Is the Steam Machine really a viable alternative

[Dhaladog]

You know to a Desktop or a console, I know the jury is still out as it hangs mainly on it's pricing, but with the general consensus being that it's going to come down at the higher level of what people would generally consider reasonable for a console like box do you not think that it's going to struggle, I mean if you shop around a bit you could probably build or buy a pre-built for round about the same price that far out-performs it all for the sake of it having a built in OS, I personally think it's going to turn out to be a waste of money (and after purchasing a Switch 2 I don't want another of those under my belt!) time will tell I guess as it's set for an early 2026 release.. your thoughts?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

If its $500 its almost still too expensive to be massive but I expect it cost be more based on whats been said recently. Doesnt seem like they expect it to be massive though, I think they'd be happy with Steam Deck numbers and theyre trying to get a foot more firmly in the door with Steam OS to grow that side and pry more of the gaming away from Microsoft. Theyre going to try and play a long game IMO.

 

[BeardyHat]

It depends on price. $600 is probably reasonable and a good alternative to a pre built, which, looking at Microcenter, the cheapest option is $700 for something similarly specced to the Steam Machine and keep in mind, with Steam OS, there won't be the cost of a Windows license.

Further, I think even a very basic prebuilt is intimidating for a non-technical person. But even a non-technical person knows these days that a Steam Deck "just works" and that'll be a selling point.

Even further selling it is the fact that the specs at the same across all of them. Look at any prebuilt for roughly the same price and people will say to themselves, "is a 7600 XT better or a 3050? What about an i5 versus a Ryzen 5?" There are so many specs and numbers to consider and the Steam Machine is just one thing. You'll get it, Valve will tell you (with verified) "hey this game runs" and bing bam boom, Bob's your uncle.

I'm not sure it'll do gangbusters, but I definitely think there's a large cohort of people out there who would be interested, especially if it's a bit cheaper than a regular prebuilt. And PC gaming has only been growing, so something easy and painless to get your average game-interested buyer into the Steam Ecosystem? I don't think it'll have no buyers, for sure.

 

[dxchase]

Itll release, sell out and become back-ordered. I think it will do pretty well no matter the entry level price (ok maybe not over 1k). The way the Switch 2 sold and how overly-priced that was for what you got, the steam machine is going to have a faaar better connection between its price and what it does under the hood, especially for the size of it (steam machine) and having the SteamOS. So i think it will do well. Will it replace PCs or console gaming? Absolutely not, but it will have its place.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Half Life 3 Steam OS exclusive confirmed.

 

[Zloth]

Half Life 3 Steam OS exclusive confirmed.

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Rolfil]

It's not for me. Some games I like to play with Mods. I mean I had like 100 mods installed when playing Fallout 4. I also listen to music/podcasts using Spotify and all the music I own I use musicBee for.
There are so many other things that I prefer doing online rather than using a phone app for as well.

 

[Pifanjr]

Itll release, sell out and become back-ordered. I think it will do pretty well no matter the entry level price (ok maybe not over 1k). The way the Switch 2 sold and how overly-priced that was for what you got, the steam machine is going to have a faaar better connection between its price and what it does under the hood, especially for the size of it (steam machine) and having the SteamOS. So i think it will do well. Will it replace PCs or console gaming? Absolutely not, but it will have its place.

I find it hard to predict how well the Steam Machine will do. Most Steam users already own a PC and I doubt the Steam Machine will be cheap enough to be a worthwhile upgrade for most users. It also doesn't seem likely that PC players will shell out hundreds of dollars just for an extra machine, so I expect the Steam Machine to mostly have to compete with the PS5/PS6 for console-only gamers. At that point the main draw of the Steam Machine is the massive library and the much better sales compared to the PlayStation, but I'm not sure that'll be enough.

 

[BeardyHat]

It's not for me. Some games I like to play with Mods. I mean I had like 100 mods installed when playing Fallout 4. I also listen to music/podcasts using Spotify and all the music I own I use musicBee for.
There are so many other things that I prefer doing online rather than using a phone app for as well.

Phone app? The steam machine is just a Linux computer, so you can do everything you'd expect to do with a PC.