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.
 
Mr Grumpy
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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I had exactly the same issue, 1g fibre and snail slow, then I capped it to 800Mbps and that’s the speed everything downloads now, simples 👍🏼
 
Pearl Jam
I had exactly the same issue, 1g fibre and snail slow, then I capped it to 800Mbps and that’s the speed everything downloads now, simples 👍🏼
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I'll try again but I'm sure I read about this trick & tried to cap it once before but it had no impact, as it stands at the moment my xbox can download games over wifi quicker than my laptop/steam can plugged in.
 

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