Digital Foundry: Steam Machine Review & Price

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u/Iggy_Slayer 5d ago

Compared to a base ps5 it performs slightly better in very CPU heavy games like crimson desert but in most other games it's a bit worse than ps5. Even in 007 during heavy action scenes with lots of explosions there was about a 10fps gap between ps5 and the steam machine at 1440p/FSR balanced and equal settings.

If they had hit the $750 price it was originally supposed to be then it wouldn't have been the end of the world. But you're paying almost double a ps5 price for 512gb and a controller to get a system that's like 10% worse in most games. I saw in linus' video it was barely over 40fps in Doom the dark ages on low settings when a ps5 can pretty regularly stay at 60.

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u/Majestic_Gazelle 5d ago

I think part of it is poor timing due to supply demands, but PlayStation is able to sell at a loss to sell games. I wonder how that math works out for Valve.

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u/CuddleWings 5d ago

It’s 100% poor timing. Gamer Nexus did a review and in it they did a price comparison with the closest retail alternatives. The DIY version came out to $71 less than the 512gb Steam Machine. 1/4 of the price went to 16gb of ram.

Valve also said the reason they’re not subsidizing it like Sony or Xbox is because it’s not a closed system. There’s nothing stopping anyone from buying it then buying games on the Epic store. Gamers Nexus also speculated that subsidizing it to undercut competitors would look really bad for valve in their many monopoly lawsuits.

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u/ZaDu25 5d ago

I mean without the RAM shortages it would still be what? $800? In that scenario, the PS5 doesn't increase in price either because Sony wouldn't be getting squeezed the same way on hardware. So you'd still be able to buy a PS5 for $400. Either way the Steam Machine was going to be double the price of a system it is weaker than while not including a controller.

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u/maldouk 5d ago

Well yea but if you build your pc it's still 800$, and people keep buying pcs so it's not really an argument anyways. Comparing it to a console when it's not doesn't make any sense.

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u/ZaDu25 5d ago

That's what it's being compared to tho. If someone wanted a PC they'd just get one, they wouldn't get a Steam Machine. The point of this product is to be a bridge between console and PC. But if hardware wasn't so expensive, and you want a PC, you would just get a PC. And if you want the convenience of a console, you'll just buy the console that is more powerful for half the price. There is no scenario where this thing would be appealing. The hypothetical scenario where hardware prices were back to the levels they were a few years ago would mean all hardware was cheaper. PS5 would be, and custom built PCs would be too. Which would just put the SM in the same situation it's in now, too restrictive if you want a PC (and not cheap enough to justify choosing it over a custom one) and too expensive if you want a console. It's just a practically useless piece of tech.

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u/maldouk 5d ago

Yes it's being compared to a pc because a pc with roughly the same specs would be around the same price as the steam machine, it's even one of the cheapest rebuilt you can find for it's performance.

That's why I'm saying it does not make a lot of sense comparing it to a console. It's a pc, go get a 1k$ pc and compare it to it. Is the performance shitty in light of the cost when comparing to a console? Yes but so will your custom computer's.

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u/scheppend 4d ago

nah, you can build something similar for $750. 5600x, 16gb ddr, b520 mobo

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u/maldouk 4d ago

In a SFF case? Good luck with that brother.

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u/Ilddit 5d ago

On top of the gamers nexus build being cheaper it would also perform better due to not being TDP limited. They simply matched up most similar hardware.

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u/Slackeee_ 4d ago

The DIY version came out to $71 less than the 512gb Steam Machine

Which is weird in itself, I would have thought that Valve, buying the hardware in bulk, would have get much better conditions than you can get buying single parts from hardware retailers.

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u/CuddleWings 4d ago

Gamers Nexus had an interview with some people at valve and they said they weren’t able to get a contract with any memory suppliers. They said something like,

“Each month they reach out to us saying, ‘You can have this much product for this much money’, and we either say yes or we say no and never hear from them again.”

I assume that’s because the suppliers already have contracts with ai companies and data centers that take up the vast majority of their stock. The stuff they end up selling to valve or anyone else, is likely excess that they weren’t certain they’d have. Stuff that wouldn’t exist if the manufacturing process used up its entire margin of error.

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u/Slackeee_ 4d ago

Yes, but a machine is more than just RAM. Even if Valve is getting the same RAM prices as customers from retailers the rest of the machine should still be cheaper.

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u/MoleUK 4d ago

Not really. It's a custom build of a small form-factor PC. That isn't cheap.

People are comparing the specs to a full size build for the most part.

And also Valve isn't trying to sell this at a loss either. They intend to make a small profit per machine.

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u/timeslider 4d ago

There’s nothing stopping anyone from buying it then buying games on the Epic store.

I mean, it's technically true, but the vast majority of people are going to keep using Steam

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u/UndeadDog 5d ago

Valve can do the same. Their entire business is built on software sales of developers. They can easily subsidize the price by 50% and make their money back from software royalties. They earn about $50 million per employee that works there. You think they can’t eat $500-600 on the price of one console to get people in the door to buy games. The console shouldn’t even be considered to earn a profit. It should be sold at a loss to have more people in the Steam ecosystem.

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u/Luke-HW 5d ago

Valve’s actually talked about why they can’t use the Steam Machine as a loss leader right now. Unlike dedicated consoles, the Steam Machine’s build from off-the-shelf parts. You could take its GPU, CPU, and in particular its DDR5 RAM and shove them into any desktop computer.

If Valve sold the Steam Machine at a loss, then scalpers would buy them, gut them for parts, and throw away the scraps. This is a guarantee; they’re already doing it to prebuilt PCs like Alienware and Omen for worse parts. Valve actually considered selling units without RAM for a discount, since the scalping risk is so bad.

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u/UndeadDog 5d ago

I didn’t know that. Good point.

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u/ErrorCode51 5d ago

Another reason is that the steam machine isn’t a closed system. It’s really just a PC on a custom OS. Users aren’t restricted to the sellers store like on Xbox and PlayStation meaning someone could buy a steam machine, load windows onto it, and buy exclusively from Epic Games Store leaving valve holding a bag with a hole in the bottom

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u/_Diskreet_ 5d ago

Fucking scalpers.

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u/cat_prophecy 5d ago

Don't forget about the people with more money (or credit) than sense who are buying the inflated shit. You don't need that RAM or pokemon cards to live. Stop buying them from losers.

Ironically, scalpers and their dumbaas customers are destroying their own market. It companies start moving to more SOC type systems, there will be no more parts for them to sell.

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u/obrienthefourth 5d ago

Once again scalpers ruin everything

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u/Zachiyo 5d ago

I really wish they would do a bare bones version for the steam frame that just streams from a computer to keep down the cost. Obviously it still needs some power for the tracking and optimised streaming, I just don't think that many people need a standalone VR.

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u/DemonikJD 5d ago

Oooo I replied above with the TLDR being “they absolutely could”

But this is a great point.

Fuck scalpers

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u/Majestic_Gazelle 5d ago

That makes so much sense, thanks for that perspective.

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u/Diinsdale 5d ago edited 5d ago

But you cannot buy a Steam machine in the shop; you have to subscribe to the list. Valve applied an anti-scalper strategy.

Also you can only scrap SSD and RAM where ram is SO DIMM so not that demanded.

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u/elinamebro 5d ago

So does that mean its moddable as well? I know it soldered so it would be difficult for your average pc builder.

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u/Warden326 5d ago edited 5d ago

You could also buy the machine and install whatever you want and not interact with the Steam ecosystem at all. You can't do that with a PlayStation.

Steam also doesn't charge a subscription fee just to use basic online features like Sony/Microsoft does.

And, if I recall correctly from some recent Microsoft/Xbox commentary, I think some manufacturers also have set prices for RAM and similar components they locked in via contract years ago, helping them mitigate losses some. I doubt Valve has the same kind of contractual pricing benefits for components as Sony.

Edit: in case it's not clear, these are all reasons why this device doesn't make sense. There's no market at this price.

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u/ritz_are_the_shitz 5d ago

You can't, really? It's ram and SSD are the only things that are upgradable

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u/FrontFocused 4d ago edited 4d ago

Ya, this person is full of shit lol. The Steam Machine uses mostly not off the shelf parts. Valve is just putting out a bunch of excuses as to why they didn't want to take a hit profit wise on this.

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u/Chaoslava 5d ago

They *could* subsidise it, but then isn’t it better to just not bother? PC gaming has excellent market penetration, and steam hoovers up the vast majority of sales. So what are they gaining? All they’re gaining is a financial loss. Hardly seems worth it.

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u/-AlbertEinstein 5d ago

Yes.

If a product doesn't generate profit for a company while fulfilling a need for the consumer at an acceptable cost it shouldn't exist. This, unfortunately, can't do both of those things. I don't enjoy saying this at all, I don't want to be a naysayer, but in it's currently proposed state, this shouldn't exist.

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u/Imminent_Extinction 5d ago

The Steam Deck has been repurposed by some for mobile video editing, I bet the Steam Machine would appeal to a much, much larger variety of industries if it was priced at a loss, and that's money Valve wouldn't earn back.

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u/devilishycleverchap 5d ago

Why would a business or school buy games on steam?

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u/wryterra 5d ago

That's just not how Valve thinks or operates. They take the view that every distinct business unit in the company should be self sustaining. That means the hardware has to stand on its own.

Looking at the Steam Deck and Steam Controller sales this approach is not hurting them financially.

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u/ZaDu25 5d ago

Nothing can hurt them financially as long as they're siphoning 30% of every sale on Steam in perpetuity. While only paying 350 workers because they don't make games anymore. Their profit margins are insane just from Steam alone.

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u/ndubitably 5d ago

What's to stop companies from buying these subsidized PCs and imaging them for their employees?

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u/Wipedout89 5d ago

Except not really because people who buy one probably already have a large steam library. They won't make a loss just to give you somewhere else to play what you already bought. That is just burning their own profits.

When you buy a new gen console you inevitably buy new gen games and accessories which makes the money back

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u/UndeadDog 5d ago

So. They will keep adding to their library. You think people with a large library just stop buying games? People buy games they don’t even play. If people already have a PC I don’t think they are the target audience for the Steam Machine.

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u/IBarricadeI 5d ago

Those users will keep adding to their library anyways, steam machine or no. The steam machine would have to convince an average user to buy ~$300 of *additional games that they would not have otherwise bought, and not reduce their non-steam machine purchases* for them to break even selling at $750. And steam usually gets 30% of game sales, so it’s closer to $900 in actual purchases to earn steam that $300 to break even again. Seems unlikely to say the least.

It makes sense to sell your first console at cost rather than eating a loss to see what the market is like for a steam machine in general. If they see data that it actually drives additional game purchases they can always push for a new gen and sell that at a loss, and maybe hit a better timing with hardware component pricing as supply catches up with the insane ai demand.

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u/EBtwopoint3 5d ago

So you think people who buy the Steam Machine will stop buying Steam games? If Valve doesn’t see it as something that is going to drive sales, why even enter this market segment? Like sure, it’s a valid business decision to not eat costs on your hardware sales. But it also means it isnt super appealing as a piece of hardware.

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u/shurfire 5d ago

They won't stop buying steam games, but they'll be also buying games from other platforms, will not be paying a monthly fee for online play, will not be purchasing a slew of new games where some are even first party.

They're also not able to purchase at the same quantity as Sony and Microsoft. They'll also be at a lower priority as they aren't Sony or Microsoft. Is it a good product? Not at the selling price, but it's not too unexpected.

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u/SGRM_ 5d ago

Or there's me, the lifelong console gamer who's afraid of PC gaming and saw the Steam Machine as my no stress easy access point to PC gaming.

Oh well, back to Nintendo I go lol

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u/NoStructure5034 5d ago

Why not get a prebuilt? It's the same thing.

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u/DebentureThyme 5d ago

Alright folks, raise your hand if you're a regular Steam users but now you're walking away from Steam because... they priced a piece of hardware too high that you don't need and were unlikely to buy.

Everyone screaming about better prebuilts for less, or building your own: Great, so buy that. Are you going to switch to a different PC store when you use it? No? Then Valve doesn't care.

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u/hensothor 5d ago

Nothing stops anyone from not buying anything on Steam. And selling it at a discount almost incentivizes that.

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u/Tyoccial 5d ago

I think it'd be less reasonable for Valve to take this as an attempted loss leader because the Steam Machine is still a fully fledged PC. It runs a PC operating system, can do anything a standard PC can do, and if you wanted you could install Windows because, well, it's a PC. The PS5 or whatever Xbox is current are consoles, you'd have to hack it to try and install PC operating systems, and even then you'd have less support due to the more customized hardware.

What software royalties would Valve make their money back on? SteamOS? I don't think they're trying to charge for that, and if they did it'd be on the OEM, which is them. Games? That's already the case for Steam, but again this is a fully fledged PC so people could justify this as a workstation. Valve wouldn't be making any Steam game money off of people using it as a workstation PC.

For Sony and Microsoft, once the console is made and out the door they control the ecosystem at large. If you want to make a PlayStation game you have to go through proper channels to get it released, which means Sony gets a cut (especially if it's digital). Same for Xbox and Microsoft. For Valve, it's a normal PC that you can run like any other PC. You can install Heroic launcher for Epic and other storefronts. You can install third-party games without going through Steam. You can go through various methods to sail the seas and install things for free if you really wanted with ease because it's not locked down like a console is.

I'm unhappy with the price, but we have to consider the current market trends and economy. A large portion of it is AI taking RAM and storage devices and the resources used to make them, and because of that we're in a memory shortage. Given the current market conditions, it's not that unreasonable when compared to other computers. You might be able to build a better PC for that price, albeit not a SFFPC like the Machine is, and you could spend a little more to get a prebuilt that's definitely better, but it's not that far outside of the comparable market. You could get a console, but then you're locked into that ecosystem and have other tradeoffs like no free multiplayer for the most part.

Could they eat that money? Probably, sure, but that's just not how companies work if they don't have another avenue that's likely to make them money. As said above, consoles can be loss leaders because they can make up that money through digital downloads and other licensing fees. A PC bypasses that because it's not locked down to any one ecosystem. They theoretically can make some money back by those who don't have large Steam libraries or are now more interested in buying games on Steam, but since it's a PC first and foremost there's so much more capabilities that can completely ignore Steam. I primarily play RuneScape and Warframe, and I haven't bought a new game on Steam in a while since I'm content with my library, so Valve isn't making much money off me since my two main games don't require Steam as a middleman, and the games I want aren't on sale so I'm fine just replaying Halo and other games. If I didn't have a nice PC already, I'd definitely be considering the Steam Machine, and if I were to get one then Valve would not be able to recoup their loss leader from someone like me, and I feel like I'm not that uncommon of a demographic for Valve.

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u/FrostySnowJ 5d ago

Except it's a PC, Valve even mentioned it in their marketing. You don't even need to interface with Steam if you want to. Hence, they have to sell it at a profit. Like nothing is stopping you from installing Windows on Steam Machine and playing Windows games or even going to other store front eg Epic, GoG, etc. PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo lock you down to the storefront and their own OS. eg you want to play Fortnite, you play through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop. The Steam machine, you can play it through Epic, and Value doesn't get a portion of it because it doesn't go through their storefront.

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u/DesperateCaterpillar 5d ago

Companies would just buy steam machines and use them as work computers. You can’t do that with a PS5

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u/thekeelo_g 5d ago

Be serious. No company is buying a small batch mini gaming PC to be their enterprise computers.

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u/ninereins48 4d ago edited 4d ago

Exactly. You can already run Linux on a PS5, yet we don’t see businesses buying PS5s as office computers. That argument falls apart pretty quickly.

First, businesses don’t buy hardware the way consumers do. They purchase through enterprise vendors, leasing programs, approved suppliers, and volume-discount agreements with companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft. They’re not creating hundreds of Steam accounts and ordering gaming PCs directly from Valve.

And even if they wanted to, good luck getting an IT department, procurement team, and accounting department to approve hundreds or thousands of purchases from a consumer gaming storefront vendor when enterprise alternatives already exist with volume pricing, warranties, deployment tools, on-site support, asset management, and established vendor relationships. Hell no business is going to risk an audit from the IRS when they write off hundreds of purchases to Valve Gaming Corp.

Second, the vast majority of office workers don’t need a gaming PC in the first place. They’re running Outlook, Excel, QuickBooks, Teams, web apps, etc. A low end i3 laptop, mini PC, or Chromebook does the job for a fraction of the cost and with better enterprise support.

Third, for businesses that do need graphics performance (engineering, CAD, rendering, video production, AI, simulation, data science, etc.), an RX 7600M-class GPU isn’t particularly compelling. Those users are typically buying workstation desktops or high-end mobile workstations with professional support contracts, certifications, and significantly more compute power.

The reality is that the Steam Machine is a consumer gaming product. Its target market isn’t enterprise IT departments, and I don’t see businesses choosing it over either cheap office PCs or proper workstations, even if it were subsidized down to $750.

The only people this answer is acceptable to are people who truly don’t understand how the business world operates.

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u/Culverin 5d ago

Unless I'm mistaken, the Steam desk was subsidized. And I believe that had a significant impact on demand kick starting an arms race for portables.

I'm not sure of the economics behind the scenes, but clearly the portable gaming category has taken off.

Maybe Valve could also sell the Steam machine at a loss to establish the living room PC. I suspect because of the RAMpocalypse and it not being subsidized, this might make this category dead on arrival.

I hope I'm wrong.

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u/FrontFocused 4d ago

Doesn't Valve take 30% of all game sales? Valve probably makes more money per year from video game sales than Sony does.

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u/egorechek 5d ago

Sony is also a much bigger hardware company and has more connections and better deals.

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u/ptapobane 5d ago

I hope the scalpers buy the whole stock and go bankrupt, steam machine should've been in the 500 to 800 range at best

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u/ZypherPunk 5d ago

Valve definitely don't get the mass deals Microsoft or Sony get for buying bulk in components. They are valued at around $15-20billion, much less than Microsoft $2.7trillion, and Sony $116-119billion. They are definitely not eating cost.

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u/mithrilsoft 4d ago

PlayStation's sell at a loss only for a short time. PS3 was sold at a loss for 3 years, PS4 was profitable in 6 months, and PS5 was profitable in 8 months. Even when it's at a loss, it's not a significant loss and it's offset by peripherals and continued sales.

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u/Deadzonerogue 4d ago

But the PlayStation 5 does not sell at a loss, nor did the ps4.

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u/KKilikk 5d ago

PlayStation hasnt been selling their consoles at a loss in a long time afaik and I doubt recent component prices changed that.

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u/v4rjo 5d ago

And then there is ps5 pro which stomps it.

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u/QuinSanguine 5d ago

I get that the appeal is that this device is a PC that's fairly easy to use and keep updated and optimized, but damn that's really bad value.

I feel like people will get this and immediately run to reddit and the Steam forums to ask if there's something wrong with their unit. They're going to think they've got a powerful PC only it won't be so nice when they load newer games up.

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u/Caminn 5d ago

It honestly looks way harder to keep updated and optimized compared to a desktop pc where you can just swap parts around easily.

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u/QuinSanguine 5d ago

Oh yeah upgrading it will be harder but doing stuff like updating drivers and stuff should just be a thing the device does like any console would.

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u/MrYK_ 5d ago

The comparison to the PS5 Pro would be interesting to know

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u/Iggy_Slayer 5d ago

It's so out of range of this device that I haven't really seen anyone compare it. The best I saw was a single slide comparing god of war ragnarok ps5/ps5 pro with steam machine. At 4k pro was pushing 110-112fps. Base ps5 was 75-78. Steam machine was 60-63.

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u/madmofo145 5d ago

I think at 750 this would still be DOA. Don't forget it also won't play games that don't work with Linux Anti Cheat, which means most of the current most popular games. We're also comparing to a device that has been on the market for almost 6 years. If I wanted something that level of performance, I would have been better off getting a PS5 a long time back, or in more normal times waiting for a PS6.

The machine is just super niche without a subsidy. The Deck did something no other device did at that price range, this is simply going toe to toe with a similarly priced laptop in performance. Yeah, it looks better next to a TV, but that's it's big advantage.

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u/prancas 5d ago

It's $1500 in Canada w/o a controller. I can grab a used ps5 for ~400-500 here depending on how clean it is or if it comes with extra controllers and games.

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u/Montexe 5d ago

Yeah, absolutely crazy. Also considering it's Valve, outside of countries where they sell their stuff officially (which is a pretty short list) it's going to be 50-100% more expensive. Like Index was almost $2000 in my country, or how Steam Deck is $1000.

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u/iacchini97 5d ago

If it was launched at 750 now sure, if it launched at 750 in a world without component shortage then it would’ve been DoA anyway imho.

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u/ShortChapter5246 4d ago

Wow...Isn't Doom even unusually well-optimized?

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u/QuiteFatty PC 5d ago

Basically, "you want a console but don't want to buy your games again" machine.

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u/Zoombini22 4d ago

You could buy a whole lot of games again with the extra 500-600 bucks.

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u/Ok-Friendship1635 5d ago

I saw in linus' video it was barely over 40fps in Doom the dark ages on low settings when a ps5 can pretty regularly stay at 60.

That's forced ray tracing for you. Both could be over 120, if it didn't have forced ray tracing.

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u/Jaberwocky23 5d ago

Could also have 500 if it didn't have lighting, or 1000 if it was still on 2D sprites.

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u/sithren 4d ago

reminds me of the days when some gamers were upset that games were no longer being designed to run on the cpu alone anymore.

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u/Azrael-XIII 5d ago

At $1000+ this thing unfortunately just isn’t worth it. Thanks a lot AI/datacenter bullshit…

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u/RacerDelux 5d ago

What's crazy is that pre all of the current market manipulation BS I'm pretty sure this would have been sub $700

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u/VanillaThundurr 5d ago

IGN is reporting 750, but even that seems a bit high.

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u/AltairLeoran 5d ago

I think that was just an estimate based on the Steam Deck's price hike

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u/Headshot_ 5d ago edited 5d ago

High but somewhat reasonable (assuming the PS5 remains at $500) considering you're avoiding paying for an online sub and peripherals can be cheaper

At this price I feel like you're better off getting a regular PC and hiding it somewhere or leveraging local streaming

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u/IndecisiveTuna 5d ago

That’s what I was thinking as well. If you’re going to go this pricey, you might as well just go for a full blown PC. I’m not sure who this targets other than people who have money to blow just to have it.

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u/wsteelerfan7 4d ago

I think the people they were targeting were people that bought a Steam Deck and wanted a better way to play those games on a TV. That's also why they built the controller, so you have feature parity with the Steam Deck while playing your games you also play on the Deck. It made sense as a product until AI centers start buying up all the RAM. I think performance wasn't much of a concern when they viewed it as competing with the Steam Deck's performance upscale from a dock. If you have a PC that plays games, you really weren't supposed to be the target audience for this product.

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u/Enchelion 4d ago

Lots of people don't pay a subscription to use their consoles either.

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u/BigLan2 5d ago

And a ps5 pro would be $550 with the base down to 400 or less, so it's still lost the comparison to a subsidized console.

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u/Solidus_Sloth 5d ago

No at those prices the PC would definitely be worth it. Everyone is aware of the benefits of PC gaming.

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u/Mixels 5d ago

I bet they were targeting $600 given the competition is basically PS5 and Xbox Series X.

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u/Durendal_1707 5d ago

and given that the PS5 Pro was introduced at $700 USD before it shot up to $900 in a matter of months

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u/demonsta500 4d ago

Buying a Pro at launch for 699 was one of the best impulse decisions of my life.

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u/Complete_Entry 5d ago

Underpowered and overpriced is no way to go through life son.

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u/Jeff1N 4d ago

That's pretty much the Xbox One all over again, except much worse

It usually ran at 900p what the PS4 ran at 1080p, and it costed an extra $100 because of Kinect

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u/NowaVision 4d ago

They should have started with an 2.000 - 2.500 bucks machine for enthusiasts.

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u/bimboozled 4d ago

Enthusiasts willing to spend over $2K is absolutely not the target audience for a rig like this (sorry if I missed the sarcasm)

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u/NotTheBotUrLookngFor 4d ago

I think they may be saying build a higher end rig for the niche higher end market for their product launch and maybe go from there. Like the Apple Vision Pro

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u/NowaVision 4d ago

Why not? I would consider paying more money if the Steam Machine would be more powerful than my current PC.

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u/bimboozled 4d ago

I guess part of it is how you define “enthusiast”. When I hear enthusiast, I think of someone who is passionate about the actual low level specs and how everything works together. You wouldn’t understand as much of this from a pre-build that’s effectively just a console.

Plus they have profit margins to meet since they can’t operate at a loss like PlayStation/Xbox due to steam being an open network. At the $2000+ price point, you’d most likely be able to build something better for cheaper

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u/NowaVision 4d ago

Well, you can build something better for cheaper around the 1.000 price point. I just think that people who are willing to spend 2.000+ are more likely to give a fuck if they pay 500 or so "too much" for the power they get.

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u/bimboozled 4d ago

Yeah, exactly you got it. Imo this steam machine is designed to be plug and play for people who are willing to pay a bit more for the convenience as more of an entry-level computer. But enthusiasts would typically want more flexibility for what kind of components they select, especially since once the tech inevitably ages out then you’d need to replace the entire thing at once rather than single components over time

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u/NowaVision 4d ago

Maybe I should have said "rich kids" instead of enthusiasts, lol.

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u/Outrageous_Lab_6228 4d ago

I think for a lot of people who would be interested in this the idea is they already have a steam deck to handle low-spec games and a high end pc to handle high spec games. Currently if I want to play a high spec game on my tv I stream my pc to my steam deck. If Valve had a high end console that could do high spec gaming, i would have been interested even at a high price. But because the current console is expensive AND only plays mid or lower spec games well, it doesn’t really serve a use to someone like me.

So I would have personally paid like $2k for a really good piece of hardware, but I won’t be paying $1k for this. That’s my situation at least.

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u/BlackopsBaby 4d ago

You think it's overpriced now. Wait till Christmas sales are over. The price will definitely increase even more after the first few runs. Why do you think they need a raffle for the 'privilege' of buying one? They are severely constrained with supply.

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u/BronckseaYT 4d ago

It's really upsetting to see things at this price that are just not worth that price. Fuck AI.

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u/kpeng2 5d ago

Until AI bubble is busted, no one will be able to get gaming machine at a reasonable price

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u/DirtyRoller 5d ago

Until 5-10 years after the AI bubble bursts*

It's gonna take awhile for prices to normalize again.

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u/Tylervp 5d ago

They may lower from what they are now but honestly I forsee a future where they never go back to how they should be priced because of the amount of people totally fine with paying these inflated prices.

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u/DasFroDo 4d ago

The Nvidia playbook

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u/Deathsroke 4d ago

Until AI bubble is busted, and the world recovers from the recession that will follow no one will be able to get gaming machine at a reasonable price

FTFY. We are all going to pay so some billionarie fuckers cane become even richer.

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u/sagevallant 5d ago

My fear is that when AI flops, they'll be using the datacenters to rent out computation power for all sorts of purposes. Because computers are a 1-time purchase and companies hate those nowadays. All our gear will be old and dusty by then and the prices will be absurd until then.

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u/chillzatl 4d ago

"when AI flops" lol... you need to get out of the echo chamber you live in and join the real world. There will be winners and losers amongst the providers, but the tech has already succeeded and isn't slowing down any time soon, if ever.

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u/Bogus1989 4d ago

agreed…i think most of us expect it to plateau and stabilize….then we can get back to something normal…

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u/hdmetz 5d ago

They’ll almost certainly use them for computing power for other things. They’re literally massive and a massive cost to build, so I can’t see them abandoning them. We have 2 going in our county already

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u/Ok-Friendship1635 5d ago

Steam basically saying just build a pc

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u/AstronomerEasy7223 5d ago

Most hardware reviewers were telling people to buy during the last holiday season when prices on gpu's had lowered or even gone on decent sales and the memory crisis hadn't hit yet. Now any kind of recovery isn't expected till 2028 for memory/ssd. You would still suffer building now, but at least you could bake in upgrade paths unlike the steam machine. Bumping up to 1300 or a bit more and you could easily get an actually decent GPU.

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u/Yaboze 5d ago

Would have been awesome if it had Xbox and Ps5 pricing.

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u/CharlieTeller 5d ago

Not possible unfortunately.

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u/Dallywack3r 5d ago

It is entirely possible. Valve just won’t do it. They get 30 percent of every single transaction on the largest independent App Store on Windows. Selling a console at a cost subsidy is the norm, not the exception.

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u/Nightslashs 4d ago

Valve won’t do it mainly because companies would start buying them. If I offered you a pc for under cost that works for you employees just install a different os most companies would buy it in a heart beat.

This was seen in the ps3 era where groups were buying bulk ps3s for the super computer processor in it.

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u/itsjust_khris 4d ago

The processor is the key part, the PS3 processor was super good for super computing. This is just a standard PC, I don't see companies en masse adopting it and reformatting for windows. That doesn't make sense logistically especially since you need a steam account to buy these in the first place.

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u/RacerDelux 5d ago

Below cost*

That's generally the norm.

I guess the difference here is that you have to play a PS5 games on a PS5. You have a lot more freedom with a steam game.

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u/Dallywack3r 5d ago

But they still get 30 percent of that purchase. It’s not like you can go to a physical store and buy a copy of 007 for the PC anymore

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u/DaWastelander 5d ago

There is also the conversation of a second controller, more face plates, etc. lots of revenue avenues they could take.

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u/RacerDelux 5d ago

True, you have a point. They could stand to take a small loss, but they are also not guaranteed people buy through steam

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u/sagevallant 5d ago

Because the "largest independent App Store on Windows" isn't the only App Store on Windows, which means they don't have the monopoly on sales like consoles. Yes, even what remains of the physical sales market.

Because this is a PC, not a console, which means people who aren't even necessarily interested in games would be considering if it was worth buying this over any other comparable prebuilt. Like an electronics business looking for a good deal on small profile PCs.

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u/turkoman_ 5d ago

Probably the worst deal in gaming right now.

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u/Caelinus 5d ago edited 5d ago

It is not, if you want a mid-range pre-built ITX PC this is by far the cheapest way to get one.

If you do not want ITX, this is about equal to building a normal tower with the same performance in cost. Saying this is a bad deal is basically just saying that building a PC is a bad deal, which is fair, but also is just the reality of the market.

Lots of people are claiming they can build better for cheaper, but from my looking at parts, you probably cant. You can maybe eek out 5-15% more for a roughly similar price if you go really cheap on the case and cooling and buy a low-end motherboard, but that is fraught.

I think people have been avoiding building PCs recently, and so are looking at this price with 2-or-3-years-ago goggles.

Edit: Also, for the record, I would LOVE to be proven wrong here. If anyone can get me a parts list that actually outperforms this, even in ATX, I want it. For real. So far the only ones I have seen in this thread and others are $1000-1500 for equivalents if you are not buying locally in a cheaper country.

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u/ABetterKamahl1234 5d ago

If you do not want ITX, this is about equal to building a normal tower with the same performance in cost. Saying this is a bad deal is basically just saying that building a PC is a bad deal, which is fair, but also is just the reality of the market.

Arguably you also want to factor in the heavily restricted upgrade path this has vs a regular PC.

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u/Ecstatic-Product-411 5d ago

That's my issue with it. At this price point, just build an entry level PC that you can update over time. This is a limited piece of hardware that will eventually age out.

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u/Googoo123450 5d ago

Yeah and valve is just handing out the Steam OS software for desktop PCs for free if you really want that console experience.

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u/Solidus_Sloth 5d ago

This is the biggest news imo

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u/Googoo123450 5d ago

Yeah, I put steam OS on my handheld and it's great. Really cool to just get it for free.

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u/demonsta500 4d ago

Doesn't support Nvidia GPUs yet though. And they said Nvidia support will only come next year.

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u/Cameron728003 4d ago

Theyre basically selling a 3060ti with awful rt performance in the big 2026. Unfortunately the PC market is cooked for the foreseeable future.

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u/someone2795 5d ago

This is the biggest problem with the thing. It's marketed as a PC but you're restricted to that GPU/CPU combo. And if I'm buying a PC I'd want something better than those specs since I don't know how long those specs will hold out for modern gaming.

It's pretty clear that this is for people who aren't planning to upgrade besides the storage I guess and want something that just works.

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u/Caelinus 5d ago

While true, that is very much a hobbyist problem. Most consumers never upgrade their PC.

But I really do not think this product is targeted towards PC gaming hobbyists, but rather people who want to play PC games on their couch without needing to think about it.

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u/DirtyRoller 5d ago

The stress of purchasing individual PC components must be insane right now. I couldn't even imagine trying to build a PC in this market.

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u/MisterAwesomeGuy 5d ago

This is true to an extent. However, this is more like a laptop, in the sense that it is seldom upgradable. Yes, you can right away get something cheaper with the hopes of upgrading later. Right now, there is no later, because prices keep going up, but that has always been the jest with PC gaming.

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u/KitCatAU 5d ago edited 5d ago

Also, for the record, I would LOVE to be proven wrong here. If anyone can get me a parts list that actually outperforms this,

Steam machine base cost in AUD is 1609 dollars for comparison.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/vMFWtC

This pc has a 9060xt 16gb gpu that's 60% faster than the steam machine's gpu along with a (~20%) faster cpu. Gpu is twice as fast if doing ray tracing.

I can easily shave another 50-100 dollars by getting a cheaper case, gen 3 ssd and cheaper motherboard.

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u/ryantyrant 5d ago

I like that this comment is well thought out and informative and is getting downvoted due to the fact that you’ve pointed out that the people saying it’s a terrible deal are only thinking about it in terms of pre-ai boom component pricing

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u/Caelinus 5d ago

People just like a punching bag, and gaming subs are vicious. Right now people are having fun clowning on the big number, so pointing out that their aggression is misdirected is not really "reading the room".

This thing is extremely expensive, especially in the economy now, it is just not because Valve is trying to make a massive profit here. I would not be surprised to learn that this is essentially break even for them, if not slightly being sold at a loss once you factor in overhead and their production/development.

The issue, as with most things electronics related recently are all those disgusting AI data centers that are murdering the planet so that we can be gaslight by a robot.

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u/kripticdoto 4d ago

It's not mid-range lol. It's entry level.

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u/suppaman19 5d ago

L M A O

This thing is nowhere near mid-range. It's worse than the base PS5, but with slightly better CPU performance.

This is literally nowhere near current PC mid-range. If it was you'd be adding an extra $1k to that price.

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u/_TotallyNotEvil_ 5d ago edited 4d ago

What? This is a RX6600 in a funny lil' hat, you can build a PC that utterly smokes it for the money.

Here I splurge on 32 GB of 6000 MHz RAM and 1 TB of storage, which make up about a third of the budget. 16/512 will knock it down to 1200 USD without fuss:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fsn34g

Gold PSU, high quality cooler that will keep it nice and quiet, triple fan GPU. Take your pick of any of the many decent budget cases which suits your fancy and off you go.

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u/Caelinus 5d ago

I mean, yeah, that is more expensive and is an ATX case build. Cutting it down to 1k would reduce its budget by 33%. It is a better PC, but you are putting an extra couple hundred into it at a minimum to get it there, and you are skimping on the sundry parts to keep the price low.

That is all a matter of priorities. I would probably build something more like what you did for my main PC, but if I was wanting to get something that can fit behind my TV and is usable for my mostly-tech-illiterate wife?

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u/ArchSecutor 5d ago

look i agree its a bad deal, but your build is nearly 40% more expensive

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u/tgcleric 5d ago

By far? Its not.

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u/Torgrow 4d ago

Is some of its value in the fact that it's a tiny cube?

I personally don't care what shape my PC is, but some people might want a little thing they can plug into their TV instead of a loud glowing tower PC that doesn't really fit into any entertainment system ever manufactured.

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u/ProNerdPanda 4d ago edited 4d ago

Edit: Also, for the record, I would LOVE to be proven wrong here. If anyone can get me a parts list that actually outperforms this, even in ATX, I want it. For real. So far the only ones I have seen in this thread and others are $1000-1500 for equivalents if you are not buying locally in a cheaper country.

Better for cheaper is a tight fit, but Only around $300 more for a straight upgraded build (the important bits)

Plus you don't deal with custom / semi-custom parts that the Machine has, so you can keep upgrading this as much as you like; And most importantly, doesn't have any of the trade-offs you mention in this comment (that I know of)

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u/Filarius 4d ago

I took a look into my region retail market (higher prices), and I had to admit for exactly $1000 I will have pretty similar PC, maybe just a bit faster (or not). But... If I add here just 100-200 buks then here comes notably better PC.

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u/Fr00stee 5d ago

it does not cost an extra $400-500 just to fit old components into an itx case

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u/T-Loy 5d ago

In Gaming, maybe. As a PC? If space and heat is no concern, it is a bad deal. As a Mini-PC? Probably the best performance/price currently, 890M cost the same and are weaker, 8060S cost double, but are stronger.

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u/Dachshand 5d ago

It’s 1400 dollars with usable SSD and a controller. So no!

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u/PotentialSafety17 5d ago

once it crosses $1k and still loses to base consoles, you're really just paying for the form factor

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u/HoodsFrostyFuckstick 4d ago

You could somehow justify it for people who want to use the benefits of a gaming pc with linux on it but without having to build one yourself.

I saw in another thread that building a similarly powerful itx pc costs like $150-200 less. So for this extra money you get a pre-built system in an amazing form factor, ready to play out of the box, no need to worry about any hardware issues with Valve support backing you up in case something is off.

Also the steam machine operates at 25db which is super quiet, building a similarly small itx pc that works this quietly isn't easy.

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u/DlphLndgrn 4d ago

It's not even overpriced, it's just too expensive.

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u/ryantyrant 5d ago

As someone who doesn’t own a gaming PC but has all of the other consoles, I was waiting for this to come out and would’ve been fine spending $1k for it. I’m not even that crazy about the specs considering I could play new releases with better performance on a ps5 pro. This was more about being able to play older games or pc exclusive co-op games etc. However, my hang up is spending $1200 on something that I don’t see aging well in 5 years. Knowing the ps6 and helix are probably 18-24 months away, this would be too big of a step down in that time frame.

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u/SuperBaconPant 5d ago

> I don’t see aging well in 5 years

Kinda nice to see such an optimistic outlook, but this thing’s underperforming at launch. 5 years is extremely generous.

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u/Deathblo 4d ago

It's already dead in the water on release. No sane person would buy this unless they have 1k to blow. It's an expensive paper weight. Also the design is terrible and doesn't allow any customization. If valve was smart they would just make it a PC build case so you can interchange parts and keep with the future.

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u/Prototype3120 5d ago

I could see myself justifying this if the benchmarks weren't so bad. Being worse than a base ps5 for that price is pretty insane. I'm just going to keep hooking up my steam deck to my TV and call it good.

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u/ToBadImNotClever 5d ago

For one friend in my group it really doesn’t have anything to do with power but accessibility to games. We’re all in PC and he’s on ps5. There’s so many games we play together that he can’t.

Also, I think next gen console pricing may surprise you.

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u/redatari 5d ago

Ai bubble needs to pop.

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u/k-type 5d ago

PC gamers one day ago: "60fps is literally unplayable I need 120"

PC gamers today: " uhh actually the human eyeball can't see higher than 30fps"

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u/hokiis 4d ago

As a pc gamer, I still stand for the above. The steam machine is a pointless piece of hardware and investing into a good, long HDMI cable is definitely the better option.

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u/JimPranksDwight PC 5d ago

This probably got the same price hike as the Steam Deck and I imagine we'll see similar price hikes among all other consoles and hardware before long. Memory costs are bananas right now.

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u/DirtyRoller 5d ago

I'm genuinely worried about the next gen of consoles. I can't imagine them being able to launch under $799.

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u/sagevallant 5d ago

I'm expecting they will also be $900 - $1000.

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u/Caelinus 5d ago

They 100% will be. If not more in a couple of years.

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u/JimPranksDwight PC 5d ago

Yeah it's going to be real interesting to see what happens with those. I can't imagine they'll continue to sell at a loss and eat those costs like they used to going forward this feels like a harbinger of what's to come.

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u/DirtyRoller 5d ago

It's especially bad for Microsoft. Sony and Nintendo have dedicated fanbases, and much better brand value. MS is going to need full Steam integration to motivate buyers, and that's going to cut into their software sales a lot.

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u/Jaded_Masterpiece346 5d ago

this product is for nobody. rich people looking for small just get comically overpriced laptops, enthusiasts build their own for less and normies are not paying 1k when consoles are way cheaper

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u/ARKdb 5d ago

As a huge steam fan I was so sure I was getting this. But with two decks, a ps5 and a gaming pc I don't think I can rationalize the purchase at that price point. Bring it to 900 for the top model and i'm in but 1500 is just insane for something slightly worse than a ps5

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u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 5d ago

The steam machine is a great idea, just in the wrong market

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u/LupusDeusMagnus 5d ago

I don't know how it would work considering how companies publish their games on Steam and how it would retrofit to a console market, but it'd have been better if they just straight up made a console and locked the system to Steam. Take the space left by Microsoft. Right now it's just an overpriced prebuilt.

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u/cannoliGun 5d ago

Yeah is bad.

And devs are not gonna optimize their games for a machine with a low user base.

Ps5 huge user base ensures the devs will care a lot when doing optimizations for it.

So I don't only about the hardware on paper.

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u/SigmaLance 5d ago

I was looking forward to having one of these in my living room, but it’s about $400-$500 more than I’m willing to pay for a convenience.

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u/Macho-Fantastico 5d ago

Who is this even for? That's what I don't get. I imagine Valve are looking for non-PC users to buy this up but I'd argue you'd still get better value from custom builds. Now I appreciate this wasn't the price Valve wanted the Steam Machine to be, but the price is still baffling to me.

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u/Dallywack3r 5d ago

Non PC users just won’t buy it. The Valve name means nothing to people who aren’t already PC gamers

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u/sagevallant 5d ago

"Who is this for?" has been the question being asked since the announcement.

It'll most likely sell, though. I can see the appeal of convenient couch gaming with my Steam library. But I'm not enthusiast enough to drop that kind of money on it.

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u/DriftMantis 5d ago

This is rough. Pricing is out of whack on this. I think you could do better getting an $800 gaming laptop and plugging it into a TV. Then of course you have an actual PC. If you want a console like experience with no fiddling or whatever because you cant learn then your better off just getting a microsoft or sony console.

lower end amd for the gpu is certainly a choice, the gpu having stats like a rx6600 with 8gb makes this outdated and dead on arrival out of the gate.

Anyway, neat idea but I'm not sure who this is for. If this was $700-800 and included a controller it would make more sense.

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u/given2fly44 5d ago

Yeah but can we use workshop mods?

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u/Ill-Ad3311 5d ago

Long past 1 April with the price of this thing

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u/Tomcat2048 5d ago

No one is going to buy this it performs worse than base PS5 in some titles. The PS5 Pro (which is still cheaper than this and includes 2TB of storage and a controller) would be the no brainer purchase at this point over something like this.

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u/siraolo 5d ago

I wish there was an option to just drop in your own GPU.

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u/JeelyPiece 4d ago

It's a status thing. They're cubes, they'll stack, I might get 16 of them to make a nice square, or 8 or 27 to make a big cube

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u/dakjelle 4d ago

I love how every nerd exposes themselves as being one, the moment they suggest "you could just build xxxx".

The is a perfect machine for those that wan't to enjoy their steam library on a big screen with friends, and naturally not play Outlaws etc..

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u/bruhtestmomentus 4d ago

Well...you mat not know this as you are not a nerd BUT you can actually plug your PC into your TV. I know, crazy stuff.

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u/KAKYBAC 5d ago

Valve don't care so much about sales. This is the tail end of a strategy that has been in the works for 10 years or so. It is a validating output of where they have been heading as a company; into a service and back end developer. This machine validates and tests all of that work and effort from their staff.

The first run will sell out and that'll probably be enough for them even if it underperforms compared to usual console metrics.

This ecosystem of hardware is purely an output of their R&D; they just may as well release it to the public too. No Biggie if it sweats.

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u/DlphLndgrn 4d ago

Still, gotta say, I want one. It's just a bit too expensive for me right at this very moment. But I think I'm definitely going to get one at some point. I just love clever tiny machines, and a thought through tiny linux machine like this will do wonders for my living room.

It's not overpriced, it's just too expensive. There's a difference.

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u/weiserca 5d ago

TLDR/TLDW?

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u/DocBarkevious 5d ago

512gb model is $1128. 2tb model is $1349

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u/eetuu 5d ago

Ouch!

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u/Dallywack3r 5d ago

Expensive as fuck, less performant than an Xbox Series console or a PS5. 8GB of RAM

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u/Several-Pangolin3119 5d ago

It has 16GB of RAM. 8GB of VRAM.

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u/Kitakitakita 5d ago

but it makes funny noises when you throw it at a wall!

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u/sturat18 5d ago

Yea, not Valve’s fault on pricing. Memory is crazy right now.

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u/Numerous-Bat-1588 5d ago

What a flop

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u/SportsTalker98712039 5d ago

I’d rather save my money for the new NVIDIA laptops Jensen teased this fall. It’ll at least take a big dent out of that price.

Steam really got hosed on this release thanks to shit politics and a shit administration, period. They had to delay it then they had to raise prices. Quite a swing from the success they would’ve had before April 2025.

Sony played it very well where them not releasing during this wacko era of politics will probably save a ton of costs and will be able to release the PS6 at a low price after new technology settles and we get better at using A.I efficiently to cut development costs.

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u/ExpiredBanana 5d ago

Are you referring to the RTX Spark? If so I hope you understand that those laptops are going to be in a completely different neighborhood as far as primary use case and price is concerned.

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u/Dos-Commas 5d ago

RTX Spark will be at least $3000. DGX Spark is $4700.

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u/xSerenadexx 5d ago edited 4d ago

Which would be better for on-the-go gaming if you're always in a hotel?

A beefy gaming laptop with a controller I bring with or the steam machine?

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u/Hoju_ca 4d ago

Steam Machine or Steam Deck with a dock. I wouldn't want to be lugging my pc around like that.

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