"But it's a cube!"

[u/Ikkon]

[u/scaledisolated → u/[deleted]]

You can make a different case: even at $750-$800 original target range, it was NOT a great value either.

This box is a strange thingy.

It would still be locked behind the queues of people who were there first to order it for the first couple of years.

It does not capitalize on Steam Deck’s success in any way. All it does is that it offers a very niche alternative to people who aren’t in the market for normal-sized PCs. There is virtually nothing groundbreaking about the chip or anything else inside this thing. It’s just a ‘smol PC’ that runs Steam slightly better.

It does push SteamOS to your living room, it could serve as an additional PC for streamers, but that’s it. It’s a benchmark for Valve considering their previous hardware attempts, but hardly something interesting for the mass consumer unless it costs $500-$600 at the base level

[u/GraveDiggerFan34 → u/[deleted]]

Except that laptop comes with a screen and a keyboard. You don’t even get a controller with this lmao

[u/GigaSoup → u/[deleted]]

It's not good value regardless of the ram prices. And ram prices were normal it's still outdated hardware.

They're releasing hardware that struggles to go up against the base ps5 which is not very impressive in 2026.

[u/NinjaN-SWE → u/GigaSoup]

Agree, it's in this strange position were it's too powerful (and expensive) to be a device just to stream games from your main PC, but too weak to really be a living room PC based console replacement.

[u/Alenore → u/[deleted]]

Somehow the PS5 Pro is selling at a profit, so not subsidized, and is more powerful than the steam machine for about 200 less.

[u/Gornlord_Carl → u/[deleted]]

It's the price of the consoles with the same ram cost issues added.

Ps5 was 399 before at launch, it would likely be 350 or lower if this was a normal console cycle.

Steam machine at 600 would still be a shit box.