The reviews are starting to stumble in the door for the Steam Machine, and with them has come the pricing for Valve’s box of hopes and dreams. It’s….well, it’s not cheap.

For the 512GB version, Valve is asking fo  £879 / $1049 / €1039. If you want a Steam Controller bundled in, you’re looking at £938 / $1128 / €1108.

But what about the beefier 2TB model, for those of use who like to have many games installed so that we can stare at them all and still not decide what to play? £1149 / $1349 / €1359. If you’d like the controller with that, it’ll be £1208/$1428/€1428.

Basically, if you buy a controller with the console, you’ll save about $20.

The good news is that reviews do seem impressed with the box, even as they all rightfully point out how expensive it is.

Early reviews seem to be landing in the same general place: the new Steam Machine is clever, compact, quiet and very Valve, but also caught in the awkward no-man’s-land between console simplicity and PC pricing.

The Verge called it “the most ambitious game console I’ve ever played,” but also concluded that it “isn’t ready for the console wars just yet.”

PC Gamer was harsher, arguing that “a wonderful design can’t beat the ugly realities of pricing, performance, and consumer value,” before describing it as “an expensive curio, rather than a gaming device for the masses.”

Rockpapershotgun liked it, saying “My living room, though? That’s newly-staked Steam Machine territory, and it’s going to stay that way until someone figures out how to make a compact PC that goes faster while still being half as inconspicuous as this is.”

DigitalFoundry quite liked it: “When Steam Machine was first revealed, the question was all about price and performance. Based on the specs, we’ve arrived with a piece of hardware that pretty much runs as expected – and it’s fine. Technology-wise, it doesn’t shift the needle, but I love the package. The form factor is beautiful, it’s wonderfully put together and it’s virtually silent in operation. To see it is to want it.”

Notably, DigitalFoundry did pit the Steam Machine against a PS5 a few times and the performance difference wasn’t as big as one might think given the pricing.

Eurogamer: “So the short answer to how it sits versus a console, or indeed an HDMI cable or actual PC of your own is: there is no real short answer. For upfront cost, performance, plug-and-play simplicity and smart features, at the cost of more expensive games and services over time and a console that looks like a hellish mid-00s leisure centre extension dubbed “the future of our town centre” – and is also roughly the same size as that – get a PS5 Pro.”

In other words: people seem to like the idea. They like the engineering. They like SteamOS on the TV. But at $1,049 before you even add the controller, the Steam Machine is no longer being judged as a cute Steam Deck-for-your-living-room. It is being judged against consoles, prebuilt PCs, and the dangerous thought every PC gamer eventually has: “Could I just build something better?”

Of course, in the current market, by the time you finish that thought, RAM prices have probably doubled again.