I read this interesting article about Valve potentially selling the Steam Machine at $299 but forcing users to purchase +$150 worth of steam credit with the purchase:

Steam Machine $299?



It's very well argued and could give valve the footing they need in the home console space.

What are people's thoughts?

I don't believe the Steam Machine will sell more than 5M units, as accessibility to get one is the biggest obstacle. In many countries, Valve doesn't sell the Steam Deck officially (and the same will happen with the Steam Machine), and Valve also won't sell the Steam Machine in stores, which ultimately limits the product's visibility and sales.

Do you think it won't sell more than 5M units if it was released at $299?

Yes, because even if they sell at that price they will not have enought components to keep up with the demand, and remember, Steam Machine will be a mini-PC, not a console.

I would consider it. But by the time it comes out the ram alone might cost $299.

The Steam Machine will not cost less than the Steam Deck base model

If it is $299, I'd purchase one since my partner is getting into gaming (and PC gaming), and it would be nice to have a semi-closed platform for him to move to that he is used to. He mostly plays with the Steam Deck, so it would be an easy transition.

I very much doubt it would be $299. I am predicting $650 for the base model, which is probably still a good price for many people.

The steam machine is not going to match console pricing, much less be that cheap, as valve has said so much themselves.

They'll be losing a fortune at that price, $150 credit purchases doesn't do much when 70%+ of that is likely to go to third party publishers. Valve would effectively be getting $344 max per purchase with this.

Making people buy steam credit that ends up being paid to people other than valve is not an effective way to reduce the price of the machine.

With all due respect: not a f*cking chance in Hell.

At the rate it's going, RAM + storage alone would cost that much, and I mean for Valve straight from the manufacturer, and they've already said that they wouldn't subsidize the cost of the machine

Also you need to keep in mind that of those $150 in Steam credit, Valve would only get around 30% of that since the rest would go to the publishers/developers of the games you'll buy with that credit.

So yeah, no, it's not going to happen.

They already said they wont sell it for low.

Its going to be closer to a thousand.