Steam Machine launches massively overpriced, but Malaysians can’t order one anyway

Valve’s latest gaming device is finally here. The Steam Machine has officially been launched, but unfortunately due to ongoing shortages is wildly expensive—not that you can get one anyway.

Let’s first talk hardware though. The Steam Machine looks like a console, smells like a console and probably even plays like a console, but Valve themselves consider it an extension for PC gaming instead. This tiny box is roughly a 6-inch cube that weighs just 2.6kg, making it easy to stow away in your living room console or next to your TV for couch gaming.

It comes powered by a semi-custom AMD processor packing 6 Zen 4 cores with 12 threads running at up to 4.8GHz at a 30W TDP, while the GPU is a semi-custom AMD GPU with 28 RDNA CUs, 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a 110W TDP. There’s also 16GB of DDR5 memory and up to 2TB of SSD storage. It runs SteamOS 3 out of the box, and even if you want you can even flash your own operating system on it such as Windows.

According to Valve, the Steam Machine will be able to run games at up to 4K with 60 FPS albeit with FSR turned on, while SteamOS enables a console-like experience with quick boot ups, suspend and resume functionality as well as cloud saves. Of course, if you wish to use it as a computer you can too by booting up the desktop environment for it.

As for I/O, you’ll find a DisplayPort 1.4 output, a HDMI 2.0 output, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the front, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 on the back and another two USB-A 2.0 ports on the back too. There’s also Gigabit ethernet, a pair of WiFi 6E antennas, Bluetooth 5.3 and an integrated 2.4GHz Steam Controller adapter.

Unfortunately, due to the rapidly rising costs of memory and storage amidst the AI boom, Valve states that they’re no longer able to hit their original price goals for the Steam Machine. As such, the pricing of the Steam Machine reflects the price of the components that they’ve had to shell out as they manufactured them over the last six months.

The Steam Machine starts at USD1,049 (~RM4,342.34) for the 512GB model, rising to USD1,349 (~RM5,584.19) for the 2TB model. Getting a Steam Controller bundled in meanwhile adds another USD69 to the final bill. That being said, like previous Steam Hardware products the Steam Machine won’t be available for purchase in Malaysia in any official capacity.

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