Valve have confirmed the Steam Machine's price will be comparable to a custom-built PC with similar performance, rather than subsidised like a console.
It’s going to be a complete repeat because they learned nothing from the first time. This is only really appealing to console games as PC gamers have nothing to gain from buying one, but pricing it like a PC means console gamers won’t buy them either. This is exactly what happened the first time.
The first time it was largely due to lack of game support and confusion as they were 3rd party devices.
This time pretty much every game will run through Proton, Linux for desktop has matured a lot, SteamOS is much better and Valve are selling it 1st party. It will sell a lot, even if it is priced as a PC… I mean at the end of the day it is a PC, a custom SFF one, which are usually very expensive. This will good value for what it is, you just can’t compare it to a console.
I play a lot of PC games and it’s definitely of interest; if I can buy a powerful, compact machine that can play everything for less than the cost of a current generation 12-16gb+ GPU, I’m sold.
Why would I want to spend a bunch more money to build/upgrade my own rig? Have you seen RAM prices lately?
There’s still at-home streaming. I just upgraded to an RX 9070XT so I can stream 4k60 to my TV through my Steam Deck using Sunshine and Moonlight.
Granted, a big reason why I did that was because they were selling for $600 a week ago on Newegg. Plus I didn’t want to have to fight Nvidia drivers on Linux while trying to mod Skyrim to hell
This is only really appealing to console games as PC gamers have nothing to gain from buying one
I have a PC gamer friend who has an 8-year-old PC. He has said he is getting a Steam Machine.
What this offers PC gamers is a ready-made box. Some PC gamers don’t want to build a PC, they want to just buy it. And this offers a very standard package to get.
I partially agree with you, this needs to be under $800. But the last attempt was awful, this would have to be over $1000 to be as bad as the original Steam Machines. Also Linux could not play many games back then.
It’s going to be a complete repeat because they learned nothing from the first time. This is only really appealing to console games as PC gamers have nothing to gain from buying one, but pricing it like a PC means console gamers won’t buy them either. This is exactly what happened the first time.
The first time it was largely due to lack of game support and confusion as they were 3rd party devices.
This time pretty much every game will run through Proton, Linux for desktop has matured a lot, SteamOS is much better and Valve are selling it 1st party. It will sell a lot, even if it is priced as a PC… I mean at the end of the day it is a PC, a custom SFF one, which are usually very expensive. This will good value for what it is, you just can’t compare it to a console.
I play a lot of PC games and it’s definitely of interest; if I can buy a powerful, compact machine that can play everything for less than the cost of a current generation 12-16gb+ GPU, I’m sold.
Why would I want to spend a bunch more money to build/upgrade my own rig? Have you seen RAM prices lately?
There’s still at-home streaming. I just upgraded to an RX 9070XT so I can stream 4k60 to my TV through my Steam Deck using Sunshine and Moonlight.
Granted, a big reason why I did that was because they were selling for $600 a week ago on Newegg. Plus I didn’t want to have to fight Nvidia drivers on Linux while trying to mod Skyrim to hell
I am a PC gamer and am considering one as long as the price is reasonable.
I have a PC gamer friend who has an 8-year-old PC. He has said he is getting a Steam Machine.
What this offers PC gamers is a ready-made box. Some PC gamers don’t want to build a PC, they want to just buy it. And this offers a very standard package to get.
I partially agree with you, this needs to be under $800. But the last attempt was awful, this would have to be over $1000 to be as bad as the original Steam Machines. Also Linux could not play many games back then.
The pc parts market is getting fucked by the AI rush, so maybe it’ll work out better.