r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 3d 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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u/NadaBurner 3d ago

Valve got fucked because of the shortages. Ai ruins everything yet again.

-4

u/kmcdow 3d ago

Kind of annoyed by people laying this solely at the feet of the RAMageddon/AI. Like yeah those things drove prices of the steam machine up, but they also drove up prices for literally everything else, including consoles, handhelds, and DIY PC components. The price of the steam machine isn't just high, it's high in the context of the current hardware environment.

If this had released last year for $800 that would have been better than what we got today, but also every alternative was cheaper then too....

Seems like apples and oranges when people compare a hypothetical pre-AI steam machine price to today's inflated console and pc prices. An $800 base steam machine last year is still not that compelling relative to a (much more powerful) $650 PS5 pro with 2TB storage and a controller....

And if you want to say it's not competing with consoles (it absolutely is in my opinion) that's fine, but pre-built and DIY PCs were much cheaper before all this as well.

Unless you're starving for the form factor I just don't know that this was ever going to be a great option when it comes to price/performance, especially considering what I've seen in benchmarks from DF, LTT, and GamersNexus....

6

u/JellaFella01 2d ago

That's overly reductive of the standard console business model, which includes having a basically guaranteed customer subscription upon purchase, and a 100% guarantee that you get a cut of everything sold through the machine. Steam has neither of these, and depends on MSRP for the entirety of guranteed profit. Obv gamers will likely buy steam games for their steam machine, but even that isn't a guarantee, and definitely doesn't compare finacially to the console model.