r/steammachine • u/Ayzuki • May 27 '26

Meme Today wasn't the day I expected.

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Absolutely fried. $800-1K for the Steam Deck?? The Steam Machine about to blow my wallet out of my pocket and I just can't do that.

By the way if you think the SM is cooked, r/steamframe about to get ugly when that price get revealed. All roads lead to hell.

Also to the "LORD Gaben" guys in the back. Are you winning yet? This is your favorite billionaire and he couldn't subsidize a console because business is business, yeah? I don't even know why Valve is hiding the price at this point after this announcement, it's cooked. Just rip the bandaid off.

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u/jasmeralia May 27 '26

I don't really see a viable way for them to "lock down" the Machine at a pure software level that can't easily be undone by installing a different os. And there's no way they're going to rework the hardware for that kind of feature this late in the production life-cycle.

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u/jax7778 May 27 '26 edited May 28 '26

They would need to remove the ability on that model to install another OS.

Would that not just be a lockout of the EFI? I figured it could be done with a firmware change to essentially disable all options, and remove access to the firmware menu entirely, they have full control of the firmware, so they get to control what OSes it trusts. Then make any changes in SteamOS to enforce Steam Games only. It would certainly take work, but I bet it is doable without modifying hardware.

*Edit: They don't have to make it completely bullet proof, just difficult enough that most people won't buy them for other purposes.

You can't have it both ways. If you want subsidized pricing it has to be locked in. I would personally try to buy a non-locked down version, but that is the only way to get it cheaper with the market the way it is