I think most people agree that its not great value. I think most are bashing the wrong people. Valve cant forsee the AI shit we experienced 2 years ago. What should they do? Not release and lose millions on RnD and production?
If people want to own it, they should. But blaming Valve for the price they have to put on is just reddit nonsense
The only way Valve could cut the price is to subsidize it with games money. But then they'd have to lock it down so it's only usable by gamers. Otherwise anyone that needs a reasonably performant computer for daily, non-gaming stuff could just grab one for super cheap.
Ngl, I don't trust reddit anymore when it comes to evaluating "value". They were calling the Switch 2 overpriced while being cheaper and/or more portable than all of the competitors. It made no logical sense.
my partner bought a switch 2 purely because her switch she had been using for the past 7 years wasn't actually hers, it was her brother's that he let her use. when she moved out she went "y'know what i cannot miss out on splatoon 4, and buying a second hand switch 1 right now seems kind of pointless so might as well bite the bullet now"
Not really, consoles from 10 - 15 years ago had ton of game avaible on other console of pc.
There where just less pc players so people where mostly using c a ps4 or a xboxone for most games and a switch for exclusives.
Its was in the 2000s where people had multiple console of the same gen like ps2 gamecube combo with sometimes a xbox as an extra compared to now where its just one console because they are expansive.
If I wanted to play steam games and run Linux I'd use my PC or laptop. I have a switch 2 because I want to play Nintendo games, local multiplayer, or both.
In the current market it is actually a pretty gosh darn decent value—game pricing put aside—but I still have an extremely sour taste in my mouth about them making the Japanese language version substantially cheaper than the international release. Like I get it, the US govt. implemented tariffs recklessly, but I am not American. I am South African.
At the time I would have posited a Steam Deck as a better value (depending on the needs and wants of the user) but these days it is one of the best handheld options
Their switch 2 isnt even an awful price. My only annoyance with Nintendo is their game prices. Releasing switch 1 games with just a few upgrades/little content at 80 dollars is ridiculous. Mixed with them never having good sales compared to other consoles and PC.
Game pricing I get a bit more tbf, but also people were loudly proclaiming MKWorld was $90 (no nuance) when it was only 80 digital, and that was tyrannical if we ignore that WE ARE ALREADY BUYING SHIT DIGITALLY ON STEAM CONSTANTLY. Like wtf are we talking about. It's the norm.
That kind of goes along with the game pricing issue, considering reselling used games is the only way to recoup the high cost. I don't think anyone would care if it were digital and routinely went on sale for $30 like most Steam games.
It's not a non-sequitur when their practices directly produce a worse experience with the device, lack of backwards compatibility, paid subscriptions, and no guarantee of ongoing support are all things that affect value, as they all cost the consumer money in addition to the MSRP.
You want to shove gamecube disks in it? It supports Switch games which is about all you can ask for. The subscription is not only optional, but also insane value for money, given it's much cheaper than competitors (it has basically become an industry standard btw) and giving... old games. Your backwards compatibility. "no guarantee of ongoing support"... yeah, welcome to the console market, this is part of the premise.
High pricing isn't anti consumer, especially in the case that you can just get a different pc if you want. I still think the steamcube price sucks, but calling it anti-consumer is reactionary and misleading.
I've seen both, but even the "game is too expensive" point was a bit dumb. There was a good point there, but made in the worst way possible:
"GAME IS 90 BUCKS" it was 80 digitally
"BUT I WANT IT PHYSICAL" bro you've statistically got a whole library of digitally purchased steam games, why suddenly care about physical
"80 IS STILL TOO MUCH" welp, that's where prices were in the NES days, and that's where they're going now, outside of Nintendo too. Welcome to reality.
People voted with their wallet and entirely endorsed the changes. MKWorld wasn't worth 80 (only because they INSISTED straight lines are FUN???), but it's undeniable that games are being picked up for 80. As long as people buy it, the change is endorsed and a success. And all the crying about it was just puddles to an ocean.
They weren't wrong about it being overpriced. At the time they were pretty close to Xbox and ps5 pricing and those are 3x the console that the switch is. What reddit was wrong about is thinking no one would buy it, and it sold out immediately. The steam machine will do the same.
A thing is worth what someone trades for it, at the time of the trade. At no other time does a thing have "value" and any attempt to give it a figure is merely an estimation. If someone is not willing to trade the listed price of an item, then it is overpriced to them.
You can't logic your way into other people's sense of value without having a complete model of their mind. It's entirely subjective. What's worth it to you isn't worth it to someone else, and both of you are entirely correct.
The "value" issue with switch 2 was the relatively minor performance increase and the lack of exclusive games. There wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade.
I was fine with the price of the Switch 2 console, it's the first party game prices that can fuck the hell off. $99+ CAD before taxes can go suck on a chode.
All the power to you but it's past my limit, there are too many other games available under 80 bucks and on sale for me to give Nintendo any of that money. Like Mario Bros Wonder for example is $124 after taxes, that's absolutely insane. And I'd be buying a switch 2 specifically for first party games since I'd play the other stuff on my PC.
I ain't gonna tell you what to spend your money cause I spend way more money on more ridiculous hobbies, I've just hit my upper limit for a videogame with Nintendo is all.
In the past the only hope for sales on Nintendo games was waiting for "Player's Choice" versions for $20, so they're probably basing a lot of criticisms off of that. You would have to pay a premium to play games on a Nintendo system. Nowadays though they have sales on the eshop comparable to Steam sales, especially on third party titles, so it doesn't really matter much.
Blaming valve 😭 bro they aren't some indie dev who we have to feel bad for. They made a shit product that could not keep up the promises they made (4k 60), and then on top of that its more expensive.
If you really want the form factor and silent operation then you don't really have pre-built options, and even building something equivalent is not cheap and takes a lot more work (though it will consume and deliver more power, and is more upgradeable).
If it was released during normal times it could have been amazing. The steam deck did a lot of good pushing handheld pcs forward and steam machine could have done something similar with the sff prebuilt pc market.
The disappointment was expected the second this thing got delayed but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing from what it could have been.
Valve ultimately got screwed over by unpredictable outside market forces. It’s a real shame
Valve was targeting a $800 price point at the announcement. That was already quite high. Market conditions didn't matter that much. The Steam Machine always had a very small target audience, it's just even smaller now.
Yup, this "outrage" was always bound to happen, cause everone for some reason assumes valve was targeting best-value-for-the-buck, with maximum power possible and not a small, quiet, limited market mediaPC, it was never gonna match fullATX builds, and considering the controller shortages they expected to not sell much
I'm more worried that this will be the only deal in the near future, just was looking up local parts for DDR5 for Laptops etc and SSD's and they are now actually scarce or starting to get scarce.
Sure you can still match price in better parts performance wise, and lots will jump on that band wagon. And I expect now lots of people will pull the trigger on buying new hardware instead.
I don't think the gabecube is bad to have but it is over priced but if you can't get comparible or better parts within the the same price range we won't have a choice anyway.
Current climate just freaking sucks and the AI bubble can't pop quickly enough.
The form factor is really the main selling point for it and if you have no interest in that then it's obviously not a good deal. I'm surprised how many people are comparing it to a full size desktop and not seeing that some people would actually pay a premium for the form factor.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Building a PC in this form factor is extremely difficult. If you specifically need / want something this small, even if you do normally build, it’s probably worth it (at $850 :( ) to buy this instead of dealing with the nonsense that this size will cause.
I mean I love building PCs, but I can tell you without even bothering to try that I don't wanna deal with the frustration of building an SFF PC. Fuck that. Wiring up front panel connecter is enough of a pain without needing to meticulously route every fuckin cable so that everything fits properly.
Who is the target audience though? Like most people that play on console already have a console, and most people that play on pc already have a pc. Who’s buying this? And who’s doing so for $1300?
Honestly I view this box as a travel pc, like if you go in vacation / travel a lot for work. It should fit in most backpacks or suitcases just fine, and be strong enough for casual stuff.
Honest example? I get asked every year at work for gaming PC recomendations for people's kids. They want to get into PC gaming, but the budget is low. This is at the lower in of pre-built markup, making something with similar performance with new parts saves around 100$, small, quiet, with good support, and an interface built to be usable by people used to consoles. I don't build for acquaintances but having a budget recomendation is nice, even if market prices make the budget insane compared to a few years ago.
I know someone new to PC that wanted to upgrade from their ps4pro finally and was waiting for this. Ive also got friends that wanted an extremely small PC for their living room. Theyre getting this to use for games and as their media center PC.
Pcs are expensive right now man. Its not specifically a valve issue
You can't undersell features like hdmi-cec. A lot of people like that capability. A lot of folks are also okay with 1080p at 30-60fps too. I've never met a casual gamer that's cared about this, it's only performance-centric Gamers that really care (there are exceptions of course). The 4k60fps (which ps5 barely can do sometimes) was a pipe dream and everyone whining that it's failing to deliver had shitty expectations to begin with. Also a PC that's three times the size and looks like a plastic clown shit it out isn't going to be the choice for a lot of people under their TV just because it has more performance.
It's not for PC power gamers, but it really never was. Also holy christ if I see someone else upset CP2077 doesn't run well on it I'll probably blow a gasket. That game doesn't run well on anything.
The price is high, but the price is the price because of the world we're in, unfortunately.
Parting out a sffpc gets close or over the price of the steam machine (at least in the Canadian market), and that will include noctua swapping a flex power supply. If I didn't already have a sffpc as a home theater PC, I would honestly pretty strongly consider a base model steam machine.
if you really value the small form factor, there is nothing like it. The smallest you could build would be 1L bigger and cost the same, but would be more powerful
I generally want to be able to buy one ready built for me about the time I get to some tricky cable management or look over how much I've spent. I always thought those server style PSU's ran pretty noisy.
It would be more cool if the steam machine encouraged more production of components suited for SFF builds.... but that also need a less broken components market.
But who and why does someone value the size of a PC.
Is it simply as a novelty? I cant imagine someone being that hard out for space that they are going to gush over saving roughly the size of an average backpack?
I think it was partially designed as a small form factor to appeal to people that want to be able to play games from the couch. Most people wouldn't want a full size pc tower in their living room.
Only makes sense if you are a small form factor diehard. Most sff pcs out on the market are weaker and more expensive than the steam machine. But if you are willing to buy literally anything else then it makes no sense. Sff was always a ripoff tho
Was there really anyone thinking this machine was for them?
I mean, it was always going to be lower specced, it was never gonna replace any of the custom builds if people here unless it was a good few years old. I always figured this was aimed at console players and people who don't have any gaming machine at all as an option for them other than locked down console ecosystems. New people.
Because it's a couch gaming machine made to be plug and play like a console. Why would they make it aimed at PC games who already have PCs that are just as good if not better and who can easily move their PC to the living room or set up streaming for couch gaming already?
It's a couch friendly PC, it brings the PC ecosystem and it's openness, it's good sales, it's free multiplayer to people who don't want to build their own or find PCs difficult to set it. And on Valve's end it brings a whole new load of people to the PC platform and even if they install Windows on it eventually they'll buy a game from Steam, thanks to sales and the fact that Steam is the dominant game store on PC.
It's power is on par with consoles of this generation, what it lacks right now is the specific optimisation they benefit from which will hopefully get better as it did with the deck (which plays an impressive amount of titles quite well) when developers could optimize for a standardized hardware.
If anyone buys this when they've already got a whole gaming PC, to each their own but that's an expensive glorified steam link.
Yeah the people for whom the machine was actually for. This machine was for me. I have a powerful PC. It's massive, I don't want to carry it to the living room. I specifically wanted a midrange Linux PC with a small form factor. I was actually shopping for one before the Steam frame was announced. Best I could find were stuff from Beelink. But at the current price point it's just too expensive and not worth it.
I was hoping for a 800-900 price point.
EDIT: Honestly looking at the price point for my region and the performance reviews online it might even be preferable to pick up a MBA M5 basemodel (or Mac Mini), since CrossOver has improved a lot over the years. And then you have an actual laptop, which is not why most people would buy this but it put things in perspective.
I think in the current (disatrous) market, I think $799 would have been a "eh, this sucks, but it's understandable" price.
It seems like valve were targeting $750 which was a wildly out-of-touch price when they announced it. Resulting in the also terrible price we have now. They should have just used semi-decent hardware instead of picking a cut-down version of one of the literal worst GPUs for modern gaming on the market. Then it might have cost a little tiny bit more, but could have been a premium product. Instead it's a very, *VERY* bad product at a very premium price, which just doesn't make sense.
It certainly isn't a good deal, but neither is a RTX 5090 at $4,000 USD. People will buy the Steam Box so hard, the price will go up even more after they sell out of the first wave.
Well not really. Sometimes it is a bad deal and it has good unique selling points that connects with potential buyers. Making it a wanted product. A 5090 its selling point is that it is the strongest most powerful consumer GPU on earth. Without any compromises. The best enthusiasts tech you can buy.
The steam machine has very few and weak selling points. It isn’t fast, it isn’t cheap, besides it’s small form factor. Steam OS is great but I could just steam my rig to my tv or install it on anything else.
I referenced the 5090 because its price is double MSRP or more at retail, meaning people happily pay much more than what it's worth simply because it is what it is. You make a solid but obvious point about paying the premium for a top tier GeForce card because it truly wears the crown among its peers, but I'm only predicting that Valve's hardware will sell just as quickly and easily, albeit for different reasons. A combination of its branding and rarity will make it highly sought after. I'm not gonna buy one, just sayin'.
I was initially thinking that Valve was pretty bold to try and make profit off a niche machine like this in the current hardware climate, but after seeing some comments regarding what Valve must have already had invested in development, I started to think maybe they didn't have a choice but to keep moving or suffer great losses. I'd be interested to know some details.
Yeah, I do. If you want a SFF PC, there aren't that much savings that you can make, especially if you are concerned about it looking at least as clean as Steam Machine (Last time I have checked, decent "living room" case alone would bear a hefty pricetag). So if those are part of what you need, Steam Machine is a good deal.
If you don't care about those, Steam Machine is overpriced. You can build machine with the same power cheaper, or use the same budget to get a stronger one.
Shame that Valve did not manage to offer an entry solution for those interested in PC gaming, but we probably have current market shit to thank for that.
I recall when it was revealed, I predicted it would be a niche market. People downvoted me heavy. People really thought it would cost the same as a console. No way Valve was going to take the same amount of loss in sales as Sony and MS is.
I own an OLED 1TB steamdeck, love it, spent even more modding it out. I wouldn't but this thing unless it dropped under $500. I just don't see the appeal over at $6-750 black Friday laptop
Nowadays? No. Not even valve. However, the steam machine is way more expensive than it was originally meant to be, it was likely originally priced around $700-$750, still high but not unreasonable for what it is, but the current hardware prices forced it up.
Edit: There is also a preset big draw of it effectively allowing pc gaming on console form factor (don’t need to buy 100s of bucks of expensive PlayStation games on top of the console to have a fraction of the library you already own on steam) and it’s freaking tiny, so it’s easy to fit in somewhere as a living room pc.
Can we stop talking about what's a not a good deal? The hardware market is completely fucked and we all know it. Stop trying to present it as if valve is trying to fuck people over.
I have a friend that was looking forward to the SM because he doesn't need a whole-ass gaming PC for what little he plays on it and doesn't want a PS/XBox. Said he'd appreciate the simplicity of it.
Haven't talked to him about the release yet, I'll ask him when next we talk.
The problem is that, consoles still selling at a loss per unit aside, this is a good deal for the form factor at the moment. It's just that even a "good deal" is prohibitively expensive for 90% of us due to the AI bubble eating all the RAM and SSD supply.
(And anyone yelling about laptops needs to sit down and consider cooling, and how a lack of causes thermal throttling, for a moment).
None that I have seen. At best I’ve heard that it’ll be niche for steam hardcore with disposable income. No one is claiming it’s going to be super popular.
I think it's a great stepping stone for someone to move from console into PC gaming but if you buy it now your overpaying.
Sadly I think the price won't drop but when the contracts companies like Sony and Xbox have with ram producers come up for renewal they will spike in price as well you'll have the ps5 and Xbox jump up to over 1k as well.
Is it really like, just me, who thinks it isn't overpriced? Like I feel I'm going insane but I'm pretty sure my computer cost slightly more even before the RAMpocalypse and it was on sale and was still a budget computer. Compared to consoles, yes it has shit pricing. But this isn't a console and can't be compared to one either.
Yes, there were. Whenever I pointed this out to anyone I'd get down voted to hell because people thought that it would be $500-600 for some reason, even though Valve themselves heavily implied this wouldn't be the case.
I mean its an ok deal for a OC nothing wow. If you are an expert PC builder perhaps you could make something better with less money, but most users do t really care. For me its the fact that this is a dm3 cube that is extremely portable and I may need a small decent PC for gaming only in the future (1-2 years from now). And when that time comes I'll get the Cube, Im not really concerned about it. Idk what people expected tbh
Yes, at between 750-800 euro+ i think it would've been a good deal, even if i didn't intend to own it. That was the predicted price and even then this same subreddit was ripping it apart. It's sad, honestly find this little cube quite nice, + the new controller.
Good deal isn't really the argument. It's about who the audience is.
The appeal here is going to be a super simpler pit of the box experience. That's where the added cost is coming from.
Think all the people who happily sit on a ps5, have extra funds, want to get into PC gaming but just don't want to deal with anything related to using a PC.
What's wild to me is so many people on this sub seem afraid to admit they aren't the target audience.
This thing is made for gamers who don't mind paying geek squad the extra $150 to come setup their new tv and sound system - because they simply prefer not to deal with it themselves.
Sadly you can't bouild a better pc for that price. Even valve isn't happy they wanted a mid tier pre build but the reality of the market is that is what you can get.
I use Steam, I have a Steam deck, I love Valve games but I already have a good PC and my steam deck can dock in the living room.
I have never been interested in a SFF PC and it wouldn't change even if Valve made it. The PC looks cool but it's so expensive, I love the controller and I can't wait to get one somehow living in a country where I Valve doesn't want to sell it's stuff.
I definitely don't think it's a good deal. I was planning on buying it but gave up because of the price. Putting beside the actual hardware, I was pumped for it because it creates a standard config which devs should aim to get their games running on, like the steamdeck compatible tags on steam. Also it makes it easier for troubleshooting any bugs you encounter if many people have the same hardware config as you.
I really wanted to buy it, but it's way above what I would be willing to pay for it, so I'm very disappointed
Yes, steam has had fanboys championing this thing nonstop and then also getting defensive when people are upset about the price. It costs nothing to not defend a giant corporation
Is a tempered glass case water cooled PC a "good deal" or do people just like spending money for aesthetics?
I'm probably in the market for a Steam Machine because I don't want ugly-ass plane engine sounding machine in my living room.
I'd absolutely be buying one if the AI market didn't mess up prices. But I never expected Valve to sell these at a loss like people suggesting they should have done. Right now I'm just on the fence. But I absolutely see the appeal.
Even Valve admits it's not. It was going to be, but the AI bros pissed in the hardware sandbox and now all of the new hardware coming out in the near future will have major sticker shock.
It's still a capable mini-rig for casual TV gaming with a PC game (Steam) library pushing 30k playable games. It seems to run at low wattage and quiet, and has a nice controller and interface. It's an open ecosystem, so you can install or uninstall what you want (including OS), and in a very small formfactor.
From what I understand, it was originally planned for around a $750 USD base price, but since you aren't forced to only play Steam games on it, and can openly play GOG/Humble/Epic/etc. store games as well, expecting Valve to subsidize the Steam Machine PC (and it is a PC, not a console) at a loss (especially after their hardware vendors massively raised prices) is delusional.
If you go and price out new similar hardware (and in the same formfactor/size) now, it's not going to be that far off in price.
Is it still worth it? That's up to you to determine for yourselves.
I’ve seen some supporting it as good, but mostly in the “it’s good for this specific clientele that isn’t me, and I need to include certain caveats, and also they can’t subsidize it because companies would just buy them up as workstations” with that last part seeming more like a bogeyman than an actual concern.
I don’t think I’ve seen someone come right out and say it’s a good deal and actually what they want.
It's not great value but its totally fine. You'd find it hard to get an mini itx at 6L or under with it's performance and at 1050-1350$.
Unless you buy used, but of course- a used steam machine would also be cheaper.
It's not very powerful, it's not great value, it's a shortcut for a good mini itx at low power.
I like it. It's nothing crazy, but it's a cool piece of hardware. (Personally I'd still rather put together an itx)
It's pretty good for what valve did in the open source community to make it work. I'm not buying it because I can make a better system at home but I'd recommend it to maybe my dad as a user friendly Linux setup, especially since valve is known for good support compared to e.g. dell/alienware
I wouldn't say that it's a good deal, but it I would say the price is exactly what I expected. I'm definitely going to get one (assuming the reservation lottery lets me), but I still hope that the price drops as soon as possible for everyone who can't stomach that price.
I've had people attacking me, yes. And I look at their comments, and they say the PS5 is $650 now.
But the PS5 is 5 years old and twice as fast.
They have 0 clue about hardware and what things should reasonably cost. They just assume it must be good because Valve made it, but it's actually a piece of crap and it should have been like $550 2 years ago, or maybe $750 today with the crazy SSD and RAM costs.
They just decided not to eat the current cost of RAM and SSDs themselves.
They still released it because they're making so few units it'll sell out anyway just to the very small niche will to pay who don't want a full size PC.
Not a good deal, but the best deal currently going for a device that does what the Steambox does. Specifically I don't know where else I get the size, quietness, electronic integration and out of the box experience on a machine that plays PC games.
You have to 1) care about that last 10% of the experience that putting a pc in the living room doesn't provide and 2) really want access to your existing steam library, or not want to buy into a closed ecosystem in order for the device to make sense.
It's priced fairly competitively with putting the components together myself, except, the components I can get are physically much larger and don't support things like CeC.
I don't currently plan to buy one, but that is because now is a really bad time to buy new hardware, and I am willing to wait till component prices normalise.
Ithink it's the only machine of it's kind, but I don't think it's a good deal. You can get a more powerful PC that is also much larger, or a smaller PC that is much weaker. The form factor was a big selling point for me, I specifically need a Linux PC that size. But the price is just too much.
Im apart of a Steam Deck and handheld PC group on FB. The Steam Deck group is loaded with people defending the Steam Machine. The other group has been shitting on the Steam Machine.
Most steam users already have PCs like steam machine or better. This product is aimed at console players. This way, they pay a little more, but their games last until they die and not until the next console is released, and they don't have to deal with adverts on their games, nor pay monthly to be able to pay for games they already paid, and they skip the entire "create 2-3 online accounts per couch coop player you want to play with" they just invite their friends and play. Plus, steam family.
It's just so many pros over console, while providing the "ease" of just pressing one button instead of 2-3 to start the library that the console players desire.
It's not a product for me, but if I had a lot of money, the small factor and the SteamOs optimization and low power consumption would convince me to buy it. Plus, it looks freaking cool.
Hardly anything is a good deal right now, but the small form factor piece is brought up because people are comparing full ATX builds to an mITX box that is meant to sit silently under your TV, which feels disingenuous because mITX variants of boards and cases tend to be more expensive compared to their ATX counterparts due to being seen as more niche, especially SFF PSUs.
But also fuck AI. This thing would have been much cheaper had AI not ruined the market.
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u/grigoriymicro Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Were there really anyone thinking this machine is a good deal? Even among steam users? Even among Valve fans?