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As the article says, "The only way that they could mess this up is with the pricing. ... I'd expect the pricing to be super aggressive." The price to beat is th

As the article says, "The only way that they could mess this up is with the pricing. ... I'd expect the pricing to be super aggressive." The price to beat is the $400-$500 price point of PS5 and XBox. I'm guessing Valve is going to have a very hard time matching that. We'll know soon enough.

nemomarx 11mo ago
Is that the price point of those anymore? I see 550 ish for the base ps5 with a disc drive and closer to 750 for the pro. I don't expect them to match either in volume but it seems like microsoft is already backing out of the dedicated console hardware space tho
cryzinger 11mo ago
They don't even necessarily have to beat the PS5/Xbox. I already own the former but sometimes lament not being able to play the many, many PC exclusives out there (or at least nothing released in the past 10+ years since my daily driver laptop has poor specs). Just recently I was wondering whether one of those all-in-one Lenovo desktop boxes would have decent enough specs to play current-gen PC games at halfway decent settings, and my guess is that they don't, but I don't want to go through the hassle of building a PC and definitely don't want a tower with a huge footprint. Turns out the Steam Machine is exactly what I'm looking for.
- sedatk 11mo ago
  Exactly. I have both PS5 and Xbox One X, but I still connect my Steam Deck to TV to play Hades II because the game hasn't come out on those two consoles yet.
- hinkley 11mo ago
  I bought a steam deck to play Age of Wonders 4. Briefly got sucked into playing a Skyrim again.
throwaway17_17 11mo ago
I think that realistically, Valve probably only need to be on par with the top of Sony’s offering hardware wise. The ability to have Steam integration on the machine (including the large amount of subpar but very cheap games) will prompt at least some movement. I’d say $800 is probably the high-end of reasonable for price point. I can certain say I’d rather just buy my kids a StreamBox than have to deal with them want full capability PCs.
- hugocbp 11mo ago
  I agree. Steam's prices on sales are still mostly unmatched by consoles. Even if it is a "pricier" PS5-like machine, I'd still buy it and I bet I'd make up the difference in less than a year with just the sales games (including older games I can't play on either console). I think most of the critiques for this are from people expecting this to be aimed at PC gamers. I don't think it is. I think it's aimed at people that actually DON'T want to bother with building, buying, upgrading PCs, but still want to play cheap games, older games. To this day, I can't make my PC turn on with a controller (and I've tried). Making a PC wake up as fast as a Steam Deck from sleep? Impossible. Those little things will all add up to make this a very nice option for the non-hardcode PC game crowd. Valve is going to steal a lot of users from console, mostly Xbox. Not PC Gaming enthusiast.
  - Normal_gaussian 11mo ago
    Totally. SteamOS is everything here.
pixelatedindex 11mo ago
$699 (maybe 799 for a more premium model) seems to be a good compromise given what it would take to build a sufficiently similar PC while being close enough to the PS5/Switch. Xbox is practically dead. I don’t think it needs to compete on price directly, if it can deliver the polish of a console. It can also play up the angle of being a full blown computer.
- hinkley 11mo ago
  You can tell XBox is cooked because Halo was released on the PS5.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 11mo ago
  I think the steam machine will be 999 given they said "priced as a pc". I hope to be wrong, because at 700 it's insta buy for me.
uoaei 11mo ago
With the specs these devices have I don't think it's far-fetched to assume that pricing will be competitive. Maybe they will charge a bit extra if they tout all the extra stuff you can install on the Machine vs Xbox as a selling point, which they are kind of doing, to justify a slightly higher price point.
dagmx 11mo ago
They told press that it wouldn’t be console pricing and would match entry level PC. I think it’s going to be $800
- johnnyanmac 11mo ago
  800 is probably already too much for the compromises you need to make. You happily make those compromises for a handheld due to its nature. But a desktop is a harder sell.
nodja 11mo ago
All they have to do is market the fact you don't have to pay for online. PS5 + 3 years of PS Plus = $740 Steam Machine = $700 Add/remove more years of PS Plus if the SM turns out to be more/less expensive. If you add the fact that games on PC are usually cheaper and have sales more often then it's a no brainer, but that won't convince the FIFA and COD players.
- Aeolun 11mo ago
  Plus a game catalog that stretches back some 30 years?
  - wpm 11mo ago
    And +X years, because you could write your own games for it and install them without begging for permission from Valve.
  - pezezin 11mo ago
    More like 50 years if you consider emulators (RetroArch is available on Steam).
    - culi 11mo ago
      It doesn't even need to be available on Steam to be fair. You can run whatever games you want. You could even run a Nintendo Switch emulator if you want
      - pezezin 11mo ago
        True. And that is the strength of the PC platform, its openness and being able to run whatever you want.
- tapoxi 11mo ago
  This system won't run FIFA, GTA Online, Battlefield, Valorant or CoD, it's a nonstarter for many. Sure you don't need to subscribe to PS+, but that's somewhat easier to swallow since PS+ gives you games with the subscription. I'm still interested in this for playing older games but I have a Steam Deck and it still isn't remotely as seamless as my Switch or PS5.
culi 11mo ago
Hard disagree with that claim. The truth is anyone with a PC and a steam machine basically already has a Steam Machine. Steam doesn't need to sell at a loss like most consoles. Their only real goal is to prove that there's nothing a console can do that a PC can't do.

nemomarx 11mo ago

Is that the price point of those anymore? I see 550 ish for the base ps5 with a disc drive and closer to 750 for the pro. I don't expect them to match either in volume but it seems like microsoft is already backing out of the dedicated console hardware space tho

cryzinger 11mo ago

They don't even necessarily have to beat the PS5/Xbox. I already own the former but sometimes lament not being able to play the many, many PC exclusives out there (or at least nothing released in the past 10+ years since my daily driver laptop has poor specs). Just recently I was wondering whether one of those all-in-one Lenovo desktop boxes would have decent enough specs to play current-gen PC games at halfway decent settings, and my guess is that they don't, but I don't want to go through the hassle of building a PC and definitely don't want a tower with a huge footprint. Turns out the Steam Machine is exactly what I'm looking for.

sedatk 11mo ago
Exactly. I have both PS5 and Xbox One X, but I still connect my Steam Deck to TV to play Hades II because the game hasn't come out on those two consoles yet.
hinkley 11mo ago
I bought a steam deck to play Age of Wonders 4. Briefly got sucked into playing a Skyrim again.

throwaway17_17 11mo ago

I think that realistically, Valve probably only need to be on par with the top of Sony’s offering hardware wise. The ability to have Steam integration on the machine (including the large amount of subpar but very cheap games) will prompt at least some movement. I’d say $800 is probably the high-end of reasonable for price point. I can certain say I’d rather just buy my kids a StreamBox than have to deal with them want full capability PCs.

hugocbp 11mo ago
I agree. Steam's prices on sales are still mostly unmatched by consoles. Even if it is a "pricier" PS5-like machine, I'd still buy it and I bet I'd make up the difference in less than a year with just the sales games (including older games I can't play on either console). I think most of the critiques for this are from people expecting this to be aimed at PC gamers. I don't think it is. I think it's aimed at people that actually DON'T want to bother with building, buying, upgrading PCs, but still want to play cheap games, older games. To this day, I can't make my PC turn on with a controller (and I've tried). Making a PC wake up as fast as a Steam Deck from sleep? Impossible. Those little things will all add up to make this a very nice option for the non-hardcode PC game crowd. Valve is going to steal a lot of users from console, mostly Xbox. Not PC Gaming enthusiast.
- Normal_gaussian 11mo ago
  Totally. SteamOS is everything here.

pixelatedindex 11mo ago

$699 (maybe 799 for a more premium model) seems to be a good compromise given what it would take to build a sufficiently similar PC while being close enough to the PS5/Switch. Xbox is practically dead. I don’t think it needs to compete on price directly, if it can deliver the polish of a console. It can also play up the angle of being a full blown computer.

hinkley 11mo ago
You can tell XBox is cooked because Halo was released on the PS5.
Fire-Dragon-DoL 11mo ago
I think the steam machine will be 999 given they said "priced as a pc". I hope to be wrong, because at 700 it's insta buy for me.

uoaei 11mo ago

With the specs these devices have I don't think it's far-fetched to assume that pricing will be competitive. Maybe they will charge a bit extra if they tout all the extra stuff you can install on the Machine vs Xbox as a selling point, which they are kind of doing, to justify a slightly higher price point.

dagmx 11mo ago

They told press that it wouldn’t be console pricing and would match entry level PC. I think it’s going to be $800

johnnyanmac 11mo ago
800 is probably already too much for the compromises you need to make. You happily make those compromises for a handheld due to its nature. But a desktop is a harder sell.

nodja 11mo ago

All they have to do is market the fact you don't have to pay for online. PS5 + 3 years of PS Plus = $740 Steam Machine = $700 Add/remove more years of PS Plus if the SM turns out to be more/less expensive. If you add the fact that games on PC are usually cheaper and have sales more often then it's a no brainer, but that won't convince the FIFA and COD players.

Aeolun 11mo ago
Plus a game catalog that stretches back some 30 years?
- wpm 11mo ago
  And +X years, because you could write your own games for it and install them without begging for permission from Valve.
- pezezin 11mo ago
  More like 50 years if you consider emulators (RetroArch is available on Steam).
  - culi 11mo ago
    It doesn't even need to be available on Steam to be fair. You can run whatever games you want. You could even run a Nintendo Switch emulator if you want
    - pezezin 11mo ago
      True. And that is the strength of the PC platform, its openness and being able to run whatever you want.
tapoxi 11mo ago
This system won't run FIFA, GTA Online, Battlefield, Valorant or CoD, it's a nonstarter for many. Sure you don't need to subscribe to PS+, but that's somewhat easier to swallow since PS+ gives you games with the subscription. I'm still interested in this for playing older games but I have a Steam Deck and it still isn't remotely as seamless as my Switch or PS5.

culi 11mo ago

Hard disagree with that claim. The truth is anyone with a PC and a steam machine basically already has a Steam Machine. Steam doesn't need to sell at a loss like most consoles. Their only real goal is to prove that there's nothing a console can do that a PC can't do.