Valve officially introduced the Steam Machine with a base price of $1,049 and a top-end version of $1,428, causing mixed reactions among industry analysts. According to GamesIndustry Biz, experts Matt Piscatella (Circana), Pierce Harding-Rolls (Ampere Analysis), Emmanuel Rosier (Newzoo) and Jost van Drenen (Aldora) agreed that this price does not reflect a marketing strategy but the harsh reality of the market for components, where memory producers switched to hyperscanners willing to overpay for building data centers.

Rossier noted that Valve’s original target of $700-$800 was "not viable", and the price of $1049 showed a minimum margin. Piscatella added that he expected a higher price, given the circumstances, and considered it reasonable. Van Drenen warned that at the current rate, a new generation of consoles unlikely to be released before 2028 would start above $1,000. Xbox head Asha Sharma had previously acknowledged that by the 2027 holidays, caches and memory were five times higher than in 2024, which already affected Project Helix.

Despite the high price, analysts emphasize that the Steam Machine is a full-fledged mini PC for any task, not just a game console. Meanwhile, the PS5 Pro has already reached $899 after two year-long price increases, making a psychological barrier of $1,000 almost inevitable for next generation base models. Console manufacturers hope to stabilize component prices by the end of 2028, but AI-induced demand for memory and storage devices shows no signs of declining.