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.
I don’t really have a use case, but I would have considered picking one up anyways sometime down the line if it was a good deal. It’s unfortunate that it’s not. I was really hoping that Valve would try to subsidize it a little to at least make the cost not as painful, but I understand that it was never an expectation for them to do so.
I think it’ll sell anyways, since there are people who don’t want to worry about the technical challenges of building their own computer, and also don’t want to spend time looking into and vetting pre-built brands. They just want a pre-built from a brand that they already know and trust. And I think the Steam Machine would fill that niche. It’s a niche of a niche of a niche, but I suspect there would be enough people like that to still sell a decent number of Steam Machines.
As for the prices of other consoles? Steam Machine is such a low volume product that other consoles would not feel a thing no matter how successful it sells
It’s a point of pride to build my own PCs, including Linux boxes.
Nah. If it became cheaper or I found one on Ebay for a much lower price one day then maybe. The price it is at now is just too much and you may as well just build a very decent mid range gaming PC for that amount.
I sure hope it does not increase the cost of future consoles. Many will be locked out of the gaming market altogether if that happens because a lot are living on the edge as it is already from paycheck to paycheck.
I really want a powerful miniPC to replace my Rokus and also play 80% of my library. But $1100 for the 512gb without a controller is a hard pill to swallow. I can get an equivalent laptop for about the same price or less, and it’s still portable.
I reserved a 512gb and a 2tb, but I may hold out for the Frame. I fell like Valve should rethink the strategy, because there are a lot of console gamers that would break into the market if the price is right, $1,100 is too high. Especially since it still won’t be able to play games with anti-cheat, so most of the competitive games aren’t even an option.
No. I already own a PC.
Why? I already have a PC, and if I didn’t and were in the market for one I have a small one bedroom apartment, which is enough space to not have to budget every square inch. That means paying hundreds of monies more for a PC that’s less powerful just because it’s also a bit more compact would be a poor decision.
No, just build a PC recently right before price going shit.
But also if i wanted to, i can’t, or i’ll be paying scalper + dropshipper price.
I’m not really part of the target audience. I already have a laptop that’s slightly more powerful and I could hook it up to my TV if that was a thing I wanted to do. I don’t need a separate gaming PC for my living room.
I can’t find full-time work for over a year. I can’t afford Chinese takeout. I want one, but it’s far outside my price range.
I wish I could, but that price is way too high for me to justify it. If the price ever comes down I would be happy to see about getting one. I think at that price point it’s only really accessible to enthusiasts with a lot of disposable income. There were a lot of more casual gamers that were interested in the machine before the price. They were able to get a deck at a $300-400 mark and they were interested to see what the Steam Machine would be offered at. But I am certain at this price that none of those people are going to get one. I’m sure the price is due to AI fucking everyone and not because Valve just wants to squeeze out money. But I think the result of this is that it’s not going to be the widespread go-to option for a lot of gamers. It definitely hurt it’s chances with a ton of potential customers.
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)
Nah, my PC is still good. Will be buying Half-Life 3 though if they release that.
Not really, I don’t have money for a separate gaming console, and if I had, I’d probably still invest in my work machine. I want mass adoption for it become a reference in optimization for Linux systems but I myself can’t chip in - I think that contradiction is shared by many.
Maybe in a year or so. My Deck still works fine, not in a rush to replace it. The Frame on the other hand, probably a day one purchase.
After it was announced I was considering it, to replace an old (non-gaming) PC that I still need to use occasionally. But honestly, even if the price was half what it is, I don’t think it would really serve much point in my hands.
The Steam Frame is what I’m really interested in, if I have the cash to splurge on it when it finally releases I’ll probably nab it.
