I’m lucky enough to have disposable income, I could afford to buy one without it hurting. That said, idk just off principle it feels like an insane ask. Especially considering its not doing anything a PC can’t do (as far as I know). For those not in the know, the cheapest edition will be about 1,000 USD and the most pricy will be around 1,500. To my knowledge, consoles themselves aren’t profitable historically. So, do you think even at this price point Valve is taking a hit? Do you think if this sells well it will drastically increase the cost of other consoles (completely independent of the external factor being hardware shortage due to AI). General steam machine discussion post as well, just dont be a dickhead to anyone.
Its not upgradable. It might be appealing to console gamers but as a PC enthusiast whose been building, repairing, and upgrading my own PCs for 20 years, no.
Contrary to what people will tell you, there are some exclusive benefits to the Machine, like HDMICEC and background updates, both are really nice to have. But it’s not worth it.
Yes, refurbished one at least
Machine? No.
Frame? Yes.Would I like it to be cheaper. Of course. Are gaming consoles cheaper of course.
But I cant name 1 system or PC, which can waken when a Bluetooth Controller connects to it, and can play every game I own from the last 15 years, and every console game from the last 25 years.
Even Nintendo nickels and dimes you for this privilege, and with a one time purchase I can just remove my consoles and just use a Steam Machine, sign me up.
Not even PlayStation 5 can do what the steam machine does out of the box.
My PS4 wakes up when the bluetooth controller connects to it.
Your PS4 can’t play PS3 games, the Steam Machine can, nor can it play N64 and GameCube titles.
Homebrew can eventually fix the later, but the ps4 doesn’t have enough power for the former.
I’m not suggesting it can do those things. You said no known system or console can wake on a Bluetooth connection, I said PS4 can. I don’t have a PS5, but it probably does too.
Most consoles made since 2005 can wake from sleep on by turning on a controller.
But PCs cannot since it wasn’t a feature added to them.
However a PC can play older games, not just going back 20 years, but with emulation can play games as far back as games from the 70s.
A PS4/5 can’t do that since unless the developer needs to add support for it, or made a rerelease with their older games. So your PS4 isn’t play Super Mario Sunshine or even Brothers. Let alone the thousands of games which are classified as abandonware.
Which is what makes the steam deck alluring even at its inflated price point.
Yes. It’s too expensive for sure, but it is exactly what I want. I have no interest in doing any manual work to get a functioning Non-Windows gaming PC into my living room. I just want plug and play and that’s what Valve offers.
No one on Lemmy is going to be looking for an entry-level device, we’re all boomers with custom rigs already.
PC gamers already have PCs, and console gamers don’t want to spend $1000 on a console-PC. That seems to be the general vibe. It’s not looking great.
The Steam Deck came in at a competetive price, and a handheld form factor, those two things made it a success.
You’re missing an entire market segment of gadget nerds. I have no practical need for steam machine but I’m still getting it because it’s fun, it’s beautiful and it supports ideals I’m interested in. 1,000 usd is nothing for a luxury gadget.
Yeah but no way that market is big enough for valve to keep building steam machines.
Let’s wait and see but I think it very well might be big enough.
Yes. I have many PCs and laptops around the house already but I simply want it as a luxury item and to support the idea of open game consoles.
Especially considering its not doing anything a PC can’t do (as far as I know).
It’s a PC. Why wouldn’t it do anything a PC can’t do.
That being said, it does have the connections to wake the machine and your TV by acticating a connected Steam Controller
I assume you could just install a windows partition and it could be your family PC if you wanted. Or you could just use linux.
Honestly, there is no reason the family PC should be windows. Windows has become an entirely inferior product for everything except some specialist software which you can not run through wine. But for that just use a windows VM
No. I still have an AM4 PC that does everything I’ve asked it to do. While I applaud Valves contribution to the industry… it ain’t fucking worth that. The real win is SteamOS pushing through and getting desktop OS support for all users.
No
Probably not, but I do have a Steam Deck and might buy a Steam Frame.
The cost is definitely a factor, but also, I’ve been building computers since the 90s and even my laptop can run everything I play already: I don’t have much need for another computer right now, even if Valve made it. If I did really need a computer, I’d probably just build a better one for cheaper and slap Bazzite or Cachy on it.
If the price goes down, I might reconsider: I do like supporting companies that do right by their customers and Valve is one of the very few that still seem to make that effort.
Hell no, I can still play all the games I want with my own computer from 2010, lol.
Nope. Getting an Anbernic and Steam Deck opened the way to easy playing of older games, and I’ve been having a great time.
Recently I bought a mini PC with AMD 760M iGPU, just to get something modern, cheap and good enough in case prices get even worse.
Been playing Return To Castle Wolfenstein, The Settlers II remake, ballisticng, Fallout 4… quite a few other cheap and/or old games.
If triple A games are going to cost that much to play moving forwards I’m just not going to play them 👍
No the hardware is not good for the price.
It’s weaker than the ps5.
I really like the idea of being able to sit in front of my TV and play Steam games on it as if they were Playstation games. I think I’d play them a lot more than I currently do, since I wouldn’t need to go to my home office and sit where I spend most of my day already.
I have a pretty powerful PC for work purposes (image and video editing mainly) so it can handle most games fine (maybe not the absolute top end ones, I’m not sure) but I’m not going to move that into the living room.
So the Steam Machine feels like a great idea…
But I can’t help but feel that there’ll be issues with it - underpowered maybe, or lacking in features. Plus the rising cost is a pain.
Will wait to see how it turns out for early adopters. But I hope it’s a success, I really do.
I’m the same way. I have a PC but I don’t want to game at the desk anymore, and I have a deck but not everything feels right on the small screen. I was going to get the steam machine, but the price came in higher than expected, and I would also need to get a controller… I will wait and see how the release goes. But there’s some fomo, because the deck has been out of stock for a while (I couldn’t upgrade to oled)
