You can now sign up for a chance to buy a Steam Machine. Yes, a mere chance, not a preorder, as Valve is doing something different with the launch of its Linux-powered cube. Rather than forming an orderly queue, it’s taking names, throwing them in a hat, and drawing them out at random to decide who gets a reservation and who gets lumped on the waitlist.
The Steam Machine starts at $1,049 for the 512 GB model, and if you’re still interested in purchasing one after hearing the price, you’re going to want to take heed of the new reservation process. It’s different to what Valve has done in the past, and for good reason.
“In an effort to improve the purchase experience and limit resellers, we’re implementing a reservation system,” Valve says.
Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you’re interested in.If you’re busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation order.
“Based on the reservation order, you will receive an email on June 25th indicating one of two things:”
You’ve been added to the reservation queue and a Steam Machine has been reserved in your name.You’ve been added to the waitlist and we’ll let you know when more units become available.
In theory, this deters bots from hammering the reservations faster than any real human and securing units for resellers to sell at inflated prices. It also means that it’s become a lottery for all involved.
By signing up on June 25, you give yourself the best chance of purchasing one before the end of the year. Those lucky enough to make it into the reservation queue will begin receiving emails asking them to make their purchase from June 29.
If you miss this date, you’ll be added to the back of the waitlist and presumably in for a long wait.
Valve has said it intends to get through the reservation queue by the end of 2026. That means those on the waitlist are unlikely to be able to purchase a Steam Machine before 2027—unless people drop out of the queue without purchasing one, in which case the offer extends to whomever is next in line. Those offered a unit will have 72 hours from receiving their notification email to checkout before Valve passes it onto the next person in the queue.
What you need
To make your initial sign up, you have to have a few things in order:
a Steam account in good standingmade a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026.
There’s also a limit of one per household. Valve says it will check payment information, shipping address, and other information to remove duplicate entries. So if you’re in shared accommodation with a bunch of fellow PC gamers, looks like you’ll have to share your Steam Machine, too.
Each region has its own sign-up list. These are North America, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia, which Valve is organising directly. Valve’s official distributor, Komodo, will be dealing with orders in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
So, why the new system? Why not just do what it did with the Steam Deck and have a first-come, first-serve system?
Valve says it’s both because of resellers and lower availability than it would have liked for components used in the Steam Machine.
“Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components… the overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable,” Valve says in an FAQ.
“Price wasn’t the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. We found we couldn’t source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this impacted our launch quantity.”
(Image credit: Future)
We’ve heard this before: memory chips are a precious commodity right now and they’re being sucked out of the market before ever reaching us consumers by big businesses with even bigger bank accounts. Even the biggest companies are feeling the heat. Valve is no small fry, but it’s nowhere close to the size of OEMs like Dell, HP, or similar. Everyone’s scrambling for whatever the major memory manufacturers can give them, which isn’t enough.
When a manufacturer is this honest about availability concerns from the get-go, that usually means things really are tough out there. This launch is going to be a very long, drawn out affair from the sounds of things. Make sure you’re there before June 25 for the best chance at a Linux console this year, or be prepared to be patient. Heck, as Valve points out in its FAQ, you could always build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS 3.8 as a shortcut.
Good luck.
