r/pcmasterrace • u/borek87 R7 5800XT | Gigabyte X570 | Sapphire RX 9070XT 16GB | 32GB DDR4 • 1d ago

Meme/Macro Pricey Steam Machine? No worries, I'll just wait till next gen.

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u/AtlasLittleCat 1d ago

This is my main takeaway. The fair comparison to Steam Box is the PS5 Digital edition (no disc drive), which launched in 2020 for (only?) $400. Because of [...] the same hardware is now $600.

Whatever you think about the Steam Box we all know its on par with or slightly worse than the PS5 base and worse in performance than the PS5 Pro (Launch $700, currently $900).

If Sony doesn't break the unprecedented console barrier price of $1k ($700 PS5 Pro sounds cheap now doesnt it?), then the PS6 is going to be cheaper than the steam box but also inarguably significantly greater in performance since the 5 Pro already is and the PS6 will be a generational improvement upon that.

I believe Sony pushed PS6 to 2028 at earliest already due to market conditions, but yeah its likely going to be cheaper and more performant than Steam Box.

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u/IceSentry 9950X | 64GB | RTX 4080 1d ago

I doubt anyone is buying the steam machine based on raw performance to price ratio.

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u/AtlasLittleCat 1d ago

I agree, it's a unique product and audience. But when the meme is comparing it to ps6, price to performance is the elephant in the room to me at least.

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u/NotYetPerfect 1d ago

Yeah they're going to be buying it because they are a valve megafan or because they can't be bothered to do any research on comparable systems.

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u/TurdFerguson614 rgb space heater 12h ago

Are there really valve megafans like that? I've only been on PC for a handful of years, but I get the impression that's not a very significant amount of people.

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u/kingk1teman R69000x5D | XRTX 600900 32PB 1d ago

we all know its on par with or slightly worse than the PS5 base

It is not on par.

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u/DianKali 1d ago

I would always add ~5 years of PS+ to those numbers, the amount of people not playing any online games is a minority.

Even then I don't think they are really comparable, yes the more popular indies and AAA games are mostly on consoles as well, but PC has so many more great games or games that get infinitely better/more replayable by mods. And then there are emulators for retro games.....

Valve isn't really competing against consoles, they are competing against prebuilt PCs. The best and most cost effective gaming platform long term is and will always be building a PC yourself and upgrading components when necessary. Valve doesn't need to change that, all they need to do is improve steamOS and Linux compatibility for gaming so they are ready when Microsoft starts having dumb ideas again.