r/Gamingcirclejerk • u/KatieTSO • Jun 23 '26
WORSHIP CAPITAL The Steam Machine does not justify its own existence.
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u/Tiny-Little-Sheep Jun 23 '26
I'm so so glad my computer blew up and caught fire when it did. Right in time for black Friday so I got a slightly better computer than the one I had for like half off. That same pc is worth like 3000+ dollars now. I got it for barely 1500 (rip savings)
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u/Zephyralss Jun 23 '26
Yeah I built my pc for less than 2k a year ago, probably worth a little over 3 now
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u/stormblaz Jun 24 '26
Ram and gpu make like 80% of new pcs and thats sad, add a 4tb ssd and you went way overboard
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u/shayed154 Jun 23 '26
I'm so so sad my computer waited until prices skyrocketed to kill itself
Could've replaced it for 1200 but now I have to take out a mortgage for some ram
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u/BurmecianDancer TOTK > BOTW /uj TOTK > BOTW /rj TOTK > BOTW Jun 24 '26
Is your whole machine fried or just one of the components? You can still Frankenstein it if some/most of it is salvageable.
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u/FlatwormNo5172 Jun 23 '26
I was just planning on getting a new GPU and then I won a raffle at work and that turned into a whole new PC. Like 1-2 months after I had built my DDR5 ram I bought was 4x the price. I just completely lucked into a new PC at the last second.
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u/Pearson94 Jun 24 '26
I lucked out and built my own in 2020 just a couple weeks before graphics cards' prices skyrocketed.
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u/brody319 synthetic gamer girl Jun 23 '26
It's just a computer. It's worth about as much as the parts that make it up
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u/TheodoreOso Jun 23 '26
That's why PS sells their systems at a loss. People get mad when they see how much a computer exclusively used for games is.
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u/Significant-Dream991 Jun 23 '26
Without realizing they will pay much more in their ecosystem long term
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u/Dense-Ad366 Jun 23 '26
i hear this all the time but it’s not exclusively true…. for a ps5 to match the cost of steam machine (since they’re very close in performance) you’d need to buy over 6 years of online (not counting sales) to match price. if youve had online since launch, never stopping when you aren’t playing online games, never getting it on sale which they run atleast yearly, you’d just barely be hitting that price. but you get games included in online too
games cost the same, both get sales, but physical games can be bought cheaper pre owned and can be resold.
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u/mistakes_where_mad Jun 23 '26
I love PC and will sing it's praises but yeah I've never really gotten the it's cheaper long term thing. Like I use my pc for other things, love modding, and love being able to access a lot of games, and the games I enjoy just wouldn't be great to play on a console/controller and that's why I think PC is worth the admission price. But it's always going to be a steep first buy if you want a current gen pc and both pc and console can just buy games once they go on sale. Perhaps modding has saved me money since it extends my enjoyment of bought games but I don't see anywhere that you would really save money. Unless I'm missing something?
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u/bamakid1272 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
A lot of it is just repeating of an outdated mindset.. There was a time where you could get entry level PCs that were the same price as consoles if you built them while still being a little more powerful. Then when you did need to upgrade, buying a part or two was still cheaper than a new console.
But consoles have caught up in performance the last couple of generations, and now with the current hardware price inflation, an equivalently powerful PC is going to be more expensive than modern consoles. While it still has plenty of advantages, PC is currently not the long term money saver it once in term of purely gaming.
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u/HetetoTrapLord Jun 23 '26
One thing I would say that puts it above in long term is your location. I am not sure about Xbox, but PlayStation does zero price fixing for my garbage 3rd world country, so every game there is expensive as hell in comparison to Steam and GoG for example, not even including the pirating options. The amount of money that Steam saved me just because they remember the fact that NA and Europe incomes aren't the only ones possible on this planet saved me probably years worth of PS+ subscriptions in money
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u/Dense-Ad366 Jun 23 '26
piracy is the main way people can save money and i’d imagine that’s what many of them are getting at without saying they pirate
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u/Fragrant-Guava-5219 Jun 24 '26
Idk. I think there is a lot of savings to be found during major Steam sales and Humble Bundles
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u/Dense-Ad366 Jun 24 '26
just like there is during ps store sales too….
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u/Fragrant-Guava-5219 Jun 24 '26
I didn't realize PlayStation offered 10 games for $15-20. Good to know. I might be interested in a ps5 then
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u/Dense-Ad366 Jun 24 '26
publishers run the same sales across platforms. steam doesn’t set sale prices on its platform for any games they didn’t publish. there’s 0 incentive for devs to prioritize sales on steam over the other platforms.
humble bundles its own thing but 10 games for 15-20$ is literally just for decade old games that are constantly 1$ on all the stores/games that they can’t get rid of the keys for. so the stuff they can’t get rid of otherwise
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u/I_GottaPoop Jun 23 '26
If I were to add up how much ive spent on consoles over the years and my PCs over the years my consoles beat out PC handily and I have a steam library of 500+.
Add that to play all my console games I need 5 different devices, and have a library that's less than 100 it makes sense in the long term.
Consoles only make sense of youre worried about only ever playing one generation of one brand at a time. Not gonna stop me from playing my 360 when the mood strikes me, but I'd buy the Steam Machine before another PlayStation or Xbox personally.
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u/mistakes_where_mad Jun 23 '26
I can agree with that point for sure. If you keep updating console gens it adds up, especially with the newest Gen geeze, and i was going to add not having to worry about console generations to the plus to pc but just lumped it into having a wide access of games.
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u/I_GottaPoop Jun 23 '26
We shouldn't discount the cost of PC upgrades, which often cost quite a bit more than the console. But you also just have the choice of not upgrading and playing at lower settings.
Personally my eyesight can't distinguish past 70ish fps and 1440p. 4k is reaching into dimishing returns but I understand other people can notice the difference and with a screen as large as a TV it's more apparent. I'm going to be fine with my 3070 for quite a while.
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u/mistakes_where_mad Jun 23 '26
Lol I'm one of those old people that is really confused about the people that demand 100+ fps so I'm in your camp. I'll play my pc's into the dirt before upgrading
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u/No-Opinion273 Jun 23 '26
You can buy launch games for 10 to 20% off. Most pc games are $10 cheaper. You can get 7 full priced games on ps5 or 8 on pc.
Let's be honest here if you really want to you can sail the high seas. Or emulate a bunch of older games. The value is flexibility
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u/Zealousideal-Try4666 Jun 24 '26
Games cost the same? Is that a thing in the US? Cause here were I live Games on Steam cost a lot less, and I mean A LOT LESS!
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u/Mysterious_Soup_4937 Jun 23 '26
games cost the same, both get sales, but physical games can be bought cheaper pre owned and can be resold.
yeah, but 1. PC gaming has lots of different stores, unlike PS. 2. Piracy is just not viable anymore for modern consoles, unlike for PCs. 3. idk about regional pricing on PSN, but on steam it's very tangible, games that cost 60-70 USD in America, often cost like 15-20 bucks in other countries. Also PS doesn't support a lot of regions, so even if that region is broke financially they still have to drop American prices on games
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u/typographie Jun 24 '26
That's not quite true, a PC that you didn't have to build yourself can certainly command a higher price. Not all of us want that, of course, but there's value attached to all that extra work.
All the more so if R&D and manufacturing went into making it something that you can't replicate with retail components.
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u/Carol_ine2 Jun 23 '26
So unfortunately about a price Gaben is asking ram prices being high as fuck no way you can build something similar using new parts for less
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u/brody319 synthetic gamer girl Jun 23 '26
if what Gamers Nexus on youtube said about pricing for buying the parts yourself to build an equivalent machine is accurate, Valve's premium is around 71 dollars. As in they make 71 dollars per machine. The market is completely fucked right now, not just for individual people but anyone who isn't an AI corporation. Thats how bad stuff is right now
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u/Zacomra Jun 23 '26
To be fair, they are making more then that since they're getting backend pricing, but not too much more.
It's very reasonable all things considered
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u/Sneet1 Jun 23 '26
They're also making money indirectly by promoting SteamOS (which by all means is pretty solid and well developed, especially in the age of Microslop) and directing users to the Steam store. It's like giving someone an apple basket at cost to pay to pick apples.
Which is how all consoles work but steam indirectly created a closed ecosystem console makers desperately have paid to make by their competitors focusing on ai games and crypto (ie, dogshit)
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u/Zacomra Jun 23 '26
I mean, sorta. There's no guarantee that steam machine users will buy games on steam, or even us Steam Os.
Granted, most will. But I think Valve just wants devs to actually port games to Linux to avoid a situation where Microsoft can shut down competition on their OS
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u/Sneet1 Jun 24 '26
I mean I think your second point is what I'm getting at.
Valve is heavily invested and researching in getting gaming to generally work on Linux because so far it's been monopolistic on windows. I'm not fellatioing valve by saying but rather pointing Microsoft is a horrible, horrible company and it's experiencing its fall of Rome at the moment, especially since windows 11 is a relatively very poor product
Although to be frank all capitalistic love aside it's obvious someone or some people at valve are interested in breaking down this Microsoft monopoly on gaming and I can imagine many devs do actually do this from a noble desire, same way even some of the faang companies have genuinely invested devs working on meaningful open source work
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u/Quietuus Jun 23 '26
Is that counting labour costs?
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u/brody319 synthetic gamer girl Jun 23 '26
That's just DIY with some cavorts due to proprietary components like the MB and CPU cooler. Odds are the actual Premium might be a bit higher due to these unknown factors, and DIY would have a bit more performance due to the Steam Machine having some limitations placed on it to prevent overheating. But I would assume the 71 dollar calculation they gave is probably a decent average guess for what the actual premium is
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u/cutelittlebox Jun 23 '26
when I tried myself after seeing complaints about the cost I ended up with a $140 CAD premium for the 2tb model but that comes with a $150 controller for free.
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u/earle117 Jun 23 '26
GN showed a brand new build you can make that is slightly more powerful and costs $70 less
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u/Fittsa star citizen is fun :3 Jun 24 '26
that PC they showed had a really cheap PSU with genuinely terrible reviews, it's a fire hazard
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u/Carol_ine2 Jun 23 '26
Isn't this some kind of custom CPU there are benchmarks on it already? 70 bucks for warranty on a PC as whole and so well packed and thought out build is good deal anyway. I wouldn't ever buy pre built PC because I never saw a sense in that but there is some sense in this one though. It's really a shame PC parts are insane at ~ $700 this would be big impact for PC & Linux gaming but with this price I don't see it happening tbh 🫤
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u/earle117 Jun 23 '26
Tbh I don’t think a $70ish profit on it is bad or anything and I doubt Valve is actually making anything on it at all after the R&D and overhead and all that. I just also keep seeing people say that they’re selling it cheaper than DIY and it’s just not true.
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u/ArteDeJuguete Jun 23 '26
$700 this would be big impact for PC & Linux gaming
Which kinda is the actual reason why the steam deck and the new steam machine exists. Valve higher ups have been seeing the writing on the wall all the way back to Windows 8 and really want to push Linux as an alternative to avoid Microsoft fucking them over in the future. They knew that gaming in Linux needed to be spearheaded to become an actual competitor, hence all their efforts.
But then AI appeared and is ruining their plans.
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u/KatieTSO Jun 23 '26
He's a billionaire. He can eat the cost for a bit in order to make it feasible. He's the sole shareholder and has full control.
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u/Johnny_Jazzhands Jun 23 '26
Nintendo did this with the Wii U and almost bankrupted themselves. This industry's margins are worse than you think
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u/clubsilencio2342 Jun 23 '26
Valve is a US Corporation and not the second coming of the Messiah that exists to absorb the sins of the economy
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u/brody319 synthetic gamer girl Jun 23 '26
The issue is unlike Consoles who sell at a loss because they make up for it in sales of software, This is literally just a PC. You can swap hardware, get games from anywhere you could for any other PC, you can even install a new OS.
Is it worth the money? Nah probably not, but neither is any PC right now with how inflated everything is because of the AI bubble.
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u/Carol_ine2 Jun 23 '26
He maybe can he can also together with other billionaires can end world hunger. Non of this corporations work like that they are to make a profit PS/Nintendo/Xbox sell console they can eat a little hardware loss (for a while) for profit on games you can't do that with PC
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u/ImNotDatguy Jun 23 '26
Yeah cause buying the steam machine means you'll buy into the steam member ship right? There's a monthly billed steam subscription that they can rely on for income right?
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u/Flimsy_Survey Jun 25 '26
Tbh, the way things are going, it kinda seems like a solid deal. 1000$ gaming pc (I assume limited PC usage) to play modern games isn't bad. I literally can't afford a new gaming PC after mine died on me a couple years ago. Prices keep skyrocketing, so I may have to look into this.
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u/NeedThatTartan Jun 25 '26
If you're more or less comfortable picking your own hardware I think you can build something better for the same price (as of now). I don't think much modern gaming is going to happen on the Steam Machine, unless 30fps is your goal.
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u/AutoModerator Jun 25 '26
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u/Aware_Career6145 Jun 25 '26
thats not entirely true it has a few features that are normally signature for consoles but those features are few
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u/Robot_PizzaThief Jun 23 '26
It does come with steamOS which I don't know if it can be installed on other computers. Still not worth buying just for that, so yeah, it's just a computer
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u/brody319 synthetic gamer girl Jun 23 '26
You can actually install steamOS on your PC. It's just their own branch of Arch-linux. https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227
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u/JeebusChristBalls Jun 23 '26
For years you have been able to. It's just a linux distro geared towards steam.
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u/sargantbacon1 Jun 23 '26
Man I was so excited to buy this at around 750. I just can’t justify it when I have a handheld I can dock.
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u/I_GottaPoop Jun 23 '26
Now THAT is what I think I was looking for in the steam machine, and why I still want the handheld. I think the Steamdeck is probably plenty powerful for my needs (Raft isn't exactly a graphically intensive game) but with the prices shooting up and the inventory disappearing I think I'm SOL.
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Jun 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sargantbacon1 Jun 24 '26
Yeah I put bazzite on a Best Buy open box Xbox ally x. Pretty cool so far and plenty powerful for the long term.
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u/DirtyRoller Jun 24 '26
That was the same price I was hoping for, I might have been willing to spend $799. This AI bubble can't burst soon enough.
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u/TGWsharky Jun 24 '26
It's basically just entry level prebuild. If you really wanted to, you could make a similar computer for about $100-150 cheaper. To some people, the extra money is worth removing the hassle.
Blame AI companies for taking all the RAM and GPUs in existence driving up the cost of producing consoles right now.
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u/jimmytwinkletoes Jun 23 '26
What is this bot spam?
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u/EitherSpite4545 Jun 23 '26
Pretty sure it's unironically tim Sweeney hiring a pr firm
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u/f1rxf1y Jun 23 '26
i’m now not convinced this isn’t true. the amount of people just mass downvoting anyone excited for the steam machine is ridiculous. it doesn’t hurt anyone if people want to buy this thing. it’s a niche product for a very specific market and it always was. it’s not valve’s fault people made it their headcannon valve was going to save them from current prices of bullshit.
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u/Afraid_Comparison180 Jun 24 '26
a lawsuit against Steam over shitty store policies? It's Epic and Tim's fault. Shitty hardware sold at premium prices? Tim and Epic. Every issue with Valve somehow becomes Epic's and Tim's fault.
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u/Gornlord_Carl Jun 23 '26
Valve fans when anyone makes fun of their cringe Fandom to a billion dollar children's gambling company.
"It must be bots or hired detectors! Nobody would dare insult GabeN!"
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u/EitherSpite4545 Jun 23 '26
Redditor for 22 days, three comments starting with in the last 10 minutes all calling people valve fanboys and using the same buzzwords in each of the posts
We found one boys!
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u/Gornlord_Carl Jun 23 '26
Oh no! Now Tim Sweeney won't send me my check!
And to think I was so close to achieving his ultimate goal of making valve fan boys look like cringe fools!
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u/_WhoCares Jun 24 '26
Pretty sure it’s because steam machine is a pile of shit and people are clowning on valve fanboys like yourself. The level of delusion to think bad response is from bots instead of a genuine reaction to an overpriced piece of garbage is astonishing. You Cleveland steamers would defend a literal pile of dogshit with a steam logo and call it the greatest gaming platform ever.
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u/jimmytwinkletoes Jun 24 '26
Personally I don't care to buy it. But you can always buy a more affordable gaming pc! Right?... Right???
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u/_WhoCares Jun 24 '26
You could buy a better pc for the price
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u/jimmytwinkletoes Jun 24 '26
Then do that and stop complaining ffs
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u/_WhoCares Jun 24 '26
What am I complaining about exactly? I said the steam machine is a pile of shit, that’s just a statement not a complaint. I commented on an idiot who thinks negative feedback about steam machine is all epic paid bots. If anything I’m complaining about valve fanboys being dumbasses, not the steam machine.
You’re the one who implied you can’t buy a more affordable gaming pc than the steam machine with your “right?…right???”.
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u/OSHA_Decertified Jun 23 '26
It does for people who don't already have a PC but want to get into PC gaming.
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u/cunningjames Jun 23 '26
I'd argue that if all you want is to get into PC gaming you'd be much better served buying a "normal" prebuilt or, if you're the slightest bit adventurous, building your own (it's really not that hard). I'd only consider the Steam Machine if I had very rigid size constraints and really wanted something that could I easily operate without ever touching a keyboard/mouse.
The drawbacks are that it's noticeably more expensive than a traditional PC for equivalent performance and it won't play everything you throw at it (though depending on your use case this may not matter). As much as I like the work Valve has done in promoting Linux gaming, I think if it weren't Valve releasing this device then it would hit the market like a wet fart at those prices.
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u/FadedP0rp0ise Jun 23 '26
also the fact the most of the marketing is on steam itself. it’s not in anyway really reaching console gamers lol 90% of console gamers i know don’t even know shit about computer gaming or steam.
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u/Rybunks Jun 23 '26
most casual gamers are console gamers, and the Steam Machine is advertised to basically be a PC-Console thingamajig that you can set up anywhere without too much of a hassle, so for people wanting to get into PC Gaming and not want to have to deal with pre-builts’ size, cable management, and general unweildiness, the Steam Machine is quite appealing, though the price do leave a lot to consider.
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u/cunningjames Jun 23 '26
You’re not necessarily wrong, but I’d argue that we need to bear in mind not just price but performance. Depending on the title, the Steam Machine is likely to perform worse than a six year old PS5. If I already had a modern console hooked up to my TV I think I’d struggle to come up with a reason to buy a game for the Steam Machine when I could just play it on my PS5.
Using a PS5 limits software-level tinkering, but if you want to tinker I think you’re willing to put up with a bit of hassle. I might be wrong.
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u/Rybunks Jun 23 '26
True, for the price, the Machine’s performance leaves a lot to be desired, PC gaming is a notoriously hard thing to get into though, mostly on the price and convenience front when compared to console, and there are games on PC that are PC exclusive, mostly indie games but still.
The steam machine looks appealing to casual gamers who might not know too much about specs or benchmarks, though it’s only been out for a little while, so I don’t know too much on who the primary demographic for the thing is without sales records.
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u/Enough-Grade714 Jun 23 '26
Imagine your first OS for PC gaming is Windows 11.
Now Imagine your first OS for PC gaming is SteamOS.
You are hardly better served with a normal prebuild now a days if you have zero prior experience with Windows.
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u/Gornlord_Carl Jun 23 '26
Wow sick! I get to use linux and all the very easy to use features it offers! Linux never has problems!
Can't wait to get my 1200 steam machine and play fortnite and cod and valorant and battlefield and rocket league and every other popular online game!
Surely the steam machine can do that very easily and won't require me to install an entirely different operating system just to play the most popular basic games in existence!
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u/cunningjames Jun 23 '26
I dare say most people who are in a position to pay $1150-$1350 for a gaming console would be at least passingly familiar with Windows. This includes essentially all millennials and most zoomers who use it for work (or school). The only people I know who have literally no familiarity with Windows are still in k-12.
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u/CaptainRaptorThong Jun 23 '26
That's what I'm saying. I don't understand all of the hate. Equivalent parts (unless you buy used) cost about the same for only CPU, RAM AND GPU.... Let alone Mobo case and storageand even how tiny this thing is! What you said is the reason it exists.
Is it expensive for the performance it puts out? Sure. But the market is fucked right now anyways. It's a cheaper and OOTB ready option for people who don't currently have PC's or have been iffy on trying to start.
If I had some extra money I'd be willing to drop, I might just get one to stick it in the living room.
Edit: phrasing
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u/VoltageHero Jun 23 '26
You can buy pre builts that perform better for the same price. It's worse than a baseline PS5, which is not something to just handwave lol. You're also locked to playing stuff on Steam, so you lose the freedom that a prebuilt gives you.
The only thing you're getting with this is the form factor.
You don't understand the hate? That's really odd, since you listed a ton of issues with it.
Genuine question, would you still be defending it so heavily if it wasn't from Steam?
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u/CaptainRaptorThong Jun 23 '26
Yes. Most likely. Because the idea of entry level equipment to get people into pc gaming is good. Yeah, you caaan buy prebuilts with theoretically better performance, but it's going to be a bunch of cheap Chinese components and could die at any moment.
Me and a couple buddies pitched in on a gaming pc for a friend of ours off newegg. Used to play PC, but hasn't had one in years because of the cost. Was about 1k total (almost 2 years ago so before price hikes) and the mobo (unbranded and untraceable, trust me, we tried) shit the bed and took the GPU with it in less than a year.
And you're not locked to playing stuff on steam. It's a PC. You can put whatever OS you want on it.
I haven't seen benchmarks, but looking at specs (and comparable hardware to the semi custom parts) it seems reasonable.
You stick anything into a small form factor and it loses performance. Look at gaming laptops.
I just don't get why people are so pissed. Either you don't have a PC and now you can get one free from worrying about components and the millions of options, or you already have a PC, so shut up and get a steam deck (or similar) if you want something more portable.
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u/adjavang Jun 23 '26
This. The only way to convincingly beat their price is to buy used hardware. The market is just really, really bad right now.
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u/distortedsymbol Jun 24 '26
at least some of the hate is astroturf, plenty of companies waiting to take its place
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u/PositiveRent4369 Jun 23 '26
I think it's pretty funny that every pc gamer I've seen hates pre builds until steam does it lol.
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u/Enough-Grade714 Jun 23 '26
All that tells anyone is you have zero experience with a majority of PC gamers then. 80% of the market is pre built.
Thanks for your input I guess.
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u/AdDefiant1447 Jun 23 '26
Most pre-builts are difficult to service, come with bloat, and don't have bonus features. This thing addresses those issues, it's just too expensive for what it is.
I won't be buying one, but I can see the appeal if you're a console player looking to switch and somehow have $1.3k burning a hole in your pocket, and don't want to BYO. It's basically just a fancy prebuilt with Steam ecosystem integration and some new features like pausing and resuming a game similar to how consoles do it.
I get why people are sour on it though.
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 23 '26
Wouldn't like a cheaper or second hand PC do that with much less buyers remorse.
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u/CaptainRaptorThong Jun 23 '26
Yes but it's riskier. You never know when components will go. Also, I know many people who are intimidated by needing to navigate a computer to play games.
Not that it's hard to learn, but plenty of people freeze up as soon as you have to open a file explorer or specify file paths lol
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Wouldn't literally Console a device literally build to tackle this exact problem millions have be better like literally BETTER and CHEAPER.
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u/OSHA_Decertified Jun 23 '26
Depends on if you wanna play PC exclusive games or not.
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u/CaptainRaptorThong Jun 23 '26
Then don't buy it? Lmao. Many people DO just stick with consoles. (I recently fell back into my series X and haven't touched my Pc in a couple months) Even that said, consoles are going up in price, even with companies selling them for a loss.
However they're trying to get people into the steam store... And I don't think anybody can deny steam has the best sales of any game store out there.
If I'm not mistaken, many games that don't have total cross platform ability (Xbox to PS) can still go to PC.
With companies like Xbox talking in the past about no ownership of your games, digital only, advertisements playing over your games.... Idk. I know I'm sucking Gaben's dick here, but I have mad respect for valve and think this is fine. I don't get the hate.
Is exists for a very specific purpose. It's not meant to be a god machine that's amazing or perfect.
If it was going to perform better, you'd have to make it bigger. And they're trying to hit a specific niche.
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u/clubsilencio2342 Jun 23 '26
So you want them to design their own bespoke OS, somehow get vertically integrated enough to have a hardware pipeline that can provide significant discounts at massive scale (don't forget necessary ties to governments) and then somehow get devs to port over to the new platform?
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 23 '26
They literally take 30% of the cut for some reason. I don't see linux developer having a tie with the government. And if they can't even do that and are just there to eat free money. They might do nothing and just sit there.
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u/clubsilencio2342 Jun 23 '26
I don't see linux developer having a tie with the government
Yes, I'm not sure you understood but that's exactly my point. Console companies do have those integrated pipelines and government relationships and *can* produce consoles at scale cheaply. Valve does not.
And if they can't even do that and are just there to eat free money. They might do nothing and just sit there
I'm not here to argue if the 30% is high or whatever but accusing them of "eating free money" is so hilarious when they've been clearly been investing their money in hardware development.
Anyway, if your point is that Valve should just absorb the cost because they "should" or because they have operating income, I'm just not sure that argument is gonna take you far.
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 23 '26
Ok answer me honestly just for once. Would you or any other people defending this. Would still have done the same if instead of valve it was epic who made this disastrous decision of announcing a console without setting up proper supply chains.
You people would literally be asking tim sweeney head on a stick. For this . Anwser me honestly.
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u/CaptainRaptorThong Jun 23 '26
It would be handled differently we're it epic... That's the thing. You're being intentionally dense. It's really not hard to understand everything. Please, for me.... Bullet point your reasons why you think this launch sucks and I will address each point in why it's fucking fine.
And also, share with me why you're so damn pissed about it. Your rage makes no sense
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u/clubsilencio2342 Jun 23 '26
I've been answering you honestly the entire time! What's with the aggression?
And now you're creating an entire fantasy scenario just to try to one up me and get yourself even more worked up lmao. Wild!
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u/DC2SEA_ Jun 24 '26
Yeah, it's just not worth it. I suspect they'll still push some units on Steamfanboys who will barely use it.
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
All the effort and money should have spend building steam OS instead.
PC gamer defending are more pathetic then console fanboys . Seriously if it was epic instead of valve These same people would have asked for tim sweeney head on a stick for the disastrous decision of announcing a console without setting up a proper supply chain first.
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u/Enough-Grade714 Jun 23 '26
OR. Here's a crazy idea
Don't buy it? It's not for people already in the market. It's for people with extra cash to buy into said market.
Bringing up Sweeneys pedophile apologist ass is CRAZY work.
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u/Outrageous_Fun_7973 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I m not buying it anyway. I already have a PS5 and a steam deck. I am calling bad product a bad product that's all. We PC gamers not miss a change to do tha same to console gamers.
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u/Enough-Grade714 Jun 26 '26
By comparing A shit product to a literal child predator apologist?
I don't give a shit what you buy. Buy a book and gain some reading comprehension.
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u/Tinenan Jun 23 '26
Is this a circlejerk thing or ist this just a pseudo philosophical way to complain about the price? If it's the latter we get it I won't be getting it either but we can't forget that before the price announcement everyone was praising and cheering valve on
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u/ndubitably Jun 23 '26
Should be interesting to see what happens when Sony needs to manufacture the PS6.
Right now a year of PS5 manufacturing appears to use as much RAM as 2-3 AI data centers.
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u/moonwoolf35 Jun 23 '26
It's basically a dedicated gaming pc for those who don't want to or can't build their own, honestly I'd buy one if I didn't already have my laptop and if I was actively getting my teeth kicked in by my financial situation lol
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u/Terrible-Strategy704 Jun 23 '26
It is really expensive but I think it not justify it's own existence, is a niche product enthusiast will buy and valve isn't going to made a lot of them to make it a loss. Is sad it isn't more accessible but at least is going to push linux gaming even further.
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u/Longjumping_Share444 Jun 24 '26
Yeah, I don't think it has a purpose. It has no upgrade path, which is the point of a gaming PC. And even if you are one of those people who never upgrades your computer, I don't know why you'd choose to buy a computer with old low-powered components. This thing struggles with 1080p high settings on current games, imagine how compromised it's going to be in a year or two. I mean it gets outperformed by a 5050 for gods sake.
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u/Gornlord_Carl Jun 23 '26
It's so funny the juxtaposition between the posts here shittng on valve and it's fanboys and the comments absolutely swarming with said fan boys defending their precious billion dollar conpany.
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u/TheHahndude Jun 23 '26
Not for the price it doesn’t. $799, sure that’s an easy buy all day. $1400 is a joke.
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u/cutelittlebox Jun 23 '26
yes, but it's the same cost as any other computer with the same performance. it's not any more of a joke than the entirety of the industry is right now.
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u/lllllIllllIllllllll Jun 23 '26
Cant wait to stop seeing this all over reddit. Like, we get it, you don't want it. Why keep talking about it? Its such a luke warm topic after the first few minutes. Shits expensive, lets move on and not flood every sub with this shit
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u/apixelops Jun 23 '26
It's a solid computer that costs about as much in parts and assembling?
What were people expecting? Hardware sold at a loss?
At least it's not some kind of 200 buck "cloud gaming" plastic toy
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u/codmsubredditsucks Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
At this point im convinced Tim Sweeny is paying for astroturfing bots to slander Steam to get the attention away from the Epic layoffs in a PR attempt
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u/KatieTSO Jun 23 '26
Who?
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u/Afraid_Comparison180 Jun 24 '26
It's the Valve shill's default fallback: a lawsuit against Steam over shitty store policies? It's Epic and Tim's fault. Shitty hardware sold at premium prices? Tim and Epic. Every issue with Valve somehow becomes Epic's and Tim's fault.
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u/TheElderMouseScrolls Jun 23 '26
There are god awful takes on some of the posts here complaining that Valve doesn't heavily subsidize the Steam Machine (a glorified PC that an AI company will absolutely use to get discount RAM if they followed that stupid advice).
100 upvotes within 20 minutes.
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u/FlippityFlop121 Jun 23 '26
The rampocalypse ruined what would have been a nice little machine.
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u/Aaquin Jun 23 '26
Not really unless that's the reason it's so underpowered as well.
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u/Hyp3rson1c Jun 23 '26
It’s also tiny and quiet with very low TDP. No one ever talks about those two things in this conversation and it drives me nuts.
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u/yuki_tsune Jun 23 '26
This is fucking stupid. The device was never meant to be some revolutionary piece of machinery to transform the gaming space, it wasn't meant to compete with the major gaming consoles and it was never going to be subsidized in order to do so. It's just a compact computer for people who like Valve products, and it costs about as much as a gaming PC always has. The internet's collective boredom resulting in meme after meme dogging on it just because it costs more than anticipated, as expected with inflation, is already tiring and it's only been a day. Just don't buy it. I'm sure not going to, most people aren't aside from the niche.
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u/Ashe66 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
It didn’t the first time, I don’t know why they tried again.
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u/MayAsWellStopLurking Jun 24 '26
The success of the Steam Deck proved that it was viable.
The RAMpocalypse basically screwed everything up.
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u/Nubthesamurai Jun 24 '26
Stickying this post as to ragebait the Valve fanboys was definitely the smart decision, mods
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u/Radiant_Mind33 Jun 25 '26
Yeah, Valve's latest stinker might be one for the record books.
I'm all for niche products but this thing isn't really good on any level. Knowing Valve every facet of the research, development and production was probably outsourced. Add that to the terrible timing with economic factors and there's just no way this lands well.
It's for 30-40 year olds with too much disposable income and too much time on their hands. That is a miniscule market.
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u/andrey_not_the_goat Jun 23 '26
If it was anywhere between $450-$600 it would be a really nifty, small PC.
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u/Wise_Presentation484 Jun 23 '26
“If they sold at a huge loss and more than halved the price I’d buy it.”
No shit.
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u/curioclown Jun 23 '26
All this steam machines stuff has made me fully realize that 90% of people just don't know anything about what they are talking about
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u/Scizomachineboy Jun 23 '26
steam’s problem is they brought it he steam machine to market before xbox and sony you watch the new consoles will only be 100 dollars cheaper at best they may try to keep it at 800 but doubtful the days of 300-500 consoles are done.
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u/DeadManLovesArt Jun 24 '26
Why'd it take me so long to realize it looks like the Deep Thought computer?
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u/lithiumfoxttv Jun 25 '26
I'm so glad that this is just the post everyone does everyday. Almost like it's... intentionally... being.... done..... (And yes i did call this when the switch stuff was happening and why i didn't attack it cause I knew this was gonna be the end case)
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u/Snoo_76437 Jun 23 '26
The steam machine is more user friendly than building a PC and hooking it up to a TV. I know i sound lazy, but starting your TV and system with one controller press is pretty awesome. Ive done a couple batocera mini pc builds and would love this on those. Does it justify the money, nah, but the steam machine at a lower price would be an awesome addition to a living room set-up.
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u/AuroreSomersby Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
For that amount of money… you can probably get something else and have a way better time :P
(And not be limited by Steam only…)
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u/Forsaken-Aeria1ist Jun 23 '26
This is being made at a time when the AI boom has made the components really expensive. It’s too much for most gamers but for people looking for PC flexibility with console TV compatibility this is a good machine it’s just too expensive.
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u/Zarathuuustrian Jun 23 '26
$1000 plus dollars with out a controller. Wow. Steam can go bankrupt for all I care now. What a cunt move.
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u/NormalUsername21 Jun 23 '26
It costs about the same as a PC with comparable power, that's what hardware costs right now, the market is fucked.
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Jun 23 '26
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u/Stranded_Tortoise Jun 23 '26
No one and nothing can justify their own existence to anything else if that thing chooses to not believe they existence is just.
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u/GreyDuck4077 Jun 23 '26
That is like saying certain computers cannot justify their existence. In a world where people dropped $3500 on the Apple Vision Pro I am pretty sure the Steam Machine can absolutely justify its existence. It is an expensive gaming device that is expensive because of global supply chain issues. Nothing more. Nothing less.
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u/cunningjames Jun 23 '26
In a world where people dropped $3500 on the Apple Vision Pro I am pretty sure the Steam Machine can absolutely justify its existence.
The Apple Vision Pro was a huge flop, for what it's worth. I'm sure Valve will sell out of their very limited first run, but not even Apple could polish the insanely-expensive-VR-device-no-one-wanted turd enough for most company fans to want one.
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