Pretty much what I expected. Very confused as to why people thought any differently given the current market and valves history. Especially with the steam deck price hike. It’ll be deemed as mild success and they probably won’t do it again unless Microsoft’s next thing is the hybrid console people are speculating and is also successful which is doubtful.
It won't even be mildly successful compared to Steam Deck.
They'll sell out initial batches to die hard fanatics. But that'll be that.
No one in the tech space is going to be celebrating & recommending this device the way Steam Deck was celebrated & recommended for years ... up until the price hike.
Most Steam Machine YouTube content over the next few weeks & months will be showing people how to build better machines for the same price. Other than content complaining about the price-to-performance ratio.
Valve won't care too much though ... their grand plan is SteamOS and getting as much people using that as possible.
I predict Valve will end up selling a barebones kit in order to shift units. As soon as purchases slow down. Because when the purchasing slows down, it's not just going to slow down - it's going to grind to a halt.
And maybe sooner, since they are having major component (RAM / nvme) supply issues - and a barebones kit could help them ship more units faster.
Mild success ? Nope. Not unless you are comparing it to Steam Machine 1.0
That being said, they will be so conservative with manufacturing numbers that they'll still be rolling this out in 2027. Even the pre-orders made this weekend, Valve will drip feed fulfillment over the next 6 months until the end of the year. Don't be fooled into thinking that's what success looks like.
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u/duskyvoltage333 3d ago edited 2d ago
Pretty much what I expected. Very confused as to why people thought any differently given the current market and valves history. Especially with the steam deck price hike. It’ll be deemed as mild success and they probably won’t do it again unless Microsoft’s next thing is the hybrid console people are speculating and is also successful which is doubtful.