Steam Machine

[Nexus]

...it was going to be difficult to subsidize this, because you can just use it as a PC without buying any games through Steam.

If they were really worried about people using this as a standalone PC (and let's be honest, why would you bother with these specs and prices), then they could've bundled it with Steam credit. Valve is a huge company, them releasing it at this price (without a controller, for a gaming machine) was a conscious choice IMO.

Given that this is a completely custom SFF PC with a custom OS, I think the Machine is fairly priced. The only issue is that with the current memory and storage pricing, it's hard to justify the value proposition.

According to the LTT video, and as mentioned above, if you subtract the recent Steam Deck price hike from the $1050 MSRP, you'd get $750, which is definitely a very reasonable price for the hardware.

I dunno, it seems like a pretty mediocre price. Right now, you can get an RTX 5060 gaming laptop with double the storage for $100 AUD less, compared to spending $1.6k for a 512GB Steam Machine with no controller. And as I mentioned earlier, it's not even as powerful as a base PS5 for $1k, let alone the Pro for $1.4k. Both of those come bundled with a controller, too.

I took into account the inflated price due to the NAND shortage, when I did some rough numbers in my previous post. It's a lot of money for what's essentially an old Linux gaming laptop with limited upgradability (SSD and RAM), no input devices (keyboard, screen, or controller), and no display.

 

[Fezzik]

FSR4 upscaling should make up for some of the power deficit, especially compared to the base PS5. I still think it'll do well with the original target audience, those who wouldn't think of buying a proper gaming PC/laptop, if they can sort the stock issues.

Valve’s Steam Machine Isn’t Trying to Replace Your PS5, but Its Plug-And-Play Design Makes It the Ultimate Living Room PC for Anyone Intimidated by Building Their Own Rig

The Steam Machine is Valve's new piece of hardware entering the scene as a mini PC built for living room gaming. I love a lot about it, had some issues with it, but overall came away from my time with it feeling very positive. The big question mark has been around the Steam Machine price. After...

www.ign.com

 

[Tomo 427-MS]

Sad, I wanted one of these as a nice all-in-one emulation PC machine when we get a new house for the living room.

I guess I could dock the deck and get a steam controller. It'll be as good for what I need, I just really liked the small form factor.

Just far too expensive for me now for what I want it for, when we already have a Series X and PS5.

 

[sesselpupser]

Thinking about it, I think we'll look back at this debate over the price not even that far from now and laugh at how naive we were thinking Valve got the price wrong. I fear this is a "new normal" that will make the PS5 and graphics card shortage of 2020-2022 look like a joke, and while I said I'd wait for a price cut I'm actually expecting it to go up, not down, and probably quite soon - because when Apple, Sony and other manufacturers run out of stocked RAM and whatever else, Valve will be fighting them for allocations even harder. The fact that they don't even need to sell hardware, whereas Apple and Sony really do, also paints a bleak picture of another failed attempt at the "living room PC as a console" concept.

I think I said before when the Machine, Controller and Frame were announced that the Machine interests me the least, but because I want the other two devices (and already have a Deck) I just sort of want one anyway. That's still true, I'm not massively blown away by the Machine, but I'll wait and see how it interacts with the Frame and how users settle on how best to use it (native 1080p? Upscaled? Solely for streaming to a Deck?) before I give it much more thought. I will say though that I'm not torn between a PS5 or Machine, or between a DIY PC or Machine, it's the Machine or nothing because I need whatever I get to be tiny to fit inside an IKEA Kallax and I already have a ton of games that won't run on a PS5.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and dig out my Deck dock and see if I even care about playing games on my TV anymore, because it's been at least 3 years since I last tried.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

I'd rather buy this at £1290 instead of the full spec Steam Machine at £1200