Valve Just Did Nothing and Won, Again

With Valve’s new Steam Hardware threatening the console market, it was already clear that Sony and Microsoft are going to need to implement some drastic measures to stay afloat, so I expected game prices to rise, or subscriptions, or anything similar. What I didn’t expect was the choice that these companies made: raising the price of the consoles themselves.

To understand the situation, there are two events we should be focusing on: Valve’s hardware announcement and the electronic components shortage caused by AI. When Valve announced the Steam Machine, I already imagined it could be a great console competitor, even though it’s much more expensive than PlayStation or Xbox. Although I wanted Valve to maybe consider selling it at a loss as well, I was still excited for what it could do to the industry.

But now, I don’t think Valve has to do that at all. With Sony’s announcement that it’s raising the prices of every PlayStation 5 tier by up to $150, the Steam Machine is looking even more desirable. Given the components and specs of it, when priced as a PC, the Steam Machine would probably come at about $650–$850, while Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro will now cost $899.99. Even if my pricing is way off, and Valve is going to decide to sell it for $1,000, it’s still a much better choice than the PS5 Pro, giving you the freedom of a PC, combined with Steam’s huge library of games and routine deep sales.

And of course, the reason for these price increases is the electrical component shortage caused by AI. Now, obviously, these also affect Valve, but a crucial detail is that it was never meant to price the hardware in a way that competes with consoles. Now, though, with those becoming almost $1000, the Steam Machine is a competitor without even meaning to be. Not to mention the Steam Frame, which is confirmed to sell for less than $1000: that isn’t terribly cheap, but given the Quest 3 goes for $500, and is much worse than Valve’s upcoming console, I don’t doubt it’s going to absolutely dominate that market.

Microsoft hasn’t shot itself in the foot with Xbox just yet, but there are rumours that the Xbox Project Helix is going to cost around $1200. That is an insane price for a console, and I doubt anyone would even consider that if they can get the Steam Machine for $1000 or less. Not to mention that the Xbox Series X’s price was also increased a few months ago, making it already $500, which isn’t really cheap…

To sum up, Valve’s hardware announcement should have been a wake-up call for the console market, and yet, both Sony and Microsoft don’t seem to be interested in keeping their share of that market. Personally, I don’t really mind that: Steam becoming a full ecosystem with substantial control of the market would be considerably better than the Sony-Microsoft-Nintendo Triopoly. Hopefully, Valve will release everything during the first half of 2026, as they announced last year.