Valve says its upcoming Steam Machine won’t chase the razor-thin, loss-leading pricing typical of console launches, instead landing closer to the cost of a comparable DIY gaming PC.

Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said the company hasn’t locked in a final price yet, but the aim is to match the performance-per-dollar you’d get if you built an equivalent system yourself.

“If you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” Griffais said on Skill Up’s Friends Per Second podcast.

He added that Valve wants the box to still feel like a “good deal” despite avoiding subsidies.

“Right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things that are fluctuating.”

Unlike Sony or Microsoft, which often sell consoles at or below cost to drive adoption, Valve doesn’t plan to take a hit on hardware.

Griffais said pricing will be “more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market.”

The engineer highlighted value adds that DIY builders may struggle to match, including the small form factor and what he describes as impressively low noise levels.

Internally, Valve is also exploring a higher-end “Steam Machine Pro”, but its current focus is a mid-range model that balances power and affordability.

The strategy mirrors previous Valve hardware launches.

The Valve Index VR headset debuted at a premium US$999 and rarely received discounts, while the Steam Deck was priced aggressively but not at a loss, according to company president Gabe Newell.

Announced earlier in November, the Steam Machine is one of three new devices from the company, alongside the Steam Frame VR headset and a new Steam Controller.

Running the Linux-based SteamOS and promising roughly six times the performance of the Steam Deck, the compact PC-console hybrid is slated for release in 2026, with pricing to be revealed closer to launch.