Steam Machine

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"$400 with a controller. This would really send a message" One analyst on how Valve's Steam Machine could make the biggest impact on the games industry

"$400 with a controller. This would really send a message" One analyst on how Valve's Steam Machine could make the biggest impact on the games industry.
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Elliot explains: "If the Steam Machine launches above $500, it risks being perceived as an expensive niche PC (like the rumoured next-generation Xbox) rather than an accessible living-room gaming option.

"The sweet spot would be $400 with a controller. This would really send a message, as console manufacturers have been raising their prices. A digital PS5 costs $499, while the Xbox Series X Digital is $599.
 
$399 for the 512GB version sounds like it would be a very reasonable price point, given the hardware specs. Buying the MicroSD card for expansion is always something that can be a "down the road" thing, because I reckon people are already used to having to uninstall and reinstall games they don't play very often anyway.
 
I'm kind of torn on what I expect the price to be, because at the low end you can get a Mac Mini for £500, but at the high end a Zotac Magnus SFF PC, a kit without RAM, SSD or OS, is over £1k, although that's with a desktop RTX5060 in it (albeit a tiny, underclocked one). I think they could go as low as £600 - the £500 Mac Mini uses Apple's own silicon, so they don't pay anything to use that tech, and it also has a 256GB SSD - or as high as £800.

I think people expecting it to be as cheap as a Deck because it doesn't have a screen, battery or controls are kidding themselves because even if it could be made for the same cost, the Deck was a gaming device through and through so Valve could relax the margin a bit because they knew they'd sell games. If Valve sold the Machine for Deck money the market could implode and there could be a Machine in every home, school and office with zero guarantee anyone would buy any games, so even if they didn't make a loss per unit, it wouldn't be lucrative enough for them to bother.

I'm personally hoping a Machine, Frame and Controller could be bought together for about £1,600 - I expect £900 for the Frame, £600 for the Machine and £100 for the controller. On the one hand that's quite expensive for the performance you'd get, but on the other a new computer, a VR headset and a fancy controller tailor made for both for £1,600 is a much better deal than spending £2,500 on a PC, £700 on a headset and another £700 on accessories for it which is what I did in 2017, then played probably less than 200 hours of VR because it's so inconvenient.
 
sesselpupser
I'm personally hoping a Machine, Frame and Controller could be bought together for about £1,600 - I expect £900 for the Frame, £600 for the Machine and £100 for the controller. On the one hand that's quite expensive for the performance you'd get, but on the other a new computer, a VR headset and a fancy controller tailor made for both for £1,600 is a much better deal than spending £2,500 on a PC, £700 on a headset and another £700 on accessories for it which is what I did in 2017, then played probably less than 200 hours of VR because it's so inconvenient.
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A bundle deal could be interesting, though I don't think they'd shift too many units - the hardcore VR gamers might be underwhelmed with the Machine specs, and that's well out of impulse buy territory for everyone else.

On a related note, I had a thought - If the next Xbox does turn out to be a glorified PC with Steam compatibility, MS still holds a big software advantage: games requiring kernel-level anti-cheat still aren't fully supported on Linux. If they threw together some bundles (free X years of GamePass Ultimate, controllers etc.) and priced it aggresively, then it could be a compelling alternative to the Steam Machine.
 
Steam need to sort out their download speeds first because at the moment I have 1Gb up/down internet & Microsoft/Xbox see it as such so I don't mind installing/uninstalling big games, however downloading off steam is just slow as if it's restricted even though my settings say uncapped.
 

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