Valve Steam Machine Pricing Appears To Leak And Yes, It’s Expensive

Recently on X/Twitter, user @Clawsomegamer spotted a preliminary listing for the Steam Machine on a Czech retailer's website. On the surface, no pricing information is displayed, but the web page's code does reveal pricing of 19,826 CZK ($950 USD) for the 512GB Steam Machine and 23,305 CZK ($1070 USD) for the 1TB version. Mind you, this price includes Czech retailer's Smarty.cz's 17% markup, which would put Valve's pricing closer to $814 USD (512 GB) and $916 USD (1 TB).

This is roughly in line with what we would expect from an equivalent PC build like our simulated Steam Machine, and prior statements that claimed the system would be priced like a PC, not a console. While pricing that high puts it well above the PS5 or Xbox, it should still prove competitive versus a similarly configurated PC, especially if Valve manages to keep prices relatively steady amid the current DRAM shortage.

Early reports, including from @Clawsomegamer himself, cast heavy skepticism on this being the finalized price points of the Steam Machine. However, @Clawsomegamer eventually identified that Smarty.cz seems to be a Valve-partnered reseller, which increases the likelihood of this $800-$900 price point being legitimate.
While we still don't have official pricing, this leak is probably in the ballpark, but it still leaves the glaring question of when the hardware will be released. Rumors suggest the Steam Machine may be delayed, while Valve navigates secured DRAM for the systems. Since Half-Life 3 is also rumored to be a launch title for the Steam Machine, this would mean that the AI-driven DRAM crisis could be responsible for delaying both the Steam Machine and Half-Life 3.