Valve's Steam Machine has a lot of hype behind it right now.
But at the same time, PC-curious console gamers are a pretty niche audience, and I doubt hardcore PC players will be willing to compromise power for a sleek case and SteamOS (especially since you'll likely eventually be able to easily install the desktop version of SteamOS on any PC once the Steam Machine launches). There's also a lot we still don't know about the Steam Machine, with the most notable missing information being how much it will cost.
With that in mind, if you assumed the Steam Machine would have a console-like price, you're likely out of luck. According to Linus Sebastian on Linus Tech Tips' WAN Show, it's more than likely the Steam Machine will cost notably more than the console prices we're currently used to. Sebastian says that during his hands-on experience with the Steam Machine at Valve's office, he expressed that he hoped the PC would have a price similar to a console. A representative from Valve then asked what he meant by "console price," and he responded with an expected cost in the $500 range.
In response, Sebastian said, "Nobody said anything, but the energy of the room wasn't great."
Sebastian continued, "so basically, it's a 7600 CPU and a 7600 GPU. This is not a super powerful machine. Valve is upfront saying that they are going to be relying on FSR in order to achieve 4K. And even then, man, like 8GB of VRAM, anyone else would be taking a ton of flak for shipping a game console today with 8GB of VRAM."
So how much will the Steam Machine actually cost?
It's still unclear, but it will definitely be more than $500
Sebastian goes on to say that he doesn't actually know what the Steam Machine's price will be, but that he believes that given the tepid response in the room, it's unlikely Valve will follow a model similar to Microsoft and Sony where the console is subsidized by every game sold over the lifespan of the PC. While that might be true, Valve could actually take advantage of this strategy given the majority of Steam Machine users will probably purchase games from Steam, the company's own platform where it takes a cut from all purchases. Still, the fact that Valve representatives went silent when console pricing was mentioned definitely means something.
With all of this in mind, how much will the Steam Machine cost? My best guess is that it'll still be far more expensive than current consoles when its internal hardware and the cost of the Steam Deck are taken into consideration. Its custom AMD RDNA 3 chip makes it roughly the equivalent of a Radeon RX 7600, though its 8GB of VRAM puts it behind a lot of mid-range graphics cards. Still, it's equal or better than 70% of Steam players' systems, according to Valve. Depending on the Steam Machine's configuration, I can see it costing in the $700-$800 range.