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Steam Machine Price Announced - Starting at $1049 / £879

mhirano said:
The best "SteamMachine" is buying a PS5, jailbreaking it and intalling linux.
Much cheaper AND better performing than the SteamMachine. You can even run PS5 games on it!
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A ps5 with firmware lower than 5.00 probably costs more than the steam machine lol
 
it's like a PS5 but at double the cost...

i'd love another competitor to enter the console market, but steam seems to be bungling their console attempt again. those price points are beyond silly.

and if next gen is just a year or 2 around the corner (I doubt) and we get machines that shit on this for even $700 then what is the point.
 
Wolzard said:
Judging by what's coming next, I think people will look back and think it was cheap. :messenger_neutral:

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Cool, they can keep their shitboxes then. Current consoles are perfectly capable and any deficiencies they exhibit are down to developer laziness/cheapness/incompetence rather than hardware limitations.
 
I understand rising hardware prices. And I love Valve but they are out of there mind charging over $1100 for the machine. What the actually fuck. It's okay though I got my switch 2 and ps5 so I'm fine. That's ridiculous. I can't buy the deck or the machine. what a bummer.
 
KeplerL2 said:
PS6 will be cheaper than this
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No it won't. PS6 has paid online and and it doesn't have piracy / alternative stores or good game sales like PC.

Don't forget, the memory price correction is still raging on. 170$/270$ for 512GB/1TB SSD is latest OEM pricing. This fucked valve hard.

On PS6:
My current estimate for PS6 at current contract prices would be 999$ with a small profit. 899$ with a subsidy. Add 7 years of online (+expected price hikes) and it's approaching 2000$. Even if memory prices calm down you'd still be looking at a minimum of 1500$.

Forget about the so-called "PlayStation 6". It's not real it's fairy dust it doesn't exist. A 749-999$ Console would never be mainstream and thus would never be a PS6.

The only PS6 is the handheld. Similar to PS5 in perf. The entire Gen 9 has been a lost generation because it took AMD an entire generation to catch up to Nvidia. It is what it is.

On Steam Machine:
Given the massive SSD Contract Price Hikes, 1049$ is FAIR MARKET PRICE for Steam Machine. They aren't making that much profit off of it. They are certainly making less than they planned before.

Valve cannot subsidize the steam machine. Sony is Certain that every PS5 will net them hundreds of dollars of after sales. Valve? You can play Counter strike, pirate PC games. And half the steam machine buyers aren't lining up to pay 80-120$/year for online. Valve is already subsidizing it at 1050$. They just can't sell it at 0-10% gross margin or at a loss like Sony can.

Valve just like Sony are also very small fries for memory makers. They ain't Nvidia, they pay the price they are told. Likely above the average contract price.

So why is Steam Machine so terrible?
It's because The major issue with steam machine is that it's using sub 2020 level IP in 2026. Since RDNA3 is inferior to Ampere. No matter what Valve did and what the market conditions were hardware wise the steam machine was always e-waste.
 
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Valve should offer barebones model without RAM and storage. That way folks that have appropriate SODIMMs and SSDs could just buy a less expensive version not affected by a lot of current AI shenanigans.

Framework already does this somewhat with their offerings (RAM is integrated of course).
 
The smart thing to have done is subsidize it a bit. They make 30% for every game sale on Steam. They are raking it in. If they sold Steam machines to people who normally couch game and want to get access to Steam's extensive library that is a whole new money pipeline. They could have taken a decent loss on these things and still came out on top in the long run. The price would seem to indicate they are not willing to take a loss per unit sold.
 
Baemono said:
sorry-but-im-not-spending-more-then-1000-to-play-videogames-v0-wpb1jmix9z8h1.jpeg
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perfection GIF
 
Not that I'm interested, but may I ask if there is a preorder already? Or what date preorder starts? Thanks.
 
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Pantz said:
It's probably going to sell out anyway. Even if they don't make much of a profit, they're still taking supplies away from their competition (consoles).
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If you put 1000 units on the global market.

It's obvious they're going to sell out.
 
Prodyhig said:
If you put 1000 units on the global market.

It's obvious they're going to sell out.
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They price them at over $1,000 they will no doubt sell out initially but once the reality of the actual performance of the Steam Machine hits, interest will wane.

It is really confusing the mixed messages coming from this announcement. Clearly Valve have made a lot of effort to keep costs as low as possible by using lower end parts and you have to assume the intention of the Steam Machine is to give console gamers a nice and easy way to get into PC gaming and by extension give Valve loads of new customers to buy games from them. Yet they are being ridiculous about the price.

Could just be a tactic to work out how much people are willing to pay for it and they are monitoring the reaction. Thing is though, a lot of people have got the impression that it is some sort of power house machine when the reality is that it isn't really and they are coming out with some ludicrous prices they are willing to pay.
 
Anyway, the best part was the announcement.

Will our usual suspects delete their Steam accounts knowing that Valve is targeting a different audience?

 
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master Race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles. Now, they've actually been reduced to defending paying a premium for hardware that's less powerful than the consoles. Much less than the Pro versions. And will get stomped by the PS6 that's going to come out in a year or two. You can't make this stuff up. Reality is funnier than satire.
 
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StueyDuck said:
it's like a PS5 but at double the cost...

i'd love another competitor to enter the console market, but steam seems to be bungling their console attempt again. those price points are beyond silly.

and if next gen is just a year or 2 around the corner (I doubt) and we get machines that shit on this for even $700 then what is the point.
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Valve don't have the marketing that Sony has. They're gonna be in a really weird spot once the PS6 is announced.
 
thismeinteil said:
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles. Now, they've actually been reduced to defending paying a premium for hardware that's less powerful than the consoles. Much less than the Pro versions. And will get stomped by the PS6 that's going to come out in a year or two. You can't make this stuff up. Reality is funnier than satire.
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It was obvious, but Valve is like the Pope to Catholics.

Helix will be even worse, because Microsoft isn't going to subsidize any PCs whatsoever.

If you think Surface devices are expensive, get ready for a Microsoft barebone.
 
It really should be more powerful than the PS5, and it also should be cheaper, or at the most, the same cost. No one wants to spend a thousand to get worse performance than a PS5. If you want to play indies and emulators, you can do that on much cheaper options. If you've got a deck and a dock, since the 6x more powerful was total bullshit, it's again not powerful enough to be enticing vs deck. If it was at least as powerful, like you're getting a good 4k play situation without tinkering and good upscaling, sure, again, probably worth a go at it even for this price, but it's not. It's a 1080p box in 2026 for double the price of 4K boxes.

It's a really expensive option that's only appealing to a really niche portion that says, "I really want that thing because I love Valve," or, "I really want that thing because it's in a tiny, cute box."

I've seen people change their tune and say, "Oh I'll just play indies and multiplayer games on it." So just buy a Switch 2 for a dramatically lower cost and have a much better experience.
 
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I think what most people are missing here is that Valve is aiming at 4K60 with the Steam Machine, which is something the base PS5 cannot do consistently.
 
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Aressa said:
The sales argument is valid tho. It will probably be way cheaper to buy the same games on this than on consoles often by more than half the price.
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The game sales argument is not valid at all and I hope this disingeneous argument is dropped. It only applies to day 1 price of some games bought from dodgy key sites (not Steam). Lowest sales prices of games are the same across Steam and PSN, check PSprices. Eg. 3-4 weeks back FFVII rebirth dropped to its lowest price of 1399 INR on Steam and guess what 2 weeks later PSN had it on sale for the same price of 1399 INR.
 
thismeinteil said:
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master Race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles. Now, they've actually been reduced to defending paying a premium for hardware that's less powerful than the consoles. Much less than the Pro versions. And will get stomped by the PS6 that's going to come out in a year or two. You can't make this stuff up. Reality is funnier than satire.
Click to expand...
I don't think I've seen anyone, myself included, who has more powerful PC say they're going to buy this to replace their main gaming setup.

At best, I've seen people say they'd pick this up as a novelty addition to their living rooms.

I imagine there was an idea here to use this device as a proving ground for installing the SteamOS recovery image on standard desktop configurations, similar to how the Steamdeck opened the floodgates to portable gaming devices. It won't serve that purpose at this price point.

Most rational consumers at the uppermost tier of hardware will just wait until SteamOS achieves driver parity on Nvidia devices compared to Windows. At that point, you'll just be able to make a super powered Steam Machine at any pricepoint.
 
thismeinteil said:
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master Race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles. Now, they've actually been reduced to defending paying a premium for hardware that's less powerful than the consoles. Much less than the Pro versions. And will get stomped by the PS6 that's going to come out in a year or two. You can't make this stuff up. Reality is funnier than satire.
Click to expand...
Are those defenders in the room with us??

are-they-in-the-room-with-us-right-now.jpg
 
DarkLordOtaku said:
I don't think I've seen anyone, myself included, who has more powerful PC say they're going to buy this to replace their main gaming setup.

At best, I've seen people say they'd pick this up as a novelty addition to their living rooms.
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Yep! It's replacing my docked Legion Go S for the bedroom TV. It'll be tucked away nicely in the entertainment cabinet under the TV.

I have a 4090 for my main gaming area, along with a PS5 Pro and Switch 2. I buy most of my games on Steam 🙂

Whatever helps me game more with minimal friction, then I'm in.
 
thismeinteil said:
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master Race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles.
Click to expand...
The draw of PC was never about power for me -- my local PC setup has pretty much consistently been less powerful than the home consoles I own, and yet I've always put 10x the time into it.

Again, my PC setup is well behind PS5, and I've had PS5 since launch. But I barely use it -- it became my son's multiplayer device, last thing I really spent time on was Elden Ring on it, then nothing for years. Because western corporate console games in the 2020s are the least appealing part of the entire gaming landscape by a mile.

The draw of PC is the ability to use mods (random old example that keeps giving -- for Portal 2, I've probably played hundreds of hours on mods over the years, far more value than the base game; of the crazy Minecraft servers I set up for son and I to play in, just incredible mods to make whatever you want with live maps on your phone, VR support, and everything), to play all kinds of experimental or rare games, to be able to experience tons of genres via steam sales even if you spend less monthly than a bare ps online subscription, and to do things like run VR mods of games. The HL2 VR community port + ep1/2, for instance, was easily one of the best things I've played in the past 5 years, just an amazing experience. PC is in fact where VR thrives, even though Sony seems to have released a device almost intentionally to kill that market by giving zero support.

And all the recompilations I'm playing lately, just amazing.

The notion that PC is interesting just because of power is absurd. A mid-tier PC is just a better gaming machine by a mile than a PS5 or even Pro, no comparison. The latter has almost lost all interest to me, can't even imagine caring about a PS6.
 
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MCH2024 said:
It's not midtier, it's extreme low end.
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That would be Nintendo Switch 2 (docked experience only)

Steam Machine is easy lower-midrange hardware considering that it can run all games compatible with SteamOS @ 1080p 30fps.

I think people just have to get used to $1000 being the low end now for PC gaming. Even a 5050 build costs that much when you account for the Windows licence.
 
memoryman3 said:
That would be Nintendo Switch 2 (docked experience only)

Steam Machine is easy lower-midrange hardware considering that it can run all games compatible with SteamOS @ 1080p 30fps.

I think people just have to get used to $1000 being the low end now for PC gaming. Even a 5050 build costs that much when you account for the Windows licence.
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Windows can be used free with 99.99% of functionality, you just deal with watermark and no ability to change backgrounds/Wallpaper or theme.
 
MCH2024 said:
No it won't. PS6 has paid online and and it doesn't have piracy / alternative stores or good game sales like PC.

Don't forget, the memory price correction is still raging on. 170$/270$ for 512GB/1TB SSD is latest OEM pricing. This fucked valve hard.

On PS6:
My current estimate for PS6 at current contract prices would be 999$ with a small profit. 899$ with a subsidy. Add 7 years of online (+expected price hikes) and it's approaching 2000$. Even if memory prices calm down you'd still be looking at a minimum of 1500$.

Forget about the so-called "PlayStation 6". It's not real it's fairy dust it doesn't exist. A 749-999$ Console would never be mainstream and thus would never be a PS6.

The only PS6 is the handheld. Similar to PS5 in perf. The entire Gen 9 has been a lost generation because it took AMD an entire generation to catch up to Nvidia. It is what it is.

On Steam Machine:
Given the massive SSD Contract Price Hikes, 1049$ is FAIR MARKET PRICE for Steam Machine. They aren't making that much profit off of it. They are certainly making less than they planned before.

Valve cannot subsidize the steam machine. Sony is Certain that every PS5 will net them hundreds of dollars of after sales. Valve? You can play Counter strike, pirate PC games. And half the steam machine buyers aren't lining up to pay 80-120$/year for online. Valve is already subsidizing it at 1050$. They just can't sell it at 0-10% gross margin or at a loss like Sony can.

Valve just like Sony are also very small fries for memory makers. They ain't Nvidia, they pay the price they are told. Likely above the average contract price.

So why is Steam Machine so terrible?
It's because The major issue with steam machine is that it's using sub 2020 level IP in 2026. Since RDNA3 is inferior to Ampere. No matter what Valve did and what the market conditions were hardware wise the steam machine was always e-waste.
Click to expand...
I agree, it is e-waste but few things need correcting.

You keep using $80-$120 online as a negative against the PS5, but fail to mention that Steam Machine can't run most of those multiplayer games to begin with.

So it's irrelevant if it doesn't have an online paywall when it doesn't even have the online games most played on consoles.

And not every user is an online multiplayer user, and not every multiplayer user plays every month. So the costs can vary from $0 - $80, to anything in between. Then there's the F2P multiplayer gamers. Then there's the users who subscribe for the games, not the multiplayer part.

Steam Machine 2 TB (without controller) = same as PS5 Pro + Switch 2

Steam Machine 2 TB (without controller) = more than PS5 Disc + Series X Disc

Steam Machine 2 TB (with controller) = PS5 Digital, Series X Digital, Switch 2 with just $200 more.

So no, it is not fair pricing. At all. Valve doesn't want to subsidize the hardware because then they can't fund $70 million mansions for the billionaire owner.
 
I could understand when the Valve fans were saying that 720p and 30 FPS is acceptable for the Steam Deck since it really was amazing when it was released especially considering the prive but it's hilarious how they're trying to excuse the GabeCube.
 
thismeinteil said:
Got to laugh at the crazy justifications. The whole thing about being PC Master Race was paying a premium to have better hardware than the consoles. Now, they've actually been reduced to defending paying a premium for hardware that's less powerful than the consoles. Much less than the Pro versions. And will get stomped by the PS6 that's going to come out in a year or two. You can't make this stuff up. Reality is funnier than satire.
Click to expand...
What? The benefits of PC are much more than just having better hardware. You gotta look beyond enthusiast gaming forums. The vast majority of PC gaming is not done on these 9950x3d/RTX5090 machines like you see here and I'm willing to bet plenty of people on the internet lie about their setup anyways just so that they can shit on consoles while they play on their potato.

Just go look at steam hardware surveys (I know that's not 100% accurate as it's opt in but it's the best info we have really) and you'll see that the 3 most popular GPUs are the 3060, 4060M, 4060, and then 3050 in 4th (hell even the Apple M2 processor is nearly 3x more popular then the 4090) and 1080p is over 2x more popular then 1440p.

Ignore the people that think PC gaming is all about 31:9 monitors and RTX 5090s. PC gaming is all about choice. Choosing what peripherals you use, having decades of games available to you, and being able to tailor your experience however you want (you want 120fps? lower settings or resolution. You want the highest possible fidelity? Crank that shit as high as you can FPS be damned).

DarkLordOtaku said:
I don't think I've seen anyone, myself included, who has more powerful PC say they're going to buy this to replace their main gaming setup.

At best, I've seen people say they'd pick this up as a novelty addition to their living rooms.

I imagine there was an idea here to use this device as a proving ground for installing the SteamOS recovery image on standard desktop configurations, similar to how the Steamdeck opened the floodgates to portable gaming devices. It won't serve that purpose at this price point.

Most rational consumers at the uppermost tier of hardware will just wait until SteamOS achieves driver parity on Nvidia devices compared to Windows. At that point, you'll just be able to make a super powered Steam Machine at any pricepoint.
Click to expand...
For me personally I could possibly be one of those people. I own a 5600x/4070S ITX build but there are a couple reasons why the SM interests me being
  • Getting away from Windows. I hate windows despite having gamed on windows since I was a little kid in the Windows 98 days. I use a Mac/iPad for my everyday computing needs and hell I would use a Mac for gaming if I could to simplify things (I'm jealous of friend who just sold his gaming PC because all he played was WOW, FFXIV, and League and just plays on his M4 Max MBP)
  • Simplicity of SteamOS. I've always gamed on console and PC but I definitely prefer the simplicity of consoles and while I've set up my PC to be as console like as I can it's not the same by quite a bit.
  • The ability to hot swap the SD card from my Steam Deck which houses all of my smaller titles and emulation back and forth sounds amazing
  • Stuff like wake from controller, and suspending games in sleep mode. Also Valve put in extra work to make things like HDMI CEC work.
  • I play less and less demanding titles on PC as I've transitioned back towards PS as my primary platform.
  • I also just find lower end hardware more interesting. I love seeing what people can do with less. This isn't really a reason for me to buy it but it's more of just an ancillary point.
I'm the type of person that really needs to see things for myself so I signed up for the "lottery". My friend offered to buy my PC for $1000 if I decide to as well.

Tobimacoss said:
I agree, it is e-waste but few things need correcting.

You keep using $80-$120 online as a negative against the PS5, but fail to mention that Steam Machine can't run most of those multiplayer games to begin with.

So it's irrelevant if it doesn't have an online paywall when it doesn't even have the online games most played on consoles.

And not every user is an online multiplayer user, and not every multiplayer user plays every month. So the costs can vary from $0 - $80, to anything in between. Then there's the F2P multiplayer gamers. Then there's the users who subscribe for the games, not the multiplayer part.

Steam Machine 2 TB (without controller) = same as PS5 Pro + Switch 2

Steam Machine 2 TB (without controller) = more than PS5 Disc + Series X Disc

Steam Machine 2 TB (with controller) = PS5 Digital, Series X Digital, Switch 2 with just $200 more.

So no, it is not fair pricing. At all. Valve doesn't want to subsidize the hardware because then they can't fund $70 million mansions for the billionaire owner.
Click to expand...
The amount of people who keep bringing the online is always exhausting to me. As you mentioned F2P games don't require online at all and those are some of the most popular games on console as well as PC and a lot of people don't give a shit about online at all.

It's like when people post videos about how some YouTuber created a console killer but used all used parts. People love to use things for arguments as long as they fit their personal agenda.
 
Tobimacoss said:
You keep using $80-$120 online as a negative against the PS5, but fail to mention that Steam Machine can't run most of those multiplayer games to begin with.
Click to expand...

Steam Machine can't play the games that require anti-cheat. That's not "most of those multiplayer games" since most multiplayer games do not have anti-cheat at all.
 
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hououinkyouma00 said:
What? The benefits of PC are much more than just having better hardware. You gotta look beyond enthusiast gaming forums. The vast majority of PC gaming is not done on these 9950x3d/RTX5090 machines like you see here and I'm willing to bet plenty of people on the internet lie about their setup anyways just so that they can shit on consoles while they play on their potato.

Just go look at steam hardware surveys (I know that's not 100% accurate as it's opt in but it's the best info we have really) and you'll see that the 3 most popular GPUs are the 3060, 4060M, 4060, and then 3050 in 4th (hell even the Apple M2 processor is nearly 3x more popular then the 4090) and 1080p is over 2x more popular then 1440p.

Ignore the people that think PC gaming is all about 31:9 monitors and RTX 5090s. PC gaming is all about choice. Choosing what peripherals you use, having decades of games available to you, and being able to tailor your experience however you want (you want 120fps? lower settings or resolution. You want the highest possible fidelity? Crank that shit as high as you can FPS be damned).


For me personally I could possibly be one of those people. I own a 5600x/4070S ITX build but there are a couple reasons why the SM interests me being
  • Getting away from Windows. I hate windows despite having gamed on windows since I was a little kid in the Windows 98 days. I use a Mac/iPad for my everyday computing needs and hell I would use a Mac for gaming if I could to simplify things (I'm jealous of friend who just sold his gaming PC because all he played was WOW, FFXIV, and League and just plays on his M4 Max MBP)
  • Simplicity of SteamOS. I've always gamed on console and PC but I definitely prefer the simplicity of consoles and while I've set up my PC to be as console like as I can it's not the same by quite a bit.
  • The ability to hot swap the SD card from my Steam Deck which houses all of my smaller titles and emulation back and forth sounds amazing
  • Stuff like wake from controller, and suspending games in sleep mode. Also Valve put in extra work to make things like HDMI CEC work.
  • I play less and less demanding titles on PC as I've transitioned back towards PS as my primary platform.
  • I also just find lower end hardware more interesting. I love seeing what people can do with less. This isn't really a reason for me to buy it but it's more of just an ancillary point.
I'm the type of person that really needs to see things for myself so I signed up for the "lottery". My friend offered to buy my PC for $1000 if I decide to as well.
Click to expand...
Are you really trading in a PC 4070S for a Steam Machine? That's quite a downgrade especially if you consider the loss of DLSS. I know it sounds weird coming from me cause I was just celebrating FSR4 in a different thread but that was FSR4 on a portable device (a tablet in this case). If it was something attached to a TV or monitor, it's always about more power for me.
 
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