TL;DR: Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine, set for release in 2026, aims to combine affordability and ease of use. Recent leaks suggest prices around $950 for a 512GB model and $1,070 for 2TB, comparable to high-end devices, though official pricing remains unconfirmed amid memory supply challenges.
People are accustomed to consoles being unnaturally cheap, and even as manufacturing costs sky-rocket manufacturers are still eating a lot of that increase because they don’t want to lose sales to the competition, and expect they can make money back later on game sales and online service subscriptions.
Valve meanwhile doesn’t have that approach, and will be selling the the Steam Box for at least what it costs.
It will be exactly the same story with the Steam Frame - everyone is hoping it will be price-competitive with the Meta Quest but I can almost guarantee it won’t. It will be FAR more expensive.
Why? Because Meta are making money back later with advertising, and selling your data, while Valve are just providing a device.
If you want a little privacy, Linux support, and hardware you control, you’ll have to be prepared to pay a premium for it.