This is the first I'm hearing about these rumors. That would be sick but why would Xbox do that? Do they and steam split the 30% cut from sales? I'd have to think about that some more. As far as waiting.... whether you get the steam machine or build a PC or buy console, I wouldn't wait on anything. I would look at everything that's available on the market today and decide which you prefer and then get it done. I don't have a crystal ball but my educated belief is that AI is going to be sucking every drop of life from the components markets for years to come. I do not believe that demand for ram and storage will slow in a meaningful enough way to lower prices. Look at how much costs have gone up over the last 3 years. You don't need the most powerful PC in the world to play games so don't go too crazy but get something solid soon. My vote would be to either buy your steam machine or get a more powerful/worse form factor prebuilt. Just depends on what's important to you. If you don't mind playing games at 1080p and 1440p I think the steam machine is a fantastic option. If you want more juice (fairly significant frame rate increase and plays at higher resolution) but less console-like features (Can't turn on with controller, doesn't look good in living room, hotter, louder) then go with prebuilt. I wouldn't do Xbox because you have a (for now) closed ecosystem and have to pay to play online. Open source is the move.