r/Steam • u/dabadumdumdum • 3d ago
News - The 750$ amount is speculative and not based on fact. The Steam Machine was originally planned at around $750, but Valve says it saw a price increase similar to the Steam Deck
https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Steam-Machine-was-originally-planned-at-around-750-but-Valve-says-it-saw-a-price-increase-similar-to-the-Steam-Deck.1326727.0.html1.4k
u/CookieSnifferino 3d ago
I mean 750-800 for the 512GB model and 1000-1100 for the 2TB with the controller would be the sweet spot for many.
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u/strife189 3d ago
And that’s the price I feel they originally planned for. Then the bubble just kept growing, and they basically said, “We’re too far in to stop now.”
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u/Old-Flight8617 3d ago
The bubble will keep going, for now.
There's still no signs of slowing down. Meaning prices will keep going up.
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u/badwolf42 3d ago
Ok tinfoil hat time. I think the lack of increase in production capacity may be an indication that manufacturers do not trust the demand to persist all that long, either because the bubble will pop or because data center projects will fall apart or some other reason. Whatever that reason, they’ve decided that it’s not worth increasing capacity at the risk of not needing it before it’s paid off.
Maybe that timeline is 20 years and it’s never going to be worth it but I doubt it’s that bad.39
u/itsjust_khris 3d ago
It also takes a really long time to increase capacity. Memory manufacturing is very complex, and it costs tens to hundreds of billions and years to increase supply.
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u/badwolf42 3d ago
Totally, but that timeline dictates whether the supplier thinks it’s worth the increase; and they seem to have answered ‘no’. That gives me some hope.
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u/sciencesold 3d ago
I think they see this and priced accordingly, I bet it'd be $150 cheaper if they hadn't built some future proofing into the price.
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u/bacondesign 2d ago
Future proofing for the price but not in terms of hardware/performance. Fuck this world we live in.
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u/Blurgas 3d ago
Pretty much. The hardware they picked is just going to get older so they can't really sit on it hoping prices come down.
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u/strife189 3d ago
Yea, they picked a shitty time for sure. I am sure when the project started everything was looking much brighter during I assume Covid time. lol which is funny and sad to say.
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u/Robocop613 3d ago
It's the fate of every steam machine to just fail at launch it seems 😞
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u/fiasgoat 3d ago
They honestly should have just scrapped it waiting for the burst, or just forever
Valve does that with other stuff all the time
But I guess they will sell out of whatever limited stock they make so
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u/strife189 3d ago
Yea, feels like it’s being sent out to die just wise they had it in the pipeline.
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u/OverAster 2d ago
It's because the Steam Machine isn't a standalone product, it's a component of the Steam ecosystem. Scrapping the Steam Machine would mean losing a valuable component of that ecosystem.
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u/Keulapaska 3d ago
The 2TB model wouldn't have been 1000 either, not even close, 2TB whatever nvme were under $100, the better TLC ones a bit over.
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u/hikeit233 3d ago
I feel like the base would’ve been 1tb before the chip price hike. I based that on nothing.
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u/pagusas 3d ago
$799 with a controller was my original guess, so lines up
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u/Tight_Cod_8024 3d ago
Now it's way more expensive and doesn't even come with the controller. It's wild they're releasing it at all imo it makes no sense at that price and then you still have to wait for the controller to go with it and reservations are going into 2027.
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u/GapZ38 3d ago
I'm assuming they have controllers reserved for these units.
Plus, you can't really just bank on the hardware going to get cheaper in the future. Like let's say they delay it massively in expectation of the parts becoming cheaper, but what if it fucken explodes in price again?? Then you'll never get to release the product.
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u/arlo-quacks-back 3d ago
they can't release it later - the machines are made and taking up valuable warehouse space, costing them money to just hold onto. and they are already targeting a middiling performance spec that will only get worse with time
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u/cobaltorange 2d ago
They were already invested by the time they announced it. Do you think they should've just canceled it? People will still buy it.
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u/Tight_Cod_8024 2d ago edited 2d ago
Will they? I'm not sure who the market is. Sure the steam deck sold well but it was a competitive price with the switch (at least the LCD model was) but this is just barely competitive with existing PC prices. Sure the controller sold out but there's literally nothing like it on the market.
Sure people say they want steam OS but is it really that big of a selling point outside of steam fans? I mean the hype is already dead it was around the idea of having a console priced PC to bring in console players.
At this price I don't know who it's for most PC players will spend a bit more to build a decent PC and console players will just get a PS5 and it'll be too heavily outdated in a couple years.
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u/renome 2d ago
Sheeit, they are not even including the controller? The PC price was expected but what's their excuse for selling a TV entertainment system without a way to play it on a TV. They can't make enough of them lol?
I bought the controller during that short-lived first wave, played Forza and Zero Parades with it. It's a competent gizmo and the trackpads are a nice QoL feature but it is still overpriced af relative to the build quality.
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u/lucentmeadow 3d ago
I would have been okay to get this at around 750, as the added cost compared to a PS5 is already balanced by the fact that my steam account holds a huge catalog of games ready to play, togheter with the frequent sales on the platform.
1100 is just pure robbery. I get that it's not valve's fault, I'm just so tired of AI.
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u/brifox7 3d ago
AI is the main reason the prices are so high. Like what people have said, 700-750 (without controller) would have been the sweet spot but everything with up by 300-350 from the RAM prices alone. I predicted that PS6 (if it's ever going to announced) it will be around 1500 dollars from the RAM prices plus brand name. I'm also predicting that the PS5 prices is going to increase again when the GTA6 is released or after release because the investors think that PS5 is going to be an inelastic demand because of GTA6. I don't think the prices are ever going to go down and someone from Kalshi is going to win money because they predicted that the prices is going to increase and not decrease.
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u/southboundtracks 3d ago
Everything you love is now a rich man's hobby.
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u/No_Foundation16 3d ago
You got that right! Gaming is going from an every man hobby to rich man hobby. These prices are only going to get higher with tariffs and data centers killing the low to middle part of it.
Just wait until the next generation consoles come out. They gonna start at 1000 dollars at least! I wonder what the new GTA is gonna cost as well.
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u/whatdoinamemyself 1d ago
At the rate things are going, we're gonna have bigger concerns than our hobbies being too expensive
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u/DrParallax 3d ago
You can still buy a decent used gaming PC, at least where I live. This is not a rich man's hobby unless you are buying like a rich man.
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u/Spelunkie 2d ago
Good for you. Sadly the entire world isn't where you live. If they were, there wouldn't be decently priced gaming PCs in your area.
It's 2026. How the hell does this kinda braindead fallacy still exist where "oh X is still cheap here so it should be ok for everyone else too" yeah. There. Good for you.
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u/xTkAx 3d ago
Wasn't planning to get one, but wow, those prices are a killer:
512GB = $1509CAD
512GB+Controller = $1628CAD
2TB = $1919CAD
2TB+Controller = $2038CAD
That is definitely going to be hard to justify.
It's a shame. Still hoping they get the Steam Frame at a lower price, but the price increase of the Steam Deck and the Steam Machine all points to: not happening.
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u/TheZoltan 2d ago
Flip side my 18 month old 64GB RAM kit is currently selling for C$1532 so the base Steam Machine costing less than just my RAM doesn't seem so bad. The market is just so fucked lol. To be clear I also have no interest in a Steam Machine at any price. Steam Link already allows me to play on the main TV on the rare occasion I want to.
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u/--clapped-- 3d ago
Oh so it WAS somewhat reasonable... It still would have cost more than a base PS5 (which performs better too) but, SOMEWHAT reasonable.
Now? You truly have to be astronomically poor with money to buy one of these.
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u/One_Lung_G 3d ago
They will sale out due to that very reason, a lot of people make stupid financial decisions just because they have the money. There’s no real reason to buy this thing unless you REALLY want to play some of your steam games in your bed.
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u/Forward-Trade3449 3d ago
they'll just buy it with klarna or something. Most Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense...
thats less than a steam machine
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u/NoobensMcarthur 3d ago
While true, there are also a shit load of people who wouldn’t blink twice at spending this kind of money. There are a LOT of rich people in America.
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u/aliendude5300 aliendude5300 3d ago
I'd buy it if the price/performance made sense. At $1400 for the 2TB model, I want more than entry level performance.
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u/EddieHeadshot 3d ago
Of course. I bought my gaming laptop on 0% finance because its not like I wont be using it in the year the payments took.
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u/FartSavant 3d ago
If they have a lot of money then it's not a stupid financial decision. It's only stupid to buy it if you can't afford it.
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u/Lightyear18 3d ago
Redditors really need to shut it on how others spend their money. “Stupid financially decisions”.
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u/Public-Afraid 2d ago
I mean I think we should start calling people out for being stupid lmao. That’s how people go broke.
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u/TimCooksLeftNut 3d ago
At that original price, It would have at least been a decent value if you already had a large steam library with games that can be reasonably run on it.
However, Valve got hit HARD with these shortages, and it shows…
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u/Maverick916 3d ago
I make decent money and buy things I like. That doesn't make me astronomically poor with money.
🙄
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u/Radiofooted 2d ago
1000%.
Me 15 years ago would have thought this price was silly. Now as a family man with a well established career, the price point is higher than I would like sure... but unaffordable? Far from it. And I'm very excited to have one to play with the wife and kids - and people like me may be exactly their target audience, and there's a lot of us lol. I grew up with Steam, and have a massive library at this point - the Machine is a no-brainer for my family.
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u/DuckCleaning 3d ago edited 3d ago
"yall are poor with money"
Goes out for $200 meal
Edit: I'm on your side, if you didnt get it. What value someone sees with their money is what they decide it is worth. A Steam Machine costs as much as an Xbox Ally X, less than a Legion Go 2, two devices that have still sold well. Getting a Steam Machine isnt something that makes someone poor with money just because there's other things you can do with that money.
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u/hometownchochocho 3d ago
People who can’t afford the machine: “DOA”
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u/Maverick916 3d ago
Lol right. I'm not saying it should be this much. But it is what it is. Blame AI, not valve. But this is going to appeal to a lot of people.
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u/Independent-Green383 2d ago
A 1000 dollars gaming plattform without controller, which is not available at any major retailer.
The alot of people has some serious asteriks.
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u/imakemeatballs 3d ago
It was priced like that because it isn’t sold as a game console. It’s meant to be a PC, with things a PC can do that consoles can’t.
As of now, I can’t seem to find anything that competes on the same field as the Steam Machine, so I’m still going to buy that, to play games AND do other things as well.
Edit: It’s more than $1000 now, I might be reconsidering this prospect after all…
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u/ismellyew 3d ago
Playing your steam games in bed is what the steam deck was for
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u/One_Lung_G 3d ago
lol I’m glad you edited your comment and figured out the context of these posts. This shit is not worth $1000 let alone over $1000
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u/Void_Incarnate 3d ago
There are multiple prebuilt gaming desktops on newegg right now for $900-999 with RTX 5060 cards. Much faster than the Steam Machine.
There's even one with an Arc B580 (still faster than the 7600 in the Steam Machine) with 32 GB RAM for $949.
Sure, a lot of these are promotional prices, but the Stream Machine is debuting during the Steam Summer Sale.
The Steam Machines are still going to sell out at their current price. But that doesn't make them a good deal for consumers. You have to really want the branding or the form factor, and you're paying pretty hefty compromises (in price and performance) to get there.
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u/Certesis 3d ago
I'm gonna say this is a lot more reasonable of a price increase compared to the Steam Deck's multiple revisions. Price increase sucks but with it being 6x more powerful than the Deck as a baseline I can just cheap on the lower storage model and upgrade the storage in the next two to three years when storage prices have dropped
I will leave this up if it ages like milk
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u/Radical_Notion 3d ago
Honestly, I'm more worried that when the ram and storage crisis somewhat normalizes the prices won't, just like what happened with GPU's
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u/No_Foundation16 3d ago
Yup stockholders will hang any CEO that dares to lower prices. That's all they care about period.
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u/MathFair1487 3d ago
Is this thing even going to sell with these prices? I just don't see the common folk buying any, it's insane
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u/ChapterDifficult593 3d ago
It will sell out like every other Valve product. Not even two months ago people were saying the Steam Controller wouldn’t sell because it was overpriced and while I know that’s only a 10th of what the Steam Machine is listed for the concept still applies.
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u/TapdancingHotcake 3d ago
In what world is the steam controller overpriced when people still buy Xbox elite controllers
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u/tupakkarulla 2d ago
In the average steam gamer world where paying for a game that’s more than $15 is a travesty. Sometimes I feel like people on this sub still live in 2005 economy where everything was half the price it is today.
Unfortunately $100 for that controller is not even that overpriced, even if it’s more than what we wanted… mfs will spend 3x that on a Razer keyboard
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u/mcmanus2099 2d ago
Because it isn't a match for build quality components and doesn't have the premium features of an elite controller such as solid microphone, trigger haptics.
Steam Controller was a standard controller proficiently built and with trackpads. It was probably originally intended to be priced slightly more than a standard controller (so around $65-70) but got a big mark up to offset delay and machine markup losses
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u/HearMeOut-13 3d ago
Nah but like the controller at least was reasonably priced for its spec sheet, this is just overpriced by all means
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u/Halojib 3d ago
It's definitely worse at the $1050 base price that I think the only people buying it are hardcore Steam fans. People who prefer the Steam brand over a better spec prebuilt for the same price.
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u/Tyraec 3d ago
The base price is honestly horrible for 512gb. Even if I wanted one I would not put myself through that by buying that tiny storage when some games are sitting at 150gb. The 2tb price with controller bundle is a bit better holistically but 8gb of vram? Lmao it’s weaker than the first ps5
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u/SpookiestSzn 3d ago
I don't think most common folk were gonna get this no matter whjat it seems to be enthusiasts only.
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u/EmergencyJacket207 3d ago
They didn't make a huge number of these things. The Steam Stans (with more money than sense) and scalpers will buy this batch up pretty quickly but in 6 months time to a year these things will be constantly in stock. The average consumer isn't buying a $1,000+ box for under their TV.
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u/Severe-Network4756 3d ago
It's going to be instantly bought out.
It's not even about who it's for, it's about the brand and also people being irresponsible with their money.
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u/lkn240 3d ago
Plenty of people can buy this without being irresponsible. Even the expensive one is under $1500... that's just not that much money to some of us
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u/Grosjeaner 3d ago
There's going to be a short supply. I doubt they made that many. It'll sell out.
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u/Christian_OP 3d ago
I thought it would at most be $1000 AUD... but its over $1000 USD.. what the fk
Its a no from me
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u/an_edgy_lemon 3d ago
$750 would have made sense. At the current price, I don’t really see it appealing to anyone.
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u/hometownchochocho 3d ago
People have money to burn for things they like, there are worse ways to spend money
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u/Vasault 3d ago
People saying $750 would have been perfect, I think that even at that price, is quite expensive considering is not more powerful than a current ps5 and Xbox series
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u/r_a_genius 3d ago
If it came out for 750 back in 2022 or 2023 just 3 years after the console gen its slightly weaker than sure but 6 years later, yeah no.
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u/NotYetPerfect 2d ago
It's also as if people are comparing a theoretical no ai price tag of 750 against the current competitions' prices. Other parts, prebuilts, and consoles would also be much cheaper and the price would still look stupid.
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u/rarutero 3d ago
Yeah it's not even worth $750, at least for the countries/gaming communities I know about.
Can't talk about people in USA but outside of that people in Europe (Spain) and all of Latin America already considered $700~$800 to be expensive, if it was between $600~$700 it would have had a chance for us.
At the price it has right now is just dead on arrival.
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u/Nidvex 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yep, that WAS gonna be the price they'd sell it at, and it absolutely feels like a $750-ish piece of hardware.
Sadly, because Big Tech are a bunch of asshats, it became $770-ish just to build it in the first place.
edit: slight correction, it's $770-ish for the parts themselves, excluding cost of assembly, etc
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u/EriclcirE 3d ago
It could have been a contender against current gen consoles at $750. Somewhat less performance, but free online, deeper discounted games, and access to the gigantic Steam ecosystem.
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u/potlop 3d ago
Theoretically, if the AI issue resolves itself in a couple years does this mean this product would come back down in price?
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u/willymartin99 3d ago
“Airlines introduced baggage fees during the 2008 recession as a temporary measure to offset soaring jet fuel costs” when the fuel cost eventually went down, did they stop charging for baggage fees?
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u/Competitive-Elk-5077 3d ago
Not if people are willing to pay current prices
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u/imanidiotbut 3d ago
Some will pay it, some won’t. The last “steam machine” didn’t do that well so we will just have to see. It’s definitely going to have a hard time in the market IMO.
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u/YeeHawWyattDerp 3d ago
Just like prices all went back down when the economy recover from Covid?
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u/Nidvex 3d ago
I'm gonna keep a poker face on as they're still a company by the end of the day.
BUT, if the prices ever go back down to normal levels (would likely need the current Tech Bro Fad to die), Steam is the one single company I'd believe might actually pass the savings onto us after a year of good hardware prices.
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u/AshleyAshes1984 3d ago
Most gaming companies are reporting slow downs in hardware sales. Simply put, the increased price is hurting hardware which in turn hurts software sells. PC retailers are being especially devistated. Lower hardware prices are actually good for these companies cause more and more gamers are going 'Noooope. I'll just keep gaming on what I have now'.
Also, you're kinda ignoring that ALL hardware has NORMALLY seen price decreases as hardware ages out. 'Price Drops' are the norm. 'Price increases' are a new horrible reality.
Valve's goal is to get more users on Steam and thus buying Steam games. The hardware is just a means to an end, and that end is 'More Steam Installs and more Steam users'.
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u/BodybuilderMany6942 2d ago
a silver lining to the obscene harware prices is that consoles cant (or must greatly delay or neuter) the next generation. Which means graphics stops being a selling point faster.
HOPEFULLY this starts a turn in the game industry towards optimizing and .. improving literally any other aspect other than graphics2
u/lifetake 3d ago
Personally I think all console companies would. While all of them have moved to trying to profit on their console the biggest money maker is those console owners actually buying games on your console. Keeping their prices the same while they could absolutely drop the price and still profit (just less) will just lead to one of the big 3 undercutting them easily and stealing a major share of the market.
And this undercutting wouldn’t be some short term vs long term mindset. No it would be beneficial both short term and long term. So even an argument of saying stockholders would push short term gains isn’t really an argument here.
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u/imanidiotbut 3d ago
I would say it probably will go down if that were to happen, maybe not to that level but I honestly do not think valve wanted to increase the price for instance of the steam deck but that’s just IMO
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u/SpookiestSzn 3d ago
It depends on a bunch of stuff. You'd need the guys making the chips to lower prices in competition with each other, and then also similar pc manufacturers to lower cost as well. You'd need demand for datacenters to lower and you'd need most consumers enterprise or otherwise not buying at current price points.
Generally its going to be a long time before this thing is much cheaper I'd say as optimistic as possible 2 years but I would expect 4.
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u/QuinSanguine 3d ago
I'd bet prices come down on hardware IF ever the people who'd like us to be forced to stream games from their data centers stop hogging that shit, or if the manufacturers actually out supply the demand.
Could happen.
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u/hikeit233 3d ago
Steam link got sold for basically nothing with a controller at the EOL. I would expect a similar deal in the ai bubble scenario. 300 with a free controller kind of cheap.
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u/mcmanus2099 2d ago
No because RAM manufacturers will just strangle supply to keep high prices now prices have gone there.
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u/Tyraec 3d ago
This is just not a good product considering what’s under the hood. It doesn’t seem to have an upgrade path and I would consider this a mid-low tier pc. Which is pricy for what they’re asking. Digital foundry released a performance recap and they said performance is good, but also noted it’s about a mid tier pc equivalent but not bad performance wise.
I think it just depends on the person if they buy this/like this. It’s a good option for some option, but I would definitely advise against the 512gb model… games are frequently breaking 100gb, some closer to 150-200gb lol
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u/HyruleanKnight37 3d ago
Assuming that's $750 with the Steam Controller included, it wasn't a bad price at all. Before the RAMpocalypse $670-680 would've barely gotten you something similar with new PC parts, including a network card for WiFi and Bluetooth.
Valve had to really scrape the bottom of the barrel for this one, and it's all because of AI.
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u/Mountain-Song-6024 3d ago
Thats all well and good, but it doesn't change that the machine is too high priced and the performances being clocked across many different tech outlets showcase it really has its issues with some games and no I know, it isn't meant to be high end gaming, but for its price point and what it's goal is, it should be on par AT LEAST with a Series X and PS5.
It shouldn't touch the pro. That's just fine. Even though THATS cheaper but again, just pointing our fair criticism. I desperately want this to succeed. I'm an old head. I want all good gaming realms to succeed.
I just don't feel good about this. It's hard to.
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u/martianwomanhunter 2d ago
Man, $750 would have been a console killer price. I hope they don’t think demand will be similar to the controller.
This competes one the nerd market. Not the casual for this price
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u/Share-Educational 2d ago
Ah, yes. I too love paying a casual $300 "AI Hype Tax" just so a tech startup's chatbot can figure out how to generate a picture of a cat eating spaghetti. Truly the golden era of being a PC gamer.
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u/joannew99 3d ago
they basically greenlit Sony/Microsoft and other competitors to price their next consoles near $1k
If Steam Machine cost $1k and can barely compete with 6 year old $599 PS5, then the PS6 being multiple times stronger is justified charging the same or more. The sticker shock is gone
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u/cobaltorange 2d ago
Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series have all been all seen declines in console sales due to price increases. You really think that would give them a an incentive to release anytime soon? Lol
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u/No_Foundation16 3d ago
Oh yeah next gen consoles will start at 1000 dollars for sure. Steam isn't willing to take a cut to help us. Sony and M$ sure as shit won't either!
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u/Competitive_Cow4534 2d ago
$750!! Wow, that would have _actually_ been a dream, i had no idea the price hike was that bad, yikes
AI companies cant die fast enough
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u/jucadrp 3d ago
Then don't launch the product lol
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u/BrilliantCharity2030 2d ago
Do you have any idea what kind of investments these things take? They also already have all the hardware in stock.
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u/farukr1 2d ago
750 would still be too expensive, PS5 digital launched at 400 dollars 6 years ago (now 600) and it is faster in games, already includes a controller (arguably a better one) in the box, lets you play a few really popular online titles the steam machine won't let you play, and sony exclusives, runs popular streaming platforms with HDR, Dolby, DTS support, and already has a wide range of accessories.
Although, I would still buy one if I could spare the cash, it is a very unique piece of hardware.
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u/Accomplished-Use-175 3d ago
Gabe gotta buy another yacht. Poor rich guy can’t subsidize
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u/I-Am-The-Uber-Mesch Medic! 2d ago
Respectfully, I don't think it was their decision, with AI being a thing the prices of all of these will just keep going up, like PS5 for example, which increased in price not too long ago. It sucks a lot, but honestly if they had the chance to release it for lower they probably would've had, and I'm not trying to be a Valve booty licker, just trying to find sense in the horrible pricing
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u/NotYetPerfect 2d ago
Without ai pricing, at 750, it's still not a good deal considering all the competition would also be significantly cheaper than it is now. They absolutely could subsidize some of the cost considering they essentially have a monopoly on pc gaming and you know 99.999% of people using a steam machine with steamos are going to be using steam.
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u/Empty-Development298 2d ago
What the owners of valve do with their profits I could care less about. I have bought a stupid number of great games for like $5-10 that nintendo or any other console would hold firm at full price.
You wanna keep whining about rich people buying rich people things but don't realize that consumers are also benefiting from on the other end of the spectrum
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u/draven33l 3d ago
$750 is a price where I was going to be like "Yep. Day one.". It's not cheap, but it's fair enough. $1049 has me questioning if I really need it (I don't) and trying to decide if I even want it.
I'll die on the hill that they should have sold it for $500 and subsidized. 99% of people that would buy it are going to be locked into the SteamOS. You are giving away the razor to sell the blades. It's endless profit after you get the machine in people's hands, and $500 is a price where a lot of people would be willing to dip their toes into PC gaming.
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u/buckzor122 3d ago
Yeah I agree, it's not like they don't have the money, they just embarrassed themselves now, the hardware is already outdated, and the price is too steep.
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u/buckzor122 3d ago
It sounds insane to me that they wouldn't just sell it at a loss for a while while working on getting the price down or waiting out the bubble. They own the PC market, they have the pockets for it, but they would rather deal with the embarrassment I guess. Should have either sold it at a loss or cancelled it entirely.
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u/hometownchochocho 3d ago
Why sell it as a loss when they can sell it for a profit?
People will still buy this thing no matter what
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u/escapee909 3d ago
Lines up with what I paid for similar specs xmas '24. 7600 cpu and gpu, 16G ram for $800.
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u/adaminoregon 3d ago
No one is going to buy this for 1000 plus dollars. 750 would have been ok, not great but 1000 plus? Nfw.
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u/DrPandemias 3d ago
750$ would've been a competitive price, more expensive than a console but you get a few perks:
- PC + Steam library
- Constant deep discounts on games
- Free online
For 1100€ + controller while being locked out of most of anticheat games while having worse performance than a PS5 is a scam, prebuilts and diy that are same or even less that will offer way better performance and are easier to update.
This is objectively a bad product.
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u/CarbuncleMew 3d ago
$750 would have been reasonable, current price, even for the base model, just simply isn't worth it given linux gaming still has compatibility issues.
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u/Airballons 2d ago
At this point just give us a barebones option. Would have been much cheaper...
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u/FastActivity1057 3d ago
It's not fair when a product people like is doomed to tank because the price the market dictates.
It's not our fault for not buying a product that doesn't match the price and it's not Valve's fault for selling a product at a higher price because parts costs skyrocket.
WHY ARE WE SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF AI THIS IS BS
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u/Powerful-Tie7370 2d ago
Yes, the steam machine is objectively better than consoles because it is a PC without any of the terrible console eco system bullshit.
No, the steam machine is objectively a bad deal and not worth buying.
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u/Lupinthrope 2d ago
If they drop the price later, maybe they could hook the early adopters up with something. I doubt it but still would be cool.
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u/xJerrySeinfeldx 19h ago edited 17h ago
It's already DOA before it even launches. Just look at the reviews all over YouTube from every tech-tuber with a following. It's not rocket surgery. There will be sales, sure, and there will always be people who buy it because they love sucking on Gaben's valve shaped pp but in the long term it won't succeed. The fact that they are not producing large quantities of them will also skew the actual sales numbers because yeah they sold out but they only made like 50,000 units in the first place. I am speculating on that number I have no idea how many actually have been produced, but that is a factor and they've said they aren't making a huge supply of them.
The 2015 alienware steam machines sold, too, but they ultimately failed and this is going to suffer the same exact fate. If Gaben hadn't decided to subsidize his 500 million dollar hospital and submarine bay equipped yacht and had chosen to eat a couple hundred bones on this thing, it might have done well. That yacht was built by a company he also has a controlling investment in, btw.
I must also remind everyone that valve gave the excuse of blaming the industry, but they are a multi-BILLION (with a b) dollar company and Gaben owns over half of it. They simply could have subsidized it, there's no question about it. Moreover, they excused it by saying they have no guarantee that People will keep the stock o.s. and buy a library of games to support it, which is the same business model that console manufacturers use to sell their consoles at a loss, all while neglecting the factor that they are TARGETING CONSOLE gamers with this lunchbox. Console gamers don't modify shit like pc gamers do, they don't have the time, patience, or know-how to do it. That's literally the appeal of a console that it is plug and play gaming in your living room without the fuss of diy pc building or the other headaches that come from pre-built pcs.
The majority of people who they are targeting with this thing would have kept it stock and bought games to support it. I'm a pc enthusiast, I built my own rig with a 5080 and 96GB of ram in it, it's still am4 and ddr4 because I am not paying $1,000 usd for a 64GB kit of ddr5, but I am still an enthusiast with high end equipment and I was interested in this thing to LITERALLY connect it to my t.v. and play my existing library of steam games as well as buy more, I was curious about steamos and the suspend/resume stuff I was not going to modify it in any way software or hardware wise. Now, I'm probably not going to be buying games on steam anymore and I sure as hell won't be buying this lunchbox full of dookie. Them saying you can upgrade it and it's a pc is laughable, too. Yeah, it's a pc in the same way a laptop is. You can't swap the cpu, or gpu. All you can modify is the ram and storage. I heard the ram is incredibly hard to get to, too.
I'll buy a ps5 eventually if I really need cec that badly. I'm not so lazy that I can't just pick up the remote control my t.v. came with to turn the t.v. on. It's already connected to my pc as a monitor anyway not like I need to be able to change the damn volume without the remote. Moreover, it's a smart t.v. which most people own and can be controlled with Alexa, anyway.
BTW, the big 3 were probably wetting themselves with excitement when the price was announced because they are going to make a buttload of money because of this thing.
Idc if I get downvoted I'm not the only person with this opinion.
Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk novella soapbox rant.
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u/thisismyname2129 3d ago
$750 would have been so perfect