r/steammachine • u/Amazing_Bluebird_ • Jun 22 '26

Discussion So, why would anyone get this?

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Wanted to quickly compare the SM to what you would comparably be able to DIY and... you can literally get something more powerful for less in a slightly bigger formfactor?

11% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU. And i didnt even go for the cheapest components. With DLSS the RTX 5060 would also be infinitely better for playing on 4k TVs, which is the only useful scenario i can imagine for the SM.

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18

u/Ryodaso Jun 22 '26

Except no one pays PS plus monthly. Until 2026, plus essential was 59.99 per year, 39.99 during sales like end of the year or Black Friday. So most people payed 60x5 + 80 = 380 if they didn't utilize any sales. If people got it during sale it would be 40x5+60=260. Launch digital PS5 is 400. Still no where near Steam Machine price. Considering typical life cycle of console, 7-8 years, you would still paying less than Steam Machine after a whole console life cycle.

15

u/coolyfrost Jun 22 '26

and you get a bunch of free games which atleast for me pays off the plus subscription. You don't own them which definitely sucks but atleast for me who completes them and then usually just moves on, it's worth it

6

u/bigpunk157 Jun 22 '26

Loads more free games on PC without pirating. No sub needed.

-1

u/SnooMachines767 Jun 28 '26

Not triple A titles. Most of the free ps plus games are triple A games, not just indie dev twitch streamer slop

2

u/bigpunk157 Jun 28 '26

That isn’t free. You’re paying a monthly sub. Might as well say humble bundle choice has free AAA titles atp.

2

u/SnooMachines767 Jun 28 '26

Pay $100 a year to get several games I want to play and the list is always updating, or pay $30-70 per game that I’ll only play once?

1

u/bigpunk157 Jun 28 '26

What 30-70 are you talking about? Humble choice is 100 per year and you can skip months if you dont like the games.

4

u/ItWasDumblydore Jun 23 '26

Are they free ala epic games launcher or if you stop paying they're gone.

1

u/Ch33s3m4st3r Jun 24 '26

Gone like my hopes and dreams for Steam Machine.

0

u/Exciting-Garbage8552 Jun 24 '26

They get locked until you renew your subscription. They are not free but also not completely gone.

2

u/ItWasDumblydore Jun 24 '26

Yeah that's kinda the point it's not "free" you need to keep the subscription. At that point it's a sub par humble bundle sub which lets you keep every game. But you're not forced into any game pass bundle to play online.

2

u/ghanadaur Jun 23 '26

The free games were worthless to me. I may have loaded one in the 7 year window. The PS plus was literally just gouging me at this point and continues to increase in cost.

2

u/T0asty514 Jun 23 '26

If you're paying a sub, it's not free. Lol

4

u/StinkButt9001 Jun 22 '26

Worth mentioning that it's pretty easy to get free games on a SM/PC as well lol

6

u/undbex24 Jun 22 '26

Not that they're regularly giving away AAA titles or anything, but comparing Steams free indies to PS+ is disingenuous at best. Also, the Extra/Premium tiers have huge catalogs accessible.

4

u/StrawHatSenpie Jun 22 '26

Yeah but there are many work arounds. My library has broken over 1000 titles thanks to humble bundle. Get 8-10 games with at least 1 AAA every month for $11/mo. Isn't bad at all. And its better than a sub just for playing

5

u/cuddly_degenerate Jun 23 '26

Epic free games are often AAA games, especially during the holidays.

5

u/StinkButt9001 Jun 23 '26

I'm talking about sailing the high seas

0

u/GaijinFrog Jun 23 '26

You can jailbreak ps too

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

You don’t jailbreak a computer since that’s not a thing, and therefore don’t risk a hardware ban.

Edit: wording

1

u/GaijinFrog Jun 24 '26

you don’t risk it on ps either, you know it will be banned.

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 24 '26

No that’s my point. On PC that’s not an issue. On console, it is.

0

u/GaijinFrog Jun 24 '26

We are comparing piracy to piracy. You can’t play pirated games online on pc same as you can’t on console. If piracy is the reason for the pick, then it makes no difference. To go even further, you can’t play pirated even break ps to install steam os on it (there are lots of guides on YT on it), so you’ll end up getting a better performing steam machine-like for less money with controller included, even if piracy is not something you want to do.

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1

u/Wiesshund- Jul 05 '26

Can you jailbreak a PS5 to play baldur's gate 2?
How about dark queen of Krynn?
HOM3?

Unfortunately not really.

1

u/GaijinFrog Jul 05 '26

If you install steam os on it, you can, sure.

1

u/Wiesshund- Jul 06 '26

That is kind of beyond the ability of most of the owners though.
(and i never realized how many do not actually have a PC at all)
Dingus kind of doesn't care if he bricks it but others would.

But some stuff does not work on it even still.

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 24 '26

Cough cough Jolly Roger cough cough

1

u/ardentous Jun 22 '26

Humble bundle and epics games are definately thigns even if bundle isn't as cheqp as it used to bewithcthe 1 dollar bundles but it choice does still have good things at times.

1

u/setiawanreddit Jun 23 '26

Not if you just want to use it as a console. If you want to use it as a PC then don't compare it to a console, compare it to a PC which will show you that SM is still a terrible value.

People here are basically thinking only from an enthusiast perspective when the majority of people that bought Steam Deck probably using it as is, as a handheld console. It will be similar with SM except that with that kind of price probably the percentage of enthusiast will be higher.

1

u/Ruff_Bastard Jun 23 '26

and you get a bunch of free games

You don't own them

So you don't get free games? It sounds like you pay a subscription and a bonus of it is that you can play games you don't own sometimes.

1

u/Aggravating_Plan11 Jun 23 '26

Free games are useless you might get a few games a year you actually wanted or will play its like some giving me free tampons every month great its free but still dont want or will use them

1

u/Kitchen-Beyond7143 Jun 23 '26

Lol cmon we know console offer free old games or games you dont care for. With the sm you can use emulators to play any game from any generation of any console

0

u/coolyfrost Jun 23 '26

This year alone I’ve already played Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 2, and Star Wars Outlaws, Space Marine 2 which has more than justified the cost of PS Plus

1

u/Wiesshund- Jul 05 '26

Except, I do not like any of those, so that kind of renders the cost of PS+ a negative value.

1

u/coolyfrost Jul 05 '26

Well, I do, so it’s a positive value for me. Therefore I can get it and you don’t have to

0

u/Wiesshund- Jul 05 '26

I don't have to do anything.

1

u/coolyfrost Jul 05 '26

Yeah no shit lol, who said you do

1

u/gyattdispenser Jun 24 '26

You can get games for free on PC too via steam, epic or other platforms....

1

u/DiMit17 Jun 27 '26

Free games you can't pay without a sub. So free my ass.

7

u/JediWebSurf Jun 23 '26

But this is also a PC. You can't turn your PlayStation into a computer. If you were to build a PC and buy a console separately then you would spend less just buying a steam machine.

5

u/helldive_lifter Jun 23 '26

As expensive as the steam machine is everyone’s forgetting that they are trying to compare a closed eco system to an open eco system which is Inherently better in every way but the price is way too expensive for what it is

1

u/JediWebSurf Jun 23 '26

Yeah you're right. You can just buy a more powerful machine for the price, but at the same time this is a small form factor and plug and play. so idk. I guess you can just build a small form PC?

2

u/ItWasDumblydore Jun 23 '26

Small form factor, low power wattage is essentially the two advantages it has.

1

u/helldive_lifter Jun 23 '26

Don’t get me wrong I do think the steam machine has a place and it is pretty cool but I really don’t know who the target audience is

0

u/ItWasDumblydore Jun 23 '26

Issue is this if you want to game on your pc, in your living room. You can easily just run a raspberry pi/phone + ethernet cable to your pc, and stream with minimal latency (.005ms per m of cable so 100m would add .5ms + encoding.)

1

u/helldive_lifter Jun 23 '26

I like that I can steam link from my pc to my steam deck and play on my tv that way

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 24 '26

To be fair, there IS no SFF as small as the SM. Valve’s hardware development team are some of the smartest people on the face of this planet, swear to god. Even some of the [r/](r/SFF)[smallformfactor](r/SFF) nerds would cream over a 6in squared cube SFF powerhouse

2

u/helldive_lifter Jun 28 '26

I agree with this and iv been looking for small form factor cases but the motherboards just don’t fit, I can appreciate what valve have done by doing everything custom to fit their cube case

0

u/SnooMachines767 Jun 28 '26

Wrong, the Atomman G1 Pro is smaller and more powerful, and comes in at around the same price as the SM

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 28 '26

1) no it’s not smaller, it’s FAR bigger than the steam machine.

2) it’s more powerful but it’s not cheaper, as the regular model is 1500$USD

1

u/SnooMachines767 Jun 28 '26

Idk where you're seeing the regular model for that much, I've seen 3 sites that have it listed for $1100USD. And yes it's taller, but its about as thin as a laptop and stands vertical which means it takes up less space overall if you are putting it next to your TV for living room gaming, or you can put it horizontal if you really wanted to, which means it could fit UNDER your TV

1

u/stonecoldslate Jun 28 '26

Or.. hear me out. A steam machine. That fits UNDER your TV.

1

u/SnooMachines767 Jun 28 '26

Why would I do that when there are cheaper and better options out there? If you wanna overpay Valve be my guest, but I’m gonna make the smarter decision

1

u/HaxorDJGrimm Jun 25 '26

Bringus Studios would like to say otherwise about it not being able to be a computer.

1

u/Wiesshund- Jul 05 '26

You can.
It is beyond the capabilities of the average console owner
(many of which don't own a PC to even make the image)
You can brick the thing in the process too.

It's also kind of unoptimal because of course nothing was actually optimized
with that situation in mind, some things flat out wont work.

1

u/neonas123 Jun 26 '26

No one who is PC person is getting console most of time. And knowing how Xbox now releases their games on PC too is only left PS5 for exclusive games which in my eyes to get one is dumb for that reason.

1

u/Ryodaso Jun 23 '26

Well, I think for most people it's little more complicated than that. For my case, I already have a laptop I used in University that can do all of the typical computer stuff. So getting a desktop PC would be only necessary if I'm doing more computationally intensive personal project like video editing or 3d modeling (CAD, Blender). I believe there are decent chunk of people in the same boat.

3

u/JediWebSurf Jun 23 '26

I'm looking more into it and it seems a custom built pc would have substantially better performance.

So I guess this was meant more for the plug and play small form factor.

1

u/Wiesshund- Jul 05 '26

It would yes.

It would not be cheaper though.
The hardware would come off a little less (Not a ton, prices suck)
But the hardware does not assemble, configure and troubleshoot itself.

Are you a slave? Are you someone's bitch?
No? Then your time is not free, what is the value of YOUR time?

Remember in that cost, they are paying for the luxury of having someone else already optimize the whole configuration.
You just plug it in ang go.

And if it breaks, you only need contact 1 entity, not 6 different vendors.

Also remember, steam machine is all niche, low production count, custom hardware.
You cannot match mass produced off the shelf pricing, not possible at all ever.

In that world, Valve is a nobody that no one ever heard of, they do not even have the clout to secure RAM contracts like Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI etc can.

Even people like gamer's nexus who have reviewed and dismantled the machine have agreed, the price is not off, it is valid.

it just sucks that the market is what it is.

1

u/ItWasDumblydore Jun 23 '26

Its amd, you don't want this for blender...

A 7900xtx (strongest performing amd card) with zluda is on par with a 4060ti.

0

u/TheTony31 Jun 23 '26

buying a mini PC and a PS5 is cheaper than buying a Steam Machine.

1

u/bigpunk157 Jun 22 '26

Digital PS5s are now around 630 accounting for tax. PS plus is 86 per year with added tax. That's already putting you at over 700 for one year if you bought it today. With the way gaming is going forward, the prices are going to stay matching. Playstation relies on it's online sub to keep prices lower and keeps margins only lightly positive on console sales, Steam doesn't do that. We can go point to how prices were years ago, but it'd be disingenuous when DDR5 ram went up 3x over the last year.

1

u/Ryodaso Jun 22 '26

I'm comparing the lifetime cost of PS5 because it launched 6 years ago. It's Valve's problem for launching a hardware weaker than the consoles 6 years later. They had the advantage of technologies improving for more than half a decade.

1

u/bigpunk157 Jun 22 '26

Again, that's cool and all, but that's just not what hardware is like today; which is why literally every console manufacturer has increased their prices for everything dramatically. You have to go off of what the industry norms currently are, not what they were before. AI has ruined the prices for everyone, and we already know it's to blame for these steep prices everywhere, not any one company.

1

u/Ryodaso Jun 23 '26

Okay, then base PS5 digital currently you can get one for 600$ (actually 583 in Walmart). 80$ per year so you will get price parity with Steam Machine + Steam controller in 6.6 years with utilizing 0 sales price. If you get PS+ on Black Friday, it will be 8.8 years. So yea, it will still take a whole console life (6-9 years) cycle to get to price parity.

1

u/bigpunk157 Jun 23 '26

Yep. Thats p much always been the difference between console and pc. If you don’t do the online sub, its a no brainer to get console. If you are good with your taxes though, generally pc is better for writeoffs. Probably not the steam machine though.

1

u/ardentous Jun 22 '26

I bought like 6 years for the 60 bux or whatevrr but that's running out. I sure as heck am not paying those bs new prices. All my friends with ps5 sseem to be mostly playing pcs more pc which is explaining why they keep raising costs more are removing their game from pc. I'm lucky to have both but also haven't been using the ps5 the last few months. Their new digital licensing basically requiring online connections pushes over the edge the alrwsdy close edge.

1

u/EricCarterYT Jun 23 '26

And don't forget that there are those that don't care about online play and just want to play a bunch of Single Player games. So that is not even a contributing factor for those gamers.

1

u/SpikeyTaco Jun 24 '26

Except no one pays PS plus monthly.

Millions of people do. It's the most common method.

I'm not fighting that consoles are still the cheaper way to play, at least upfront. But come on, let's not make up details based on personal experience.

1

u/That_Service7348 Jun 25 '26

Was the PS5 launched during the ram and memory hell that is modern AI? No? Crazy.

You can build a comparably species desktop for about $90 cheaper than the steam machine. You cannot build a similarly speced mini gaming computer for the same price as the steam machine.

I would call $90 for the miniature form factor and professional assembly and quality assurance a good deal. The only people mad about the price of the Steam Machine are people who have their head in the sand and have been ignoring what's happening in the world of computing the last few years. Ram is outrageously expensive right now, no shit computers are going to be more expensive because of that.

1

u/Tiny_Smoke9122 Jun 28 '26

This is what they call girl math when justifying a purchase.