Two days after local retailer GameXtreme quietly made the Steam Machine available for preorder in the Philippines, DataBlitz has fired back. The rival gaming-focused retail chain has opened online sales for Valve’s highly anticipated (and highly disappointing) console-like PC gaming cube today.

The good news? DataBlitz is undercutting its competitor. The bad news? It’s still going to cost you an arm and a leg — to no one’s surprise.

DataBlitz is pricing the base 512GB model bundled with a Steam Controller at ₱94,995. That’s cheaper than GameXtreme, which is asking a hefty sum of ₱110,000 for the exact same bundle. But let’s keep things in perspective: Even at DataBlitz’s lower cost, it’s still significantly more expensive than what the console goes for in markets like the United States, where it carries a suggested retail price of $1,128 or roughly ₱70,000. You’re looking at a premium of almost ₱30,000 just to purchase it locally.

To be fair to both retailers, Valve doesn’t officially sell the Steam Machine here in the Philippines. In fact, getting your hands on one directly from Valve is a headache no matter where you live. You have to jump onto a randomized queue, cross your fingers that your reservation gets picked, and only then are you actually allowed to order the machine. Because of those waitlists and low inventory, you probably can’t buy one outright anywhere in the world right now without paying a premium — at least not yet.

Even if you somehow managed to purchase the Steam Machine at its SRP, getting real value for it isn’t likely either. As plenty of reviewers have pointed out recently, you can easily buy or build a decent gaming PC that beats Valve’s hardware in every single performance metric at a much lower cost.

DataBlit’z announcement

In Valve’s defense, the company never promised a budget-friendly box. It has long-telegraphed that the Steam Machine would
be an expensive device, largely for reasons out of its control. Packing high-end, heat-generating desktop silicon into a custom six-inch cube requires specialized engineering and pricey components. Combine that with the ongoing global RAM crisis keeping memory costs at an all-time high, plus the reality that Valve isn’t a traditional console maker that can afford to subsidize hardware at a heavy loss, and the steep launch price was inevitable.

If you just want to sit on the couch and game, there are certainly better options within your budget. You could just buy a Microsoft Xbox Series X, a Sony PlayStation 5, or even the PS5 Pro. You’d get the same living-room experience for far less cash, and still have enough money left over to pick up a couple of games or cover an online multiplayer subscription for a year.

Ultimately, whether the Steam Machine is worth it at its current Philippine pricing — or even at its global SRP — depends entirely on you. But if you’re in the market for a setup that gives you the best price-to-performance ratio, you won’t find it here.

Valve Steam Machine specs

• 152 mm tall (148mm without feet) x 162.4mm deep x 156mm wide chassis, 2.6kg weight
• Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 processor (6C / 12T, up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP)
• Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 graphics processor (28 CUs, 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP)
• 16GB DDR5 RAM + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
• 512GB or 2TB NVMe SSD storage
• High-speed microSD card slot
• DisplayPort 1.4 (up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K @ 60Hz; supports HDR, FreeSync, and daisy-chaining)
• HDMI 2.0 output (up to 4K @ 120Hz; supports HDR, FreeSync, and CEC)
• Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (front), two USB-A 2.0 high-speed ports (back), one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (back)
• Gigabit ethernet
• 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 with dedicated antenna
• Integrated 2.4 GHz Steam Controller wireless adapter
• 17 individually addressable RGB LEDs for system status and customizability
• SteamOS 3 (Arch-based) with KDE Plasma desktop
• Internal power supply, AC power 110-240V

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