I'm glad it exists because it's a much better alternative to consoles, but no, there's no point in buying that instead of a PC unless you have money to throw around on cool hardware

If I didn’t already have a gaming PC and a Steam Deck, maybe.

Machine? No.
Frame? Yes.

I am, yes.

I’ve been building custom PCs for myself and my family/friends for the better part of 2 decades now. I know I can get a better deal on used parts to run a more powerful machine. But you know what means? I play tech support for my friends and family.

I’m buying this for myself but installing it where most people I know come walking through. Setting it up as a show piece to get people to ask about Linux and to ask about the PC. If this thing holds up as well as my Steam Deck with support, updates, and stability? I’ll go halves with all my gamer friends and relatives just to get them on a machine I won’t be called about because windows decided to release another borked update…

Obviously I have the exposable income to support this and am extremely lucky. I fully get why people are upset and think it’s a rip off tho.

Would I like it to be cheaper. Of course. Are gaming consoles cheaper of course.

But I cant name 1 system or PC, which can waken when a Bluetooth Controller connects to it, and can play every game I own from the last 15 years, and every console game from the last 25 years.

Even Nintendo nickels and dimes you for this privilege, and with a one time purchase I can just remove my consoles and just use a Steam Machine, sign me up.

Not even PlayStation 5 can do what the steam machine does out of the box.

Probably not.
Even if it does rugs and upholstery both, they just don't get that dirty, normally. Almost all light stains I can get out with a careful application of soap & water and judicious toweling. Plus there's always rentals if needed.

Unlikely. Was going to get one to replace my old pc but I gave up waiting back in April when a local pc shop had a sale. I'm glad I bought then because the prices have just keep going up since.

Yes. It’s too expensive for sure, but it is exactly what I want. I have no interest in doing any manual work to get a functioning Non-Windows gaming PC into my living room. I just want plug and play and that’s what Valve offers.

Not at current spec and price. I don't think it's worth what I would get. It's also already sold out except the 512 w/ steam controller version for my region so I couldn't even if I wanted to for the larger spec versions.

I'll just slowly continue to upgrade my PC as money allows.

I was pretty set on buying one regardless when it was announced and still plan to. I knew the price was going up but with the delay I had time to save more. I like the compactness of it and it would be great next to my Mac Mini M1 on my TV shelf. I also want to reward the adoption of Linux as a gaming platform, and buying Valve hardware is the best way right now to vote with your wallet that Linux is the future of gaming. I bought multiple Steam Decks and I bought both the 2015 and 2026 Steam Controllers. I want the Machine.

Also, it has RGB! I need to get one to add it to OpenRGB.

The question is whether I'll get it with or without a second controller, and I think that comes down to whichever queue I get selected for in the random drawing.

Yes. I have many PCs and laptops around the house already but I simply want it as a luxury item and to support the idea of open game consoles.

Probably not, but I do have a Steam Deck and might buy a Steam Frame.

The cost is definitely a factor, but also, I've been building computers since the 90s and even my laptop can run everything I play already: I don't have much need for another computer right now, even if Valve made it. If I did really need a computer, I'd probably just build a better one for cheaper and slap Bazzite or Cachy on it.

If the price goes down, I might reconsider: I do like supporting companies that do right by their customers and Valve is one of the very few that still seem to make that effort.

Especially considering its not doing anything a PC can't do (as far as I know).

It's a PC. Why wouldn't it do anything a PC can't do.

That being said, it does have the connections to wake the machine and your TV by acticating a connected Steam Controller

Yep. I'm downsizing and will be selling my gaming rig in favour of something small and less power hungry. Yes, the cube is more expensive than what I'd like but I'll be making a huge profit from my pre-2025 era PC anyway so I can afford it. It does what I want it to and there may even be opportunity to upgrade individual components down the line anyway since it is effectively just a mini-pc.

Nope. Way too expensive.

I don’t have any solid gaming console or PC at the moment.

I have an Xbox Series S, a Nintendo Switch, and a Steam Deck.

I have been wanting to build or buy a decent PC for years, but money has always been tight.

All this to say… maybe? It seems to be on par with the prices of prebuilts. My job uses a third party system to give us bonuses and we can use them to get digital giftcards.

I am trying to convince them to add Steam giftcards to it. If I can get that it means I’ll definitely eventually be able to get a Steam Machine. But also I’m hoping that the price decreases over time, as unlikely as that may be.

This is an “eventual” purchase and not an immediate one, in my eyes at least.

For now, I have plenty of games I can run well on my Steam Deck, since I hardly played my Xbox. 8 basically skipped out on gaming from 2016-2025 really.

The Steam Machine would really just be something I’d remote play from the Deck from to either conserve battery life or run more demanding games, like BG3 or E33. Basically anything with unreal haha.

No. With that price, extra no.

But in the current economy I'm not really buying anything else either.

Nope. Getting an Anbernic and Steam Deck opened the way to easy playing of older games, and I’ve been having a great time.

Recently I bought a mini PC with AMD 760M iGPU, just to get something modern, cheap and good enough in case prices get even worse.

Been playing Return To Castle Wolfenstein, The Settlers II remake, ballisticng, Fallout 4… quite a few other cheap and/or old games.

If triple A games are going to cost that much to play moving forwards I’m just not going to play them 👍

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.

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.

Are you gonna buy?

Probably not.

do you think even at this price point Valve is taking a hit?

No, as that would be stupid of them. Why would they subsidize a normal PC? This would lead to people buying them with the purpose of deliberately not using steam.

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)

Excluding the whole AI bs: it should not but it probably will as any way to raise the prices is welcome to Microslop, Sony and Nintendo.

No. I already have a good gaming pc. I wanted one for living room gaming but not for that price.

No

No. I already own a PC.

Not for $1500 CAD I’m not.

No one on Lemmy is going to be looking for an entry-level device, we're all boomers with custom rigs already.

Wasn't planning on it even before the price announcement, since it still would have been more economical to just upgrade my existing rig even if the SM was $750.

But now I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a Steam Frame if they are also expensive as fuck.

Nah, my PC is still good. Will be buying Half-Life 3 though if they release that.

It's not just the price, it's the hardware. They could have gone for a slightly more powerful gpu, even in their thermal emvelope, and it'd xonfpunding they didn't. This way it gets beaten by a PS5, on both price and performance.

Doesn't mean I'd buy a PS5, but does mean there's many better options, even if you want small and quiet.

Simply cannot justify that price.

Probably, if I can. My PC is a prebuilt one from four years ago, it's really showing its age. I'm not sure if another pre built would be better, but the steam machine has tremendously better stats than my current system.

I know I could probably build a PC and get better value, but I hate assembling the bastards so much its worth having someone else do it for me.

I was going to save up for a 600 bucks version but I ended up buying a 200 bucks second hand gaming PC six months ago which will have to do.

I'm 50/50 as of today and have another day or two to decide before the wait list closes. The 2TB version with controller is the only one I would want, and it is 50% more than I wanted to spend.

But, the form factor and being ready to go out of the box is extremely enticing. The games I would play on it are the ones in my backlog that I don't get to as they are more fun on a TV than a PC but switching screens is annoying. The way I see it is the steam machine is buying a console that can play all of the games I already have, which is far better deal than a console that I would need to buy games for.

It wouldn't be a great way to spend money today, but it wouldn't be a strain so I might end up flipping a coin tomorrow to decide.

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.

No. I still have an AM4 PC that does everything I've asked it to do. While I applaud Valves contribution to the industry... it ain't fucking worth that. The real win is SteamOS pushing through and getting desktop OS support for all users.

Maybe if a major component in my PC dies, but for now I'm happy to see how it goes.

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.

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 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.

Got a reservation but haven't fully committed yet. I guess I have…er…reservations about it?

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.

Tbh I'm in the same-ish boat, but, given the unknown economic situation in 6 months, I'm saving my disposable income. If everything chugs along, that $1500 unit might be up to $1800; if we hit the operational floor on oil, that $1500 would be better spent elsewhere. I'd rather spend another $300 come Christmas than starve; the steam machine will still be there if bigger problems don't arise.

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

Yup

I would if it was $499

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.

Microcenter $1200

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.

Eventually, when the gen 2 comes out, I intend to pick up a used gen 1 to replace my Raspberry Pi 5. It's one of the very few general-purpose computers that has HDMI CEC support natively, and with KDE Plasma Bigscreen it should be a monster of a set top box.

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’ve got a powered USB extension cable running to my basement so I can have my Steam Controller plugged in down there, and use my Xbox with Moonlight to stream my PC over Ethernet to the TV. No need.

I had considered it, but there’s no way at that price point. Also, like I said, no need.

No, i already have a pc and never really liked consoles. Got too comfortable with a keyboard and mouse setup. Yeah those do support keyboard and a mouse setup as well, but might as well get a PC at that point already.

And i do like to build and tinker with my hardware, much more easier on PC than with a console.

No. The most intensive game I play is Skyrim. Someday though I might take an used SFF pre-built (like the thinkcentre), plop a low profile GPU into it, and play some slightly heavier games lile Dark Souls 3

Nah, I have a Steam Deck for travel and I don't really feel like I need anything else. Also, I couldn't really afford one anyhow.

Nope.

I'll be using Boosteroid.

When the ps6 costs over $1000 this will be positioned well.

Right now it might be ahead of its time but that’s not out of character for valve. It’s easier to react to market conditions if you already have a product than it is to spin one up in a hurry.

I think they expect early adopters at this stage, it will get them early feedback and drives some platform revenue.

No, but i really want one. Maybe in a few years if this insane computer pricing chills out a little or if I get a lot of money somehow.

Yes, it's a pretty well built gaming system. I could use a replacement and it's not that expensive compared to systems I've built in the past.

nope

It's a point of pride to build my own PCs, including Linux boxes.

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.

I was lucky enough to out together a nice PC just before the AI thing made the prices explode, plus I've been a PC gamer all my life (except for the PS1 I had as a kid), so I won't buy the Machine.

That said, I had high hopes it'd be a success, more so given how well the Controller has sold, and that it'd be the things that brought Linux to lots of people who would never consider it otherwise.

Unfortunately, I fear the price will damped things quite a bit.

I already have a full n gaming PC, but I also played a bit over the last month and built a Steam Machine for under $400 using an AMD BC-250 crypto mining card. From bc-250.info: A cut-down PlayStation 5 APU with 6 Zen 2 cores and 24 RDNA2 compute units, sharing 16GB of fast GDDR6 memory.

It takes some tweaking and it's not top of the line, but it's a fun project that can play most games. There is also a script that can let you unlock disabled compute units to increase performance assuming they are not damaged.

Im not currently in the market for a couch gaming type of system, as I mainly game in my room where my PC is, and if I want to play on the tv I have an HDMI more than long enough to allow for it.

However if I did want a system for downstairs I'd be more likely to pick up a steam machine over a ps5, even at the current price point

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.

I play all my games on Steam and the console like experience sounds like it's up my alley but I prefer having a desktop and streaming over WiFi. If I were to upgrade anything in my setup it'd be a graphics card, not an entire machine.

No the hardware is not good for the price.

It's weaker than the ps5.

No. I'll go for a regular PC at any price point really.

I still favour steam over the competitors due to their work on Proton and Linux in general.

Profitable console, probably not. Consoles are usually loss leaders but 93% of the Steam market is windows. They need to do something about it to not have nightmares about DirectX13 being Microsoft store only and 48 months of antitrust litigation bleeding them dry. They don't have to be successful, just a credible threat to keep Microsoft honest.

Other consoles probably won't change price because of the Steam machines, but may change price for the same reason a Steam machine does.

No, I won't. If it was cheaper, I'd consider it.

My partner plays games on steam and uses my old gaming PC, running Bazzite and unfortunately with an nvidia GPU. Some games like The Last of Us II has lots of graphical glitches and we have to play around with the steam launch settings a lot.

It'd be awesome to buy a plug-and-play solution as I never know when there are issues with our PC whether it's to do with our specific setup, or the game's linux support in general.

As it stands we'll probably look to get an AMD GPU when we can afford it. Which I think will be in quite a while.

Not right now. I would like a Steam Deck for the portability but haven’t been able to get my hands on one so far (less inclined to buy a different option given the Deck’s repeatability/upgradability). Maybe in the future, if prices come down, but it would need to have games that make sense to play on a TV, ideally with friends or family, that I can’t play on something I already own.

Since I build my own computers and already have a living room PC running Linux, I wouldn't have even for $700.

I'm curious how it'll sell. Steam Controller is expensive but has high demand. Possibly the same thing happens even if the Steam Machine makes no sense for (probably?) most people posting here.

I have no need for one. The PC I currently have vastly out-perforns it.