Steam Machine Leak Points To Potential Launch And Preorder Dates Next Week

Valve's Steam Deck opened up the existing PC gaming handheld market to the mainstream and, in so doing, arguably created a whole new class of PC gaming devices. The Steam Machine probably isn't going to have the same impact on the market, but it nevertheless looks like a cool device. If you're aching to grab a Gabecube, the latest information suggests that pre-orders will be announced early next week, with reservations opening possibly as soon as June 30th.

That information comes from a xeet by Steam Hardware Updates, which admits that it isn't confident in the dates but says it believes the Steam Machine will be available for pre-order by the end of the month. Reportedly, the announcement date is also when the review embargo lifts. We haven't received a Steam Machine and aren't privy to any such embargo, but it's entirely plausible given the other leaks we've seen.


If you're not a gaming enthusiast, you might be wondering why someone would want a Steam Machine, or what the point of the Steam Machine is. The simple fact is that it's essentially a game console that happens to play PC games. That is, after all, what the Steam Deck is, and what made it so revolutionary. It wasn't simply the fact that you could buy a PC-based gaming handheld for under $1,000; Ayaneo and GPD were already moving in that direction with devices that existed long before the Steam Deck.

What makes the Steam Deck, and thus the Steam Machine, so interesting is the way they simplify and streamline the PC gaming experience. Windows is an operating system designed first and foremost for PC users who want to use their computers in a traditional way: multitasking, browsing, and using productivity applications alongside gaming. It's clumsy to use with a gamepad, and SteamOS solves that problem. Sure, you could replicate the functionality of the Steam Machine with any Windows PC if you simply set up a wireless keyboard and mouse, but that's a step many people don't want to take.

The real question about the Steam Machine is not when it's coming, but rather how much it's going to cost. As we probably don't have to tell you, we're currently in the grips of one of the worst component shortages the tech industry has ever seen, thanks to the ravenous appetite AI data centers have for memory components, as well as their seemingly limitless budgets that allow them to pay premium prices for parts that would otherwise go to the consumer market. The Steam Machine, like any gaming device, is going to require RAM as well as NVMe storage, and that means its pricing is still very much up in the air.


When it was first announced, we heard estimates as low as $499, although we never thought that was particularly realistic considering that it includes a discrete graphics card. These days, most estimates are trending closer to $1,000 or even higher, which makes it a bit of a hard sell based purely on the hardware alone.

Of course, the value proposition isn't simply the hardware. For folks like me who have actual thousands of unplayed Steam games, the Steam Machine has much more value than it might seem on the surface. If I purchase a new PlayStation, I have to buy games to play on it and controllers to play them with. I don't have to buy anything else if I buy a Steam Machine, and it also doesn't cost me anything to play online games on it. With that in mind, the Steam Machine becomes a bit more compelling, even if it's significantly more expensive than competing game consoles.

Ultimately, we don't really know how much it's going to cost or exactly when it's coming. However, if you're interested in getting a taste of what its performance might be like, check out our article where we built a PC that comes as close as possible to the Steam Machine's hardware specifications to see how it would perform. The results are better than you might think!

_{Hat tip to TrustedReviews for the spot!}