomers were right; the Steam Machine's price is a minimum over $1000, driven up by the cost of components in the era of expensive RAM, storage, and more. To some, this makes the Steam Machine more of a niche device than it was going to be before, but to others, it signals the coming wave of heightened console prices.
Following the reveal of the Steam Machine's price, multiple analysts spoke with Gamesindustry.biz about what this means for the future of the hardware, and the wider industry as a whole. Joost Van Dreunen, author of the SuperJoost Playlist, believes this is the new norm for gaming hardware prices.
"At this rate, the next generation may not even release until 2028, and when it does, north of a grand is the floor. Even existing devices are getting marked up. The companies that manufacture the necessary components have fully shifted toward selling to hyperscalers, paying a premium to build out their data centres," he said.
Van Dreunen may just be one analyst, and he was the only one to be so bold as to say that $1000+ is the new norm for console prices, but other analysts including Circana's Mat Piscatella, Newzoo's Piers-Harding Rolls, and Aldora's Emmanuel Rosier agreed that console prices would only be going up in time.