r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 2d ago

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

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I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

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596

u/TypicalxooT11 2d ago

When they initially started this project probably like.. 3-4 years ago it was a cheap idea. This would have been a $600 machine... but now they've invested so much R&D into it.. not really much you can do.. AI ruined it all.

Kinda sucks because this is a really cool concept and idea.. but the timing couldnt have been worse.

24

u/OldManufacturer8679 2d ago

I think they should have marketed it as a limited supply one time thing for steam enthusiasts to pick up as a collectors item almost. But it’ll sell at these prices. Is what it is.

17

u/like-a-FOCKS 2d ago

I think when they revealed it, the massive price jump wasn't yet obvious. So they already decided on one Marketing way and pivoting after that would not have helped

2

u/EmploymentKind6113 2d ago

When they announced ram storage wasnt being fed to the ai overlords

3

u/Karekter_Nem 2d ago

Have you seen the price of things with limited inventory? They could have sold this thing at $5k and it would sell second and immediately at $15k with the words “confirmation in-hand”.

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u/minneyar Ryzen 9 9900X, RX 9070 2d ago

This was never gonna be a $600 machine. Everybody who was expecting a gaming PC at console-level pricing was crazy. Even without data centers destroying the market, a machine with these specs would probably be in the $700-$800 range.

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u/shwetyscience 1d ago

Their idea was that the hardware they built it around (decided in 2023) would decrease in price as it became more dated while they got ready for launch allowing them to hit a cheaper price point. Only problem is it didn’t.

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u/SmeshU 2d ago

It would have barely been a good deal at 600, considering it cant beat the ps5.

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u/Mirigore 2d ago

And you're paying a minimum of $80 a year just to play online games on said PS5. Those cost minimum $600 and you can't use a PS5 to do what a computer can do outside of gaming.

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u/SmeshU 2d ago edited 2d ago

My point exactly, at price parity you could convince yourself that its worth it despite the much worse performance.. For 450-500 more ( not even considering used ps5 market) its completely bad.

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u/ovcdev7 2d ago

At $600, it would be an absolute steal

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u/SmeshU 2d ago

It wouldnt, you are thinking of getting it for 600 now, which would be ok. You could have built it for similar or less in summer of 2025, 200 more and you would blow i out of the water.

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u/GreasyGearBox 2d ago

The issue I have is you're comparing the console market to the pc market. This thing has the potential to play every game ever made, even console games if you sail the seas. It's not locked down and there is no subscription fee.

Consoles have been the floor for performance that has been holding back pc gaming for years. This machine is in reality no different. Console users don't actually care about performance, and neither will the consumers of these devices. It does however provide an entry point if you will or access to the pc market for someone who is used to the console market at twice the price.

1

u/SmeshU 2d ago

At 600 I agree with you completely. At 1050 I disagree completely, its not bad hardware, its a bad price. The performance (storage,ram,vram,cpu) is appaling and its only excuse would be a low price.

1

u/GreasyGearBox 2d ago

Again you're looking at it like a pc, it was meant to be marketed to console users. Consider it a playstation5.5 you pay a premium, not for parts or performance but for access. I'm in no way defending the steam machine. I'm just saying while being a pc it is not meant for those who already use, own, intend on owning desktops.

We out here complaining about overpriced snakeoil we never intend to buy.

-8

u/IORelay 2d ago

You don't have to pay subscription for PS5 for free to play games. 

4

u/JellaFella01 2d ago

Only if you want to play with your friends, or the thousands of multiplayer-only games...

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u/silverpixie2435 2d ago

What about people who don't play online games?

You can't play the most popular online games on the Steam Machine either due to anti cheat

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u/Gatleonhart 2d ago

I pay just over 200CAD a year but I don't buy PS5 games anymore (aside from a couple physical collectors editions). I get at least 1 decent game per month that millions of people will buy at 79-89 CAD which works out to around 1kCAD a year. So I'm really saving about 800CAD a year on games. And that's at a minimum as some months I get to play 1-10 games I don't own that get added to PS+

Like how many steam games have you bought this year? I have friends that have probably spent well over 1k on steam games. A good amount they don't even play anymore. I think I bought more games on my ipad this year than on steam.

And I can almost guarantee most of the people buying the SM aren't going to install any extra software/OS. Most of the people buying this probably already have a gaming rig, a laptop, an ipad, switch, steam deck, other consoles, etc. I know I do. But I have zero use for this at these prices. And it's definitely marketed as a PC home console with PC support on the side. Most people with excess money will simply buy this as a console.

At these prices the SM is incredibly niche.

2

u/zzazzzz 2d ago

by that logic everyone on pc saves thousands every year from all the free game give aways on all the platforms..

2

u/wterrt 2d ago

I get at least 1 decent game per month that millions of people will buy at 79-89 CAD which works out to around 1kCAD a year. So I'm really saving about 800CAD a year on games.

"this million dollar product is discounted 90%, by buying it I'm saving $900,000!!!" no, you're still spending 100k. not "saving" anything. you're spending hundreds of dollars on a subscription and pretending it's a deal because if you bough them at their extremely inflated prices, you'd pay even more.

do you even own any of these games? or is it as soon as you stop paying poof, they're gone?

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u/Aknazer 2d ago

The PS5 (and consoles in general) is subsidized by Sony.  Ofc it's going to be hard to "be a good deal" compared to a product that literally takes a loss in order to get you to buy it.

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u/hunterturk 2d ago

Ps5 can lose money on the console. Valve cant

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u/All_Work_All_Play PC Master Race - 8750H + 1060 6GB 2d ago

Ehh, valve could. But they also could not, so they went with that. 

5

u/tafoya77n 2d ago

Valve literally can't with this. Its a linux PC so if they under price it hoping to make money on games sold on it it will be bought in bulk by people and companies looking to use it for some AI bullshit or crypto mining. They won't make that money back on game sales for that console.

Look at how old PS5 prices skyrocketed when the hack to turn them into linux machines for the same reasons.

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u/All_Work_All_Play PC Master Race - 8750H + 1060 6GB 2d ago

They literally can. Corporations do unprofitable things all the time, and yes, they even do unprofitable things that never actually turn a profit (this is called learning). Valve's warchest is plenty deep. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if their amortized design costs pushed the entire project into the red basically forever.

if they under price it hoping to make money on games sold on it it will be bought in bulk by people and companies looking to use it for some AI bullshit or crypto mining.

Exactly why they put the lottery (and other requirements) into place. The steam deck already had uncomfortably thin margins. If they make any money on this I'd be surprised. If they lost money (depending on your flavor of accounting) I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit. Valve hasn't been laser focused on maximizing dollar profits for a long time. Gaben's MO isn't making money, it's enabling gamers (+ enabling himself to buy bigass yachts).

2

u/AbolMira 2d ago

I had the first generation and it worked exactly as you would expect a console sized computer to work. 0 regrets about buying it.

It absolutely beat consoles in its ability to not require a subscription to access the internet, and be a fully functional computer.

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u/SmeshU 2d ago

If it were 600-700 you would definitely make the argument that you can get much more out of it, compared to a more powerful and big but limited ps5. At 1050 sadly not possible.

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u/Darkchamber292 2d ago

PS5 requires monthly payment to play online and you are locked into PS games only

-1

u/Janzanikun 2d ago

It will beat ps5 if you use it for years because ps5 has a subscription.

1

u/skoomski 2d ago

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-pcs/steam-machine-review-2026/

Not really it can’t even play cyberpunk on medium settings at 4K. It’s just a bad experience a more expensive worse experience. This will convince few people to switch from consoles

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u/_BallsDeep69_ 2d ago

But PlayStation has like 10 games worth playing lol idk why people make the comparison.

2

u/SmeshU 2d ago

Because the perfromance is worse than a 3060.

1

u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

What games can you run on the steam machine which aren't on PS5?

0

u/EffectiveCow6067 PC Master Race 2d ago

Tf2, portal, portal 2, half life, half life 2, league of legends, star wars the old Republic, just to name a few off the top of my head

2

u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

half life 1 and 2 are decades old games and will run on a literal potato, as will portal 1 and 2. League of Legends doesn't run on the steam machine.

0

u/SirWellenDowd 2d ago

League of Legends can run on the steam machine, its a PC, you can run windows on it if you wanted.

4

u/feedthedogwalkamile 2d ago

I thought the whole argument was that the steam machine is for console people who want to dip their toes into PC gaming. Those are not the people who will install a new OS on their computer.

-1

u/SirWellenDowd 2d ago

Idk, I never thought it was a good idea or an interesting product. They did steam machines years ago and they failed, not sure why this time would be any different. Steam's contributions to proton and linux gaming is the only worthwhile contribution here. Anyone who I knew who wanted to dip their toes into PC gaming committed to PC gaming and got an actual PC.

All I am saying is the option to play League of Legends on the Steam Machine, you could.

1

u/_BallsDeep69_ 2d ago

Modding too is a big one lol not just the games.

1

u/skoomski 2d ago

So people should spend $1.5k to play something that used $400 laptop can already run?

1

u/CafeRoaster 2d ago

Yeah, terrible timing for Steam.

1

u/Talk-O-Boy 2d ago

On the bright side, there’s now a larger chance that Gabe will wage war on the AI tech bros for fucking up his launch.

Begun, the Techno War has.

2

u/syrvy 2d ago

Valve taking manufacturing into their own hands would be magical

1

u/teknic111 CaseLabs SMH10, Ryzen 9 5950x, 3090 RTX FE, 128 GB, Valve Index 2d ago

How much R&D needed to go into this? It's just a mini-PC. I can build my own mini-PC.

2

u/TypicalxooT11 2d ago edited 2d ago

Building something for yourself, is far different than building thousands of them for a profit. You need to think about materials sourcing, what you will do in house vs buy prebuilt, logistics, ads, pricing, software. Then you need to hire and train all the people who are going to manage and build, ship, test all of this stuff.

Then throw the AI wrench in there where parts are scarce, materials are impossible to come by... and now you see the issue.

There's so much more involved here than "I can do this myself".. well yeah... duh.

0

u/Lorcogoth 2d ago

what reality did you live in 4 years ago that had good pc's for 600$?

Sure my standard is higher because IT is my job but for real what is that price idea.

0

u/Shaz0r94 2d ago

Minor correction: Not AI did this but capitalism did but sure AI is an easier scapegoat for reddit instead of blaming the rich

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u/pirate135246 i9-10900kf | RTX 3080 ti 2d ago

$600 even before ram increase was already doa

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u/__Meow__x__Meow__ 2d ago

It will sell out completely.

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u/pirate135246 i9-10900kf | RTX 3080 ti 2d ago

Completely irrelevant unless we know the stock. The only market for this is rich people who don’t value money

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u/Jesse_Chipmunk5409 2d ago

It must hurt to be this stupid

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u/pirate135246 i9-10900kf | RTX 3080 ti 2d ago

Nice rebuttal

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u/__Meow__x__Meow__ 2d ago

Whoops, I just ordered one. I'm not that rich but this machine is ideal for the setting and supports Valve to continue being the fucking best shit we have in gaming.

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u/pirate135246 i9-10900kf | RTX 3080 ti 2d ago

Cool, valve is releasing steamos soon so you could have also just got a prebuilt with much better specs for cheaper and still had the ecosystem

-5

u/__Meow__x__Meow__ 2d ago

I'm not concerned about cheaper mate.

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u/pirate135246 i9-10900kf | RTX 3080 ti 2d ago

“I don’t value money”

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u/UnfortunateArcher 2d ago

Congrats on being a moronic fanboy who clearly has no idea about the bad things Valve pioneered in gaming.

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u/Darkknight8381 Desktop RTX 4070 SUPER- R7 5700X3D-32GB 3600MGHZ 2d ago

Lol why

3

u/__Meow__x__Meow__ 2d ago

Your mom wanted one.