Steam Machine pre‑order, price, and release date leak points to June 23 reveal
Reservations for Valve’s Steam Machine are expected to begin soon
📅 Valve’s Steam Machine might be officially unveiled on June 23, with potential pre-orders beginning on June 30
💰 Analyst predictions suggest the device will likely cost over $1,000, significantly higher than initial estimates.
😬 Pricing concerns stem from Valve increasing the hardware’s cost by nearly 50% due to component shortages
🙏 To avoid the issues seen with the Steam Controller, Valve is expected to implement an improved reservation system to prevent scalping
After the benchmarks for Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine appeared on Geekbench – and gave us an insight into how the system compares against the PS5 – a new leak may have revealed the Steam Machine pre-order and release date.
A post on X from Steam Hardware Updates (thanks, Trusted Reviews) believes the Steam Machine will be officially unveiled again on Tuesday, June 23 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, and that Steam Machine pre-orders will go live a week later on June 30.
The account clarifies that its source was given the day the creator embargo is lifted, and therefore this is a calculated guess on their part. They note that the Steam Machine could be announced on June 24 and released on July 1, and nothing is concrete right now.
Of course, whichever date turns out to be correct, we should also hear about the all-important Steam Machine price, which has been the topic of debate ever since Valve delayed releasing its new hardware because of the ongoing memory and component crisis.
Initial estimates predicted a $799+ price for the Steam Machine’s lowest SKU, though most analysts now believe the diminutive cube will cost over $1,000, especially after Valve jacked up the price of the Steam Machine by almost 50%.
In response to a question about the Steam Machine’s pricing on X, Steam Hardware Update said, “It may be worth it to start and save up a good amount of money towards it”, which suggests that it won’t be cheap.
Valve will also hopefully have a better pre-order/reservation system in place for the Steam Machine than it did for the Steam Controller. The Steam Controller quickly sold out and was snapped up by scalpers, which led Valve to implement a reservation system that notifies users when it is back in stock and gives them a small window to buy.
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Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. He also runs a retro gaming YouTube channel called Game on, boy! Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.