When I first saw the Arduino I didn't see the point - after all there were boards that cost less, did more, and the Arduino IDE seemed very barebones compared to what you could do with GCC and a custom toolchain.
Then eventually I saw how much community support, ready made hardware emerged around it, to the point that after a while, not going the Arduino route was a decision you needed to justify heavily.
Same thing with the Raspberry Pi - there are commercial devices now running or more or less stock Pi hardware with some accomodations - the power of the community is just too large - you can either spend an insane amount of time getting things working on your custom SBC, or get something well-supported for free.
I hope that the same thing will happen with the Steam Machine - the pull of the community will result in a well-supported 'default' device where people (and Valve) will put in the effort to create a comparable desktop experience to the commercial OSes.
Valve already helped immensely with Wayland - it's crazy to think that the project was stared cca. 2008, and today there's still arguments to be made it's not mature yet - by investing the necessary energy to make sure games run well, the drivers are optimized, and there's a high-quality end-user library (wlroots) for writing compositors has been the push that Wayland needed.
> a comparable desktop experience to the commercial OSes
Isn't it alteady comparable? My Linux desktop has almost the same game compatibility that Windows has, and none of the advertising and jank. Gone are the legendary days of xorg.conf. Linux has less problems than Windows now. Support from professional software vendors (Dassault, Autodesk, et al) and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me. As for Mac OS it's fine, I guess, but I strongly dislike the settings program, and it's not like you can install an nvidia card there.
> Support from professional software vendors [..] and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me.
Quality of support from Nvidia on linux is the reason that I went with AMD for my linux gaming rig. That's why probably valve chosen amd too. As amount of linux gamers increases, maybe Nvidia will see the light too. For me, linux+amd+steam stack "just works".
And this is due to Valve's big investments in Proton, Steam Deck and the new Steam hardware to get game compatibility working from both the Linux/Wine side as well as making game developers aim for compatibility.
> Support from professional software vendors (Dassault, Autodesk, et al) and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me.
I think that's maybe what GP was getting at. If you know how to debug stuff and such then Linux is perfectly serviceable today.
With something like this, between Valve presumably publishing some docs and a big community for a single platform it should become a lot easier for people who are less familiar to search "I got xyz error on my steam box what do I do" and get help they can use. For mass adoption I think that's a big step. And then from there they can start venturing further out, if they want.
What do these things have to do with each other? You can't debug your way out of bad Nvidia support or nonexistent Dassault support. You have to just not use these products in combination with Linux, or just accept the issues that come with them.
Another nice thing about the Pi is that you know for sure there won't be any major Linux issues; the official distro is tested for that hardware and that hardware alone. I'm assuming the same will apply for Linux on the Steam Machine, whereas most of the time when I install Linux on a random PC, I have to debug some issue with audio/networking/video (which is less common these days, but I guess I'm unlucky).
Speaking of which, I recently bought a Ryzen Framework laptop assuming the recommended Linux distro would run smoothly, but unfortunately I hit a few glitches, including a really annoying amdgpu bug that keeps making the screen flicker. I might have to mess with kernel boot parameters. Disappointing.
Since the Steam Machine is meant as a consumer product, hopefully it will run Linux solidly, and that's a big plus for me. I wouldn't touch Windows with a 10 foot pole these days.
Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless.
I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC.
Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
Given Valve gave money to a lot of open source maintainers , it’s also great for Linux.
> Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
We are also out of the rat race of hardware requirements of the 90s. I'm on a 7 year old system and if you're not chasing to max out the latest AAA game on launch, that thing can run a lot of games. It's mainly storage and RAM for modded minecraft or Satisfactory that's a bit of a mess atm. Though RAM prices are spicy at the moment, jeez.
Similar, my dad has my system from 10 years ago or more, and the only real snag for his strategy games is now a DX12 requirement.
Valve isn't likely to make SteamOS the kind of platform that facilitates intrusive* anti-cheat** or which is locked down in a way to prevent cheating at the client side. This means that a number of competitive multiplayer games will never run on it. I think in this regard, consoles still have an advantage*** if you're into those kinds of games.
* I don't care what the intention is, they are _objectively_ intrusive.
** Last time I argued this, someone seemed to assume that I was claiming that writing Linux kernel drivers is harder than Windows kernel drivers. I am not arguing that, you need some kind of trusted party enforcing signed kernel drivers and a signed kernel in order to make KLA sufficiently hard to bypass.
*** In terms of the average Joe just wanting their game to run rather than having to think about the ethical implications of buying hardware you don't actually own or running an OS which gives control of your hardware to various corporations (but not you).
> Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
Xbox, as a console, already is in an existential crisis.
I think people have weird expectations about what the Steam Machine will cost. From what Valve has said so far (cheaper than if you build it yourself from parts), it will still cost significantly more than a PS5, and probably also more than a PS5 Pro, while having less performance than both. You will not beat the PS5 in terms of performance per dollar. Yes, games are more expensive on PS5, but most people don't work that way but just want to know whether they'll be able to play GTA6 on day one.
Man, I got a free ps5 from my isp and was excited to have friends over for games. Come to find out that playing games with your friends apparently isn’t a thing anymore (I guess there’s fighting and racing games). What a lame-ass boring system.
Playing games with friends has never been more popular. I guess couch co-op has been replaced with online multiplayer. The assumption being that if you want to play with friends, they'll have their own device.
But there's still plenty of couch co-op games. They're usually quite niche though and not your typical racing or shooting game.
> I guess couch co-op has been replaced with online multiplayer. The assumption being that if you want to play with friends, they'll have their own device.
I don't really get why people are calling it a console. It is a PC to me in all the ways that matter, and it's probably going to save me from spending 1500 euros on a mid-range gaming laptop that I don't really need. The only thing that I don't use my ipad for is playing games with my friends in other countries while we chat on discord. And the last 5 games we've played together do benefit from keyboard and mouse controls, but don't have huge spec requirements. And pretty much everything else for which I'd want a bigger screen than my ipad's can be done in the browser, which I can also happily install on the steam machine because it's just a Linux machine with some extra bells. So yeah, it will probably completely replace my need for a PC, and I'd be plenty happy to pay a PC price for it as a result.
> I don't really get why people are calling it a console. It is a PC to me
because "console" isn't what a product is (supply) - it is a name for product niche (demand)
when someone talks about buying a console, the expectations are 1)significantly cheaper than "usual" computer 2)most likely optimized for games (controller input, easy install) 3)expectation of using already existing TV as display
consoles weren't different from low-end pc all the way since x-box
If you don't need to get an expensive gaming PC your should not get an expensive gaming PC. The steam hardware isn't magic. You can already get equivalent specs for cheap.
I've tried to hit the $600 mark and in the past few years it's gotten harder and harder. The GPU invariably ruins things. And normal APUs are too asthmatic to really game on.
Exactly, I sold my Switch because I just happened to play most of my games on PC and steam. Worst case scenario, it can be a desktop computer (I don't have one, only a laptop)
Whereas a playstation or a switch, once I don't game anymore, it's just an expensive paperweight
It's certainly not an existential threat to Playstation, but Xbox certainly has weakened itself enough that yes, this could be another nail in the coffin, given that their plan was to retreat into the Windows ecosystem.
The low specs aren't a problem if it's cheap enough, but for every dollar this goes above the retail price of a PS5 will seriously hurt its mass appeal.
The problem for Valve is that they can't really sell this thing at a console-like discount, because it's a general purpose computer. If this thing is way cheaper than a regular computer of the same spec, corporations will just buy up Steam Machines by the palette load and use them as office machines or whatever (just like what happened to Sony when they allowed the PS3 to boot into Linux and they had to release an emergency update that disabled the linux functionality even though it was an advertised feature).
I really hope this will be successful, but it'll likely be successful in a specific niche. The nice thing though about this niche is that they don't have to hit anywhere near the same sales numbers as a console to be a success because the R&D costs are lower, and games didn't have to be specifically tailor made for it.
E.g. the PS Vita sold more units than the SteamDeck, but the Vita was an unmitigated failure for Sony because unlike the SteamDeck, the Vita needed games to be specifically made for it, whereas the SteamDeck benefits from the entire PC ecosystem so doesn't need the same level of adoption to be a (limited) success.
It's not a console you can use as a PC, it's a PC you can use as a PC.
If you want a console you can use as a PC, the next Xbox is rumoured to be along those lines. It will run Windows so you can play Steam, GOG etc but will also run the existing Xbox library natively.
The 70% figure needs to be taken in context, tons of people have Steam installed on old computers that they use for old games. I currently have it installed on three devices, and yes two of them are worse specs than this. But I don't have any intention of upgrading them either, they are just old machines I have hanging around. They do the job if I'm travelling.
Sony’s current tactics is to publish all their releases on PC 6-12 months later. Doing this expands the potential player base and even makes some players to double dip and buy the game twice
I don’t think that’s true. The whole reason they’re producing PC ports is to sell the most profitable part (software) to those who to haven’t been giving them money.
Sony makes zero dollars off of the consoles, and while they do enjoy taking their PS Store royalties rather than giving it up to Steam, they also have a huge collection of first party studios that might even be a more important business.
And it’s not like Sony is giving their big console releases PC ports on day one, if you want to own them right away you have to buy a PlayStation.
You are mostly right about the broad strategy but a few of the claims are too absolute. Sony does make money on hardware later in the cycle even if margins are small. They also care about PC ports for more than just pure profit such as extending the IP footprint and keeping franchises visible between major releases. The part about delayed PC ports is completely correct. PlayStation is still the primary window and PC is the secondary revenue phase once the console market is saturated.
I don't think it's an existential crisis for console manufacturers, but it's certainly part of a shift in how we think about "consoles".
Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall for years now, and they've expanded their library to run across platforms. The Xbox as we knew it is effectively dead.
Sony and Nintendo are still holding on to the legacy concept, and trying to lure people into their walled garden, but even their hardware is essentially a general purpose PC that happens to be locked down in software.
So I suspect we'll see one last traditional "console" generation with the PS6 and whatever Nintendo makes next, and after that the concept of a single-purpose machine will fizzle out. Nintendo will probably be the last to give in, since they have the strongest first-party IPs to make that feasible, but eventually they'll follow suit as well.
> Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
Not really. An existential crisis to System76, Framework computer and all the other Linux computer companies.
> A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless.
No different to getting a regular PC but this time you can just buy a high performance state of the art GPU like the NVIDIA RTX 5090 and it runs all your games at 4K @ 120 FPS instead of 60.
> I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC.
Proton is the software that is doing the optimizations. However once you want to run a highly anticipated game like Battlefield 6 and your friends are playing it on their Windows PCs and consoles on day 1, the Steam Machine is left behind waiting for compatibility updates.
> Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
2020 specs in 2026 isn't really good for convincing 70% of Windows PC gamers or console players either.
The real test is when the next generation Xbox or Playstation arrives, will the Steam Machine outsell them?
> Given Valve gave money to a lot of open source maintainers , it’s also great for Linux.
We will see if that is enough to convince Steam players to run SteamOS instead of Windows or consoles. but so far it is totally underpowered and you might as well get a Windows PC + Nvidia RTX 5090 which runs all your games well including the highly anticipated ones.
This and machines with 5090s are a completely different market.
The Steam Machine is marketed primarily as something sitting under your TV. I don't have 5090 under my TV money, 99.9% of people don't. That's not the target demographic.
What's truly crazy is the VR headset is the same architecture as the Steam Machine. As in, it's a completely open Linux system you can wear on your face. They are literally telling the community to go nuts and hack it and install whatever you want on there.
If there's any time for people who believe in open systems and open software to step up and buy the hell out of something, this it it. It will be very interesting to see if the play works out our not.
The Frame announcement was certainly the one that blew my mind. A VR headset with an ARM CPU which runs a full fledged Linux operating system, can play x86 games via Proton, and can sideload Android APKs? What? Man, those guys have been busy.
I am kind having a similar dilemma as the author of the blog post. Gabe Cube is the least interesting announcement that Valve did for me if I look at an objective level since I just built a PC that runs Jovian-NixOS (basically SteamOS, but running with NixOS as a base). My PC is way more powerful than the Gabe Cube too (at least in GPU, a Radeon 9070), and it is already connect to my TV since SteamOS makes this easy even if you're running the software in a unsupported configuration like I do.
But the Gabe Cube just lives rent free in my head. It looks sleek. I know that the software experience is going to be top-notch since I have a Steam Deck. I know that it is only going to get better with time (when the Steam Deck was released I barely touched it since lots of things didn't work well, but this year the Steam Deck is by far my most played machine).
Also I am finding gaming fun again since on Steam I can play lots of good and cheap games, since they're almost always on sale and there are lots of indie games that never get released in console.
I want to sell all my other consoles and just invest in the Steam ecosystem, especially nowadays that almost all games will eventually be multi-platform (even the ones from Xbox and PlayStation). It is not like I like to play lots of AAA games anyway, and at least the ones I am interested are already available or will be available in PC eventually (like Final Fantasy VII Remake, MGS3: Remake, etc). I also don't care about online multiplayer for the lack of kernel anti-cheat on SteamOS/Linux to be a problem.
I am seriously considering buying another TV (we only have one in our home right now) just to justify buying a Gabe Cube.
I greatly enjoy the single-purpose aspect of consoles: no upgrades, no other software to manage, etc.
So a single-purpose PC-based console basically made for Steam? That sounds great to me. I don't even have a 4K TV so the performance might be just what I need.
I've been using a somewhat low-spec PC to play games and for general desktop usage. Finding stuff in this form factor, that you can guarantee will be well put together and worth the money is a rarity.
Highly likely this could replace my desktop, as I don't need something much more powerful, just with more modern hardware. I don't do much AAA gaming and nearly game in my Steam library would run on this just fine. My regular daily computing needs can reasonably be satisfied with the compute power of a Raspberry Pi. I can swap flatpak based immutable SteamOS with plain Arch without losing the advantages (i.e. custom hardware settings integration) that one might sacrifice doing so on the Steam Deck.
This is going to be a no-brainer for my next upgrade.
All of this is true, but Valve is one of the best companies I know and for now, I’ll happily give them money.
It’s not about the fact that I’m actually going to use it. It’s about the fact that I want people to keep making things like this. It’s about the fact I want to reward them for not locking it down completely.
You wouldn't like Valve so much if you explicitly saw the 30% Steam tax, I mean fee, declared every time you bought a PC game on Steam. Imagine if Microsoft did that. +30% for every Windows software. Like iOS. Then Steam games would be +60% rather than +30%.
I don't understand the "You can’t buy this without buying the Steam Controller." bit. If you want one, great, if not, it's no more necessary than with any other PC.
I've been gaming for ~40 years without ever touching a controller, why would I start now?
> without ever touching a controller, why would I start now?
I feel similar, but for us there's also no point to get a Steam Machine. Playing games while sitting on a living room couch in front of a TV with mouse and keyboard is not comfortable at all.
Using mouse and keyboard it is better to play games at a proper desk with an office chair and I already have such a PC.
I agree that I wouldn't get it in addition to a desktop PC (for one thing, I haven't owned a TV in 20+ years so couch gaming isn't a thing for me) but when the time comes to replace my current box I might well consider whatever Steam is offering at the time. Just because it's likely to be nicely designed, thoughtfully specced and decently supported.
Memory (both main and VRAM) might be a bit on the weak side for some non-gaming workloads though. I hope we'll see those bump up once the current supply squeeze is over.
I absolutely get (and happily used) joysticks, but if a game needs a joystick I'll use a joystick, not a controller in the modern console sense. I'm sure those are good for something, but it's not something I've ever played.
It's the same as the steam deck: I don't enjoy video games anymore, I've actually never really enjoyed gaming except for a handful of titles. But I'll be damned, I love that Valve is bringing gaming to Linux and I'll buy the hardware just to support the cause. The people in my life that have been using the "I need Windows for my games" reason (or excuse ;)) to not switch to Linux are now slowly but surely leaving Windows!
I'm also one of those people who does everything on my mac laptop, but hits a kvm switch to jump onto a PC to play games at night (when I have time, which I don't). At this point I've stopped pretending that I want a PC that I can upgrade and swap out parts. I just want a little box that doesn't make any noise and works as is. Framework desktop and now this steam machine look like good options. I'm a bit disappointed at the 8gb gpu though.
Same here. I like the end result of having a gaming/ML PC with all the specs that I chose out but assembling PCs is not a hobby that I enjoy, and gaming seems to be partying ways with ML anyways. The new world might well end up being DGX for ML, and Steam machine for games.
> With The Steam Machine, you might be able to finally properly run DOOM Eternal and all of the Assassin’s Creed games. That you don’t like playing.
In my experience, relation of game's hardware requirements to the amount of fun it provides is inversely proportional. Best games of all time (opinionated, of course) run well on integrated graphics.
Back during Covid I bought a PC tower just to play PC games. Later I also bought a PlayStation because the couch experience is better. If the steam machine was available I’d definitely opt for that instead of both.
If steam continues the way it is, it will be hard for me to justify having a gaming PC and a console instead of just one machine.
Yeah
I think what they'll miss is a small tool to stream your games to your TV (well maybe it's already possible ?) because the drawback of having just 1 machine as PC and console is that it can't be both at your desk and in next to your TV
I've fixed that with a long HDMI cable and wireless controller. It works great.
The main issue which has kept me at the desk for games, however, is that I'm way too used to keyboard & mouse and the controller experience is frustrating.
There's a Steam app on my Samsung smart TV that I think can do this, with a USB-controller connected to a USB-port on the TV. Haven't tried it though.
But I think the best way to do it is to have a cheap PC (or maybe an Android TV device or something?) connected to your TV. You can stream games to it from your gaming PC in the other room: https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay
Note that there’s no secret sauce regarding Steam Machines. Once you put Bazzite, ChimeraOS or Jovian Nix on your PC, it can provide a great couch experience.
The secret sauce for me is that it is a complete out of box experience. You'll boot it and sign into steam and that's it. Like, sure you can get little PCs off Amazon or build your own micro-atx system with more performance. But I just wanna buy something and have it done for me. I want to buy a system that developers know is kind of a "base" spec.
If the Steam Machine becomes the base configuration that most games start targeting, then I think everyone will benefit from it.
I'm looking for it as a general development machine, sometimes I do stuff that requires GPUs so if they can get a competitive price wrt. building a custom PC then I'm all in for the convenient form factor!
The steam machine as they’re marketing it doesn’t have enough RAM to be a proper development box once you start running IDEs, language servers and debuggers. They’d need to release a 64 or 128 gig sku, unless RAM is easily upgradable.
Yeah, I could make a similar post for similar reasons. I already have a bunch of mini-PCs I collect like Raspberry Pis. I already have a mITX build with Bazzite installed on it that I would use over a Steam Machine because it's faster. And like OP, I'd probably get anyways. Assuming price is ~800$ (with controller)
I think it all depends on what their mission is, what bits of the larger ecosystem does valve care about or not care about, what do they want to defend or destroy. I'm tempted to say "defending the store is existential for them" but the scale of it likely gives them an extremely big comfort zone. Whatever OS the users have isn't going to affect whether they can do commerce through them unless MS does something unhinged like getting rid of win32, or as the fear around win8 that they'd centralize all windows software through their channels.
If their mission is SteamOS, then I'm tempted to say they need to expand their area of influence beyond what they're doing with linux now which seems to be strictly game related, which likely involves whittling down the major or minor reasons people don't use desktop linux (and all the projects that comprise it) in general, not just their distro. So long as they're supporting (in one way or another) the majority of windows games in a foreign environment and the richness that mods can bring they could do with improving the experience of that relative to windows and not just the happy path of what happens if the base game launches. And that's before the enigma of anti-cheat. Then find some way to reap the rewards, if any, for doing that greatly expanded workload or investment.
I see no evidence for this, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. Notably, after the initially failed Steam Machines, we now have Steam Deck, Steam Machine Mark II, Steam Frame, Steam Controller Mark II, etc.
And critically, Valve seems to be learning, iterating, and the Steam Deck and Steam Controller Mark II are both much more enjoyable to use than the first Steam Controller.
From their perspective, Valve are otherwise dependent on Microsoft or Apple who see them as competition to squeeze out. Success of the Steam hardware platforms is their only way to change that situation. Therefore all evidence points to Valve continuing to iterate until they find success. They are a private company, so they can afford to do so indefinitely without worrying about pissing off a board or investors.
Eh... again, Valve being a private company plays a role here. Whoever succeeds Gabe will likely be chosen by Gabe, not some board or activist investor looking to maximize short term profit. There is much more freedom in private orgs to make long term strategic decisions.
The 10 years Valve took between Steam machines was invested (wisely, I think) in Linux infrastructure like Wayland, Wine/Proton, GPU and audio drivers, etc. None of which Valve will have to repeat.
To make my point, there was only 1.5 years between the release of the Steam Deck, and Steam Deck OLED, and that involved a new silicon tapeout.
> In two years, you’ll upgrade your M1 to an M4+: there’s the power upgrade.
Only to play almost nothing or very badly if not supported natively. And no devs won't support mac games there is no incentive. Emulation is subpar compared to Proton on Linux, Apple people should really start stop thinking macbooks can do modern gaming, excepts for a couple of Capcom portings that were paid by apple to have them and some retro gaming
I have been trying for a long time to find a way to play my PC games from my couch without dragging my desktop into the living room.
Steam Link works okay but is still noticeable for some games. Docking a Steam Deck wasn’t powerful enough. Running a long HDMI cable isn’t feasible in my current living space. So I’m very intrigued to have this lower powered cube sit under my TV for when I just want to do some couch co-op or play something more casual to wind down at night.
I'm doing a Needs-only-November - Non to 'wants'. But this was top of my list of 2026 'wants'.
Your list has hopefully saved me ~300eur thanks. And to add to your list, hopefully it comes non-upgradable, choca full of adverts, forced AI, spyware/root-kit/anti-cheat, mandatory age verified account requirements, and all the other modern essentials to make me never ever want one.
Kudos to the author. I also will not buy a steam Box. But i appreciate the effect it will have on gaming and Linux. I use Mint and use steam to play my games just fine. For some games it is a little bit shaky. Game company’s now have a incentive to make gaming just feel right on a Linux machine much more than like the switch deck. Just my thinking of course
AFAIK one Steam Controller is included in the purchase of a Steam Machine already. Also, I find it unlikely that the Steam Machine is not going to work with other controllers, since the SteamOS works with pretty much any controller out there (Xbox, PS4/PS5, Switch, 8-bit Do, you name it).
Not sure what the author meant here. Maybe they're referring for the fact that you can't purchase a cheaper version of Steam Machine without the Steam Controller.
I was going through the list, nodding as I read all the reasons, agreeing with them all. But also thinking each time I’ll get one anyway. I guess I agree with the last sentence of the post haha. If anything, I’ll justify this by saying I want to choose with my money and encourage this further. But that’s really just to give me good conscience.
I too won't be getting one, especially since I already have enough power at my desk.
But I love how amazing of an idea it is. A form factor and ease-of-setup of a console that brings all the best features of PC gaming (inter-generational compatibility, free multiplayer...) into the living room. And unlike with the original Steam Machine, the market is ready this time.
Why can't i just shake the feeling that Steam Machines will Valve's gateway to release Half-Life 3 as a Steam Machine title exclusive? Furthermore, HL will only be Linux exclusive, at least for the first few months to put pressure on Sony, MS and Nintendo and the GTA6 launch.
Why it feels like "this year will be the year of Linux desktop" didn't sound absurd enough for you so you went and upgraded the idea to "HL3 will be a Linux exclusive."
Fair reasons. I won't be getting one, because the Steam Deck is enough for me.
> It’s Steam, not Good Old Games.
Sure it can run GOG games but the Machine is primarily designed to run Steam. You avoid purchasing from Steam like the plague, yet you’re willing to buy a Machine dedicated to it? Are you crazy?
I prioritise getting games on GOG, and the Steam Deck experience with it is good.
I use Heroic Launcher to install them, and Steam mode to play it.
> You don’t have time to fiddle with configuration. Button and trackpad mappings to get the controls just right enough to play strategy games designed to be played with keyboard and mouse will only leave you frustrated.
+1. I don't bother with configuration. If a game only supports keyboard and mouse I just play it when docked.
It ultimately comes down to the price. If it’s low enough, I’ll get Steam machine as a living room indie box and for streaming from my main desktop. I would feel bad for overpaying for 8 gigs of VRAM in 2026.
all that matters is price. if it's a bang-for-your-buck (similar to the steamdeck) then i'm in. I don't have a PC in my current living space and it takes up as much space as my laptop, if not less.
Funnily Valve doesn’t need it either to some extent. It’s almost like a pet project. They won’t sell it retail, no ads, so certainly won’t even hurt the sales of Switch 2 and PS5. Mind you the former just sold more than 10m units in less than 6 months.
Secondly Valve makes disgusting amount of money from the lootboxes and the unregulated underage gambling market (estimated billions) which are almost a 0 effort system. Running an API and releasing a new lootbox every 2nd month or so are peanuts compared to the development, manifacturing, and distribution of the Steam Machine
Tail risk for valve is they get locked out of the windows ecosystem via the App Store or some other trusted computing shenanigans. Steam hardware running windows games on an open OS mitigates this.
I don't need it either. I want it so I'm going to get it. I also don't need the controller and the VR headset. But again, I am going to get it. I am the master of my life. Whatever I say goes. I am getting all 3. But I don't need them. No, no no.
Yes. Because if unrelated industries decide to give up then a theoretical collapse becomes an unavoidable economic collapse. And history has proven that war usually follows economic collapses.
So literally the best thing Valve could do here is carry on like usual.
OK, but do you expect Valve to do anything about first two problems you have mentioned? (OK, saying “our next console will be a bunch of refurbished PCs we have sourced from local junkyard” would be a flex)
Both the CPU and GPU Valve chose for the Steam Machine are cut down ("binned") versions of silicon AMD likely had lying around. The CPU is a laptop part which didn't sell in huge volume and has had the GPU fused off. The GPU has several CUs disabled compared to top-of-the-line. This indicates to me that Valve is using silicon which AMD either couldn't use otherwise, or couldn't sell for top price.
You can see the alternative with PS5 and Xbox, where AMD designed and produced large bespoke custom chips. Versions of these chips which don't fully pass QA could have a few defective cores or CUs fused off and used elsewhere, but we don't see that outside of some very niche Chinese motherboards.
Valve's approach instead allows them to re-use standard PC components which just didn't quite meet muster.
So in effect, "our next console will be a bunch of refurbished PCs we have sourced from local junkyard" is exactly what Valve did here.
The Steam Machine is "just" a normal Linux PC, with good integration.
The point is the target demographics. And, just like the Steam Deck, this is not something for power users. Most people on here know how to build a PC and install Linux with KDE on it, which is the same experience you would get with a Steam Machine.
Valve is selling this to an audience of gamers, specifically those who want an easy gaming experience on low end hardware. This is the same demographic which Sony and Microsoft are selling to.
I don't really need one either, but I'll buy it anyway, mostly because I want to support vendors who make hacker-friendly hardware and software. For that reason alone, Valve gets my money.
I was kind of annoyed at the blog post for being kind of pointless until the last line, which cracked me up.
The Steam Machine is surely meant to be somewhere between mainstream and niche. It’s going to be cheap enough to be a pretty good deal for what it is, but I think those who are already PC builders (at least, those who aren’t unusually high-income and will toss money at a novelty) might not jump on it.
The device does offer some unique features you can’t get on the PC market like HDMI-CEC, which will make it a great living room box.
Perhaps it’s even being somewhat underrated as a PC on your desk type of solution. Perhaps the type of person who wants a small form factor plug and play solution at their desk and isn’t a small form factor expert would want it. The only barrier there is that SteamOS doesn’t bring you to desktop mode instantly, but in that case the user could install their own OS like Bazzite or Windows.
I'm a Nintendo fanboy. Untold thousands from my wallet to their pockets over the last 30 years. NES on up, we've had every console except the virtual boy and specific iterations of mobile consoles (e.g switch but not switch lite). 512gb sd in the switch to fit all the games I bought on it. My house has 5 3DSs in it, which I maintain to this day is the best console ever made.
Sadly though I'll not spend another dollar on a Nintendo product for the rest of my life. Their aggressive targeting of emulation developers and their litigiousness in general I believe is harmful to the videogame industry.
Nintendo imo makes some of the best games ever made, but that's ok, there's still lots of other really good ones that run on my steam deck or my PC, and I can do whatever I want with the save files for those games, play them on my own terms.
Fully agree with the sentiments here in terms of "you might not need this", and for many of us the Steam Machine is not really marketed toward us in particular. I think it's not marketed away from us, though.
For me, I am considering it, depending on the price. I already have a small form factor PC that I run Bazzite on in the living room. The problem? There's some kind of hardware issue. Unfortunately, it might be the Intel CPU. It results in sporadic issues including periods of time where memory errors spike like crazy. I love the PC ecosystem for what it is, but here's the problem: without redundant parts, I can't reasonably isolate the problem to figure out what to RMA. It's not abundantly clear, because the problem is sporadic. I'd need to replace parts one-by-one. So I've just been working around it for now.
But the Steam Machine is sold as a single unit, and it already runs the KDE desktop that I'm used to using on my TV. (It's better than you'd expect, with a couple of tweaks, though I hope the SteamOS version that ships with the Steam Machine moves to a Wayland session as my TV supports HDR.) If I have a problem with the hardware, I can send it back to Valve. Even better, I kind of actually trust Valve.
So for me it totally depends on price point. I don't game all that much on TV, but I do want a box connected to my TV that can game. Plus, bonus points if it's able to achieve a better idle power usage than my current small form factor build. Plus, even better, the device ships with native HDMI CEC support, which is fairly rare on PC graphics cards, requiring very frustrating workarounds. This is clearly a potential killer option for people who want a living room PC setup for their TV.
(Aside: if you are wondering what the experience with using a living room PC with KDE is like, it's not too bad. You have to crank up the scale factor a bit, but with a Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad device, it's pretty easy to use. There's no easy way to support receiving Chromecasts, though, though there is Shanocast, but it's a bit sketchy. Funny enough, I believe Apple's AirPlay is less locked down and you can use UxPlay to receive AirPlay requests. I mostly just use Librewolf with some quality of life extensions like YouTube Shorts Block and Sponsorblock and the like. It is a little clunky but my previous weapon of choice was Android TV and it has been horrifically enshittified, so those devices are basically ewaste now.)
If they manage an under $800 price point and deliver on performance, thermals and noise, you simply won't be able to beat this thing in almost any dimension buying parts new to make a build yourself. It is significantly smaller than anything you can build, and it theoretically packs significant power per inch in the sub-$1000 price point. As long as you don't mind paying Valve, I absolutely think this is a potential killer deal for many use cases that will involve barely ever actually using Steam.
(But, despite the end of this article, it is definitely worth some consideration whether you really need one. Even if you ultimately decide you want it anyways :P)
When I first saw the Arduino I didn't see the point - after all there were boards that cost less, did more, and the Arduino IDE seemed very barebones compared to what you could do with GCC and a custom toolchain.
Then eventually I saw how much community support, ready made hardware emerged around it, to the point that after a while, not going the Arduino route was a decision you needed to justify heavily.
Same thing with the Raspberry Pi - there are commercial devices now running or more or less stock Pi hardware with some accomodations - the power of the community is just too large - you can either spend an insane amount of time getting things working on your custom SBC, or get something well-supported for free.
I hope that the same thing will happen with the Steam Machine - the pull of the community will result in a well-supported 'default' device where people (and Valve) will put in the effort to create a comparable desktop experience to the commercial OSes.
Valve already helped immensely with Wayland - it's crazy to think that the project was stared cca. 2008, and today there's still arguments to be made it's not mature yet - by investing the necessary energy to make sure games run well, the drivers are optimized, and there's a high-quality end-user library (wlroots) for writing compositors has been the push that Wayland needed.
> a comparable desktop experience to the commercial OSes
Isn't it alteady comparable? My Linux desktop has almost the same game compatibility that Windows has, and none of the advertising and jank. Gone are the legendary days of xorg.conf. Linux has less problems than Windows now. Support from professional software vendors (Dassault, Autodesk, et al) and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me. As for Mac OS it's fine, I guess, but I strongly dislike the settings program, and it's not like you can install an nvidia card there.
> Support from professional software vendors [..] and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me.
Quality of support from Nvidia on linux is the reason that I went with AMD for my linux gaming rig. That's why probably valve chosen amd too. As amount of linux gamers increases, maybe Nvidia will see the light too. For me, linux+amd+steam stack "just works".
And this is due to Valve's big investments in Proton, Steam Deck and the new Steam hardware to get game compatibility working from both the Linux/Wine side as well as making game developers aim for compatibility.
> Support from professional software vendors (Dassault, Autodesk, et al) and Nvidia could be better, admittedly, but these restrictions aren't very relevant to me.
I think that's maybe what GP was getting at. If you know how to debug stuff and such then Linux is perfectly serviceable today.
With something like this, between Valve presumably publishing some docs and a big community for a single platform it should become a lot easier for people who are less familiar to search "I got xyz error on my steam box what do I do" and get help they can use. For mass adoption I think that's a big step. And then from there they can start venturing further out, if they want.
What do these things have to do with each other? You can't debug your way out of bad Nvidia support or nonexistent Dassault support. You have to just not use these products in combination with Linux, or just accept the issues that come with them.
Another nice thing about the Pi is that you know for sure there won't be any major Linux issues; the official distro is tested for that hardware and that hardware alone. I'm assuming the same will apply for Linux on the Steam Machine, whereas most of the time when I install Linux on a random PC, I have to debug some issue with audio/networking/video (which is less common these days, but I guess I'm unlucky).
Speaking of which, I recently bought a Ryzen Framework laptop assuming the recommended Linux distro would run smoothly, but unfortunately I hit a few glitches, including a really annoying amdgpu bug that keeps making the screen flicker. I might have to mess with kernel boot parameters. Disappointing.
Since the Steam Machine is meant as a consumer product, hopefully it will run Linux solidly, and that's a big plus for me. I wouldn't touch Windows with a 10 foot pole these days.
Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless.
I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC.
Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
Given Valve gave money to a lot of open source maintainers , it’s also great for Linux.
Just take my money
> Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
We are also out of the rat race of hardware requirements of the 90s. I'm on a 7 year old system and if you're not chasing to max out the latest AAA game on launch, that thing can run a lot of games. It's mainly storage and RAM for modded minecraft or Satisfactory that's a bit of a mess atm. Though RAM prices are spicy at the moment, jeez.
Similar, my dad has my system from 10 years ago or more, and the only real snag for his strategy games is now a DX12 requirement.
any strategy game recommendations from your dad?
Valve isn't likely to make SteamOS the kind of platform that facilitates intrusive* anti-cheat** or which is locked down in a way to prevent cheating at the client side. This means that a number of competitive multiplayer games will never run on it. I think in this regard, consoles still have an advantage*** if you're into those kinds of games.
* I don't care what the intention is, they are _objectively_ intrusive.
** Last time I argued this, someone seemed to assume that I was claiming that writing Linux kernel drivers is harder than Windows kernel drivers. I am not arguing that, you need some kind of trusted party enforcing signed kernel drivers and a signed kernel in order to make KLA sufficiently hard to bypass.
*** In terms of the average Joe just wanting their game to run rather than having to think about the ethical implications of buying hardware you don't actually own or running an OS which gives control of your hardware to various corporations (but not you).
> Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
Xbox, as a console, already is in an existential crisis.
I think people have weird expectations about what the Steam Machine will cost. From what Valve has said so far (cheaper than if you build it yourself from parts), it will still cost significantly more than a PS5, and probably also more than a PS5 Pro, while having less performance than both. You will not beat the PS5 in terms of performance per dollar. Yes, games are more expensive on PS5, but most people don't work that way but just want to know whether they'll be able to play GTA6 on day one.
Man, I got a free ps5 from my isp and was excited to have friends over for games. Come to find out that playing games with your friends apparently isn’t a thing anymore (I guess there’s fighting and racing games). What a lame-ass boring system.
It is on the Nintendo Switch. My kids play loads of Mario Party, Minecraft and Mario Cart.
Playing games with friends has never been more popular. I guess couch co-op has been replaced with online multiplayer. The assumption being that if you want to play with friends, they'll have their own device.
But there's still plenty of couch co-op games. They're usually quite niche though and not your typical racing or shooting game.
We ended up hooking up my old N64 and playing Goldeneye
> I guess couch co-op has been replaced with online multiplayer. The assumption being that if you want to play with friends, they'll have their own device.
What's the point with a console then though?
I don't really get why people are calling it a console. It is a PC to me in all the ways that matter, and it's probably going to save me from spending 1500 euros on a mid-range gaming laptop that I don't really need. The only thing that I don't use my ipad for is playing games with my friends in other countries while we chat on discord. And the last 5 games we've played together do benefit from keyboard and mouse controls, but don't have huge spec requirements. And pretty much everything else for which I'd want a bigger screen than my ipad's can be done in the browser, which I can also happily install on the steam machine because it's just a Linux machine with some extra bells. So yeah, it will probably completely replace my need for a PC, and I'd be plenty happy to pay a PC price for it as a result.
> I don't really get why people are calling it a console. It is a PC to me
because "console" isn't what a product is (supply) - it is a name for product niche (demand)
when someone talks about buying a console, the expectations are 1)significantly cheaper than "usual" computer 2)most likely optimized for games (controller input, easy install) 3)expectation of using already existing TV as display
consoles weren't different from low-end pc all the way since x-box
To me, PC = Windows = Microsoft's Spyware and every other game company's anti-cheat root kits
Someone might say I can install Linux on my PC but then I have to deal with maintaining it.
So, what I hope the Steam Machine is, is effectively PC based console with no Microsoft, no root kits, and no maintainence.
If you don't need to get an expensive gaming PC your should not get an expensive gaming PC. The steam hardware isn't magic. You can already get equivalent specs for cheap.
You can? What am I looking for?
I've tried to hit the $600 mark and in the past few years it's gotten harder and harder. The GPU invariably ruins things. And normal APUs are too asthmatic to really game on.
Well, it's kind of a new thing, isn't it.
Just like the deck popularized the idea of "handheld PCs". Maybe the Machine will do the same to "console PC". It's a PC, but also a console.
Exactly, I sold my Switch because I just happened to play most of my games on PC and steam. Worst case scenario, it can be a desktop computer (I don't have one, only a laptop)
Whereas a playstation or a switch, once I don't game anymore, it's just an expensive paperweight
It's certainly not an existential threat to Playstation, but Xbox certainly has weakened itself enough that yes, this could be another nail in the coffin, given that their plan was to retreat into the Windows ecosystem.
The low specs aren't a problem if it's cheap enough, but for every dollar this goes above the retail price of a PS5 will seriously hurt its mass appeal.
The problem for Valve is that they can't really sell this thing at a console-like discount, because it's a general purpose computer. If this thing is way cheaper than a regular computer of the same spec, corporations will just buy up Steam Machines by the palette load and use them as office machines or whatever (just like what happened to Sony when they allowed the PS3 to boot into Linux and they had to release an emergency update that disabled the linux functionality even though it was an advertised feature).
I really hope this will be successful, but it'll likely be successful in a specific niche. The nice thing though about this niche is that they don't have to hit anywhere near the same sales numbers as a console to be a success because the R&D costs are lower, and games didn't have to be specifically tailor made for it.
E.g. the PS Vita sold more units than the SteamDeck, but the Vita was an unmitigated failure for Sony because unlike the SteamDeck, the Vita needed games to be specifically made for it, whereas the SteamDeck benefits from the entire PC ecosystem so doesn't need the same level of adoption to be a (limited) success.
It's not a console you can use as a PC, it's a PC you can use as a PC.
If you want a console you can use as a PC, the next Xbox is rumoured to be along those lines. It will run Windows so you can play Steam, GOG etc but will also run the existing Xbox library natively.
The 70% figure needs to be taken in context, tons of people have Steam installed on old computers that they use for old games. I currently have it installed on three devices, and yes two of them are worse specs than this. But I don't have any intention of upgrading them either, they are just old machines I have hanging around. They do the job if I'm travelling.
Then sony produce ps only exclusive s. No pc ports anymore.
That is only a problem if you suffer from FOMO. Otherwise there are enough PC games for a hundred lifetimes.
Not going to happen. In fact, they seem to go the opposite direction because there's more money to be made.
I also don't believe it, but sony was a all time bad player.
I like the Xbox because they changed so much in the console ecosystem, play anywhere, backwards compatibility without extra cost.
Sony’s current tactics is to publish all their releases on PC 6-12 months later. Doing this expands the potential player base and even makes some players to double dip and buy the game twice
I don’t think that’s true. The whole reason they’re producing PC ports is to sell the most profitable part (software) to those who to haven’t been giving them money.
Sony makes zero dollars off of the consoles, and while they do enjoy taking their PS Store royalties rather than giving it up to Steam, they also have a huge collection of first party studios that might even be a more important business.
And it’s not like Sony is giving their big console releases PC ports on day one, if you want to own them right away you have to buy a PlayStation.
You are mostly right about the broad strategy but a few of the claims are too absolute. Sony does make money on hardware later in the cycle even if margins are small. They also care about PC ports for more than just pure profit such as extending the IP footprint and keeping franchises visible between major releases. The part about delayed PC ports is completely correct. PlayStation is still the primary window and PC is the secondary revenue phase once the console market is saturated.
I don't think it's an existential crisis for console manufacturers, but it's certainly part of a shift in how we think about "consoles".
Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall for years now, and they've expanded their library to run across platforms. The Xbox as we knew it is effectively dead.
Sony and Nintendo are still holding on to the legacy concept, and trying to lure people into their walled garden, but even their hardware is essentially a general purpose PC that happens to be locked down in software.
So I suspect we'll see one last traditional "console" generation with the PS6 and whatever Nintendo makes next, and after that the concept of a single-purpose machine will fizzle out. Nintendo will probably be the last to give in, since they have the strongest first-party IPs to make that feasible, but eventually they'll follow suit as well.
> Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox.
Not really. An existential crisis to System76, Framework computer and all the other Linux computer companies.
> A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless.
No different to getting a regular PC but this time you can just buy a high performance state of the art GPU like the NVIDIA RTX 5090 and it runs all your games at 4K @ 120 FPS instead of 60.
> I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC.
Proton is the software that is doing the optimizations. However once you want to run a highly anticipated game like Battlefield 6 and your friends are playing it on their Windows PCs and consoles on day 1, the Steam Machine is left behind waiting for compatibility updates.
> Don’t let the “low specs” fool you, it has the same specs or better as 70% of steam users.
2020 specs in 2026 isn't really good for convincing 70% of Windows PC gamers or console players either.
The real test is when the next generation Xbox or Playstation arrives, will the Steam Machine outsell them?
> Given Valve gave money to a lot of open source maintainers , it’s also great for Linux.
We will see if that is enough to convince Steam players to run SteamOS instead of Windows or consoles. but so far it is totally underpowered and you might as well get a Windows PC + Nvidia RTX 5090 which runs all your games well including the highly anticipated ones.
No thanks and no deal.
A 5090 is likely 3x the cost of the steam machine. You are at the extreme high end of the gaming market here and not the target of the steam machine.
This and machines with 5090s are a completely different market.
The Steam Machine is marketed primarily as something sitting under your TV. I don't have 5090 under my TV money, 99.9% of people don't. That's not the target demographic.
What's truly crazy is the VR headset is the same architecture as the Steam Machine. As in, it's a completely open Linux system you can wear on your face. They are literally telling the community to go nuts and hack it and install whatever you want on there.
If there's any time for people who believe in open systems and open software to step up and buy the hell out of something, this it it. It will be very interesting to see if the play works out our not.
The Frame announcement was certainly the one that blew my mind. A VR headset with an ARM CPU which runs a full fledged Linux operating system, can play x86 games via Proton, and can sideload Android APKs? What? Man, those guys have been busy.
I am kind having a similar dilemma as the author of the blog post. Gabe Cube is the least interesting announcement that Valve did for me if I look at an objective level since I just built a PC that runs Jovian-NixOS (basically SteamOS, but running with NixOS as a base). My PC is way more powerful than the Gabe Cube too (at least in GPU, a Radeon 9070), and it is already connect to my TV since SteamOS makes this easy even if you're running the software in a unsupported configuration like I do.
But the Gabe Cube just lives rent free in my head. It looks sleek. I know that the software experience is going to be top-notch since I have a Steam Deck. I know that it is only going to get better with time (when the Steam Deck was released I barely touched it since lots of things didn't work well, but this year the Steam Deck is by far my most played machine).
Also I am finding gaming fun again since on Steam I can play lots of good and cheap games, since they're almost always on sale and there are lots of indie games that never get released in console.
I want to sell all my other consoles and just invest in the Steam ecosystem, especially nowadays that almost all games will eventually be multi-platform (even the ones from Xbox and PlayStation). It is not like I like to play lots of AAA games anyway, and at least the ones I am interested are already available or will be available in PC eventually (like Final Fantasy VII Remake, MGS3: Remake, etc). I also don't care about online multiplayer for the lack of kernel anti-cheat on SteamOS/Linux to be a problem.
I am seriously considering buying another TV (we only have one in our home right now) just to justify buying a Gabe Cube.
I greatly enjoy the single-purpose aspect of consoles: no upgrades, no other software to manage, etc.
So a single-purpose PC-based console basically made for Steam? That sounds great to me. I don't even have a 4K TV so the performance might be just what I need.
I've been using a somewhat low-spec PC to play games and for general desktop usage. Finding stuff in this form factor, that you can guarantee will be well put together and worth the money is a rarity.
Highly likely this could replace my desktop, as I don't need something much more powerful, just with more modern hardware. I don't do much AAA gaming and nearly game in my Steam library would run on this just fine. My regular daily computing needs can reasonably be satisfied with the compute power of a Raspberry Pi. I can swap flatpak based immutable SteamOS with plain Arch without losing the advantages (i.e. custom hardware settings integration) that one might sacrifice doing so on the Steam Deck.
This is going to be a no-brainer for my next upgrade.
All of this is true, but Valve is one of the best companies I know and for now, I’ll happily give them money.
It’s not about the fact that I’m actually going to use it. It’s about the fact that I want people to keep making things like this. It’s about the fact I want to reward them for not locking it down completely.
I wish I had that kind of money. Making a purchase solely for such reasons is completely out of the question for me. And for most people I'd assume?
You wouldn't like Valve so much if you explicitly saw the 30% Steam tax, I mean fee, declared every time you bought a PC game on Steam. Imagine if Microsoft did that. +30% for every Windows software. Like iOS. Then Steam games would be +60% rather than +30%.
You don't have to imagine anything, Microsoft also takes 30% of every purchase made via Microsoft Store.
Yes, AFAIK this is an industry standard, both Sony and Nintendo also takes a similar approach.
I don't understand the "You can’t buy this without buying the Steam Controller." bit. If you want one, great, if not, it's no more necessary than with any other PC.
I've been gaming for ~40 years without ever touching a controller, why would I start now?
> without ever touching a controller, why would I start now?
I feel similar, but for us there's also no point to get a Steam Machine. Playing games while sitting on a living room couch in front of a TV with mouse and keyboard is not comfortable at all.
Using mouse and keyboard it is better to play games at a proper desk with an office chair and I already have such a PC.
I agree that I wouldn't get it in addition to a desktop PC (for one thing, I haven't owned a TV in 20+ years so couch gaming isn't a thing for me) but when the time comes to replace my current box I might well consider whatever Steam is offering at the time. Just because it's likely to be nicely designed, thoughtfully specced and decently supported.
Memory (both main and VRAM) might be a bit on the weak side for some non-gaming workloads though. I hope we'll see those bump up once the current supply squeeze is over.
I am also in the same category, but some games are made for the controller.
Admittedly, the only one I can think of at the moment is Eldenring: The PC (mouse+keyboard) experience was terrible.
I still passed on a controller but the controller first experience was glaring.
Can't in the sense that it's irresistible :)
Early PC gaming, such as the mid 80s (40 years ago) was dominated by the need for a joystick, which is the parent to modern controllers.
Regardless, some games are far better with a joystick, some with mouse. If we care for gaming experiences, it should be whatever is best.
I absolutely get (and happily used) joysticks, but if a game needs a joystick I'll use a joystick, not a controller in the modern console sense. I'm sure those are good for something, but it's not something I've ever played.
Rocket league is an example. The pros play on pcs but hook a controller into it
This is intended for use in a living room, on a couch, in front of a TV. Keyboards or joysticks are not suited for this.
Because people on the internet will call you a fake gamer if you don't play souls like games and those are best experienced on a controller?
It's the same as the steam deck: I don't enjoy video games anymore, I've actually never really enjoyed gaming except for a handful of titles. But I'll be damned, I love that Valve is bringing gaming to Linux and I'll buy the hardware just to support the cause. The people in my life that have been using the "I need Windows for my games" reason (or excuse ;)) to not switch to Linux are now slowly but surely leaving Windows!
I'm also one of those people who does everything on my mac laptop, but hits a kvm switch to jump onto a PC to play games at night (when I have time, which I don't). At this point I've stopped pretending that I want a PC that I can upgrade and swap out parts. I just want a little box that doesn't make any noise and works as is. Framework desktop and now this steam machine look like good options. I'm a bit disappointed at the 8gb gpu though.
Same here. I like the end result of having a gaming/ML PC with all the specs that I chose out but assembling PCs is not a hobby that I enjoy, and gaming seems to be partying ways with ML anyways. The new world might well end up being DGX for ML, and Steam machine for games.
> With The Steam Machine, you might be able to finally properly run DOOM Eternal and all of the Assassin’s Creed games. That you don’t like playing.
In my experience, relation of game's hardware requirements to the amount of fun it provides is inversely proportional. Best games of all time (opinionated, of course) run well on integrated graphics.
Back during Covid I bought a PC tower just to play PC games. Later I also bought a PlayStation because the couch experience is better. If the steam machine was available I’d definitely opt for that instead of both.
If steam continues the way it is, it will be hard for me to justify having a gaming PC and a console instead of just one machine.
Yeah I think what they'll miss is a small tool to stream your games to your TV (well maybe it's already possible ?) because the drawback of having just 1 machine as PC and console is that it can't be both at your desk and in next to your TV
I've fixed that with a long HDMI cable and wireless controller. It works great.
The main issue which has kept me at the desk for games, however, is that I'm way too used to keyboard & mouse and the controller experience is frustrating.
There's a Steam app on my Samsung smart TV that I think can do this, with a USB-controller connected to a USB-port on the TV. Haven't tried it though.
But I think the best way to do it is to have a cheap PC (or maybe an Android TV device or something?) connected to your TV. You can stream games to it from your gaming PC in the other room: https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay
Do you mean Steam Remote Play and Steam Link?
Note that there’s no secret sauce regarding Steam Machines. Once you put Bazzite, ChimeraOS or Jovian Nix on your PC, it can provide a great couch experience.
The secret sauce for me is that it is a complete out of box experience. You'll boot it and sign into steam and that's it. Like, sure you can get little PCs off Amazon or build your own micro-atx system with more performance. But I just wanna buy something and have it done for me. I want to buy a system that developers know is kind of a "base" spec.
If the Steam Machine becomes the base configuration that most games start targeting, then I think everyone will benefit from it.
I'm looking for it as a general development machine, sometimes I do stuff that requires GPUs so if they can get a competitive price wrt. building a custom PC then I'm all in for the convenient form factor!
The steam machine as they’re marketing it doesn’t have enough RAM to be a proper development box once you start running IDEs, language servers and debuggers. They’d need to release a 64 or 128 gig sku, unless RAM is easily upgradable.
RAM is upgradable according to Linus LTT, standard modules fit. But you can't upgrade graphics/cpu AFAIR.
Read all the way to the end: "I’m getting one."
So will I, if anything to support the effort, and check it out maybe I'll buy more for my kids or something.
Yeah, I could make a similar post for similar reasons. I already have a bunch of mini-PCs I collect like Raspberry Pis. I already have a mITX build with Bazzite installed on it that I would use over a Steam Machine because it's faster. And like OP, I'd probably get anyways. Assuming price is ~800$ (with controller)
I think the Steam Machine has to succeed for SteamOS on Linux to keep growing, and for the niche of the Linux desktop to become larger.
Steam has already failed at this once, and it won’t try a third time.
(And Windows is currently at its lowest point, so it’s the perfect opportunity.)
I think it all depends on what their mission is, what bits of the larger ecosystem does valve care about or not care about, what do they want to defend or destroy. I'm tempted to say "defending the store is existential for them" but the scale of it likely gives them an extremely big comfort zone. Whatever OS the users have isn't going to affect whether they can do commerce through them unless MS does something unhinged like getting rid of win32, or as the fear around win8 that they'd centralize all windows software through their channels.
If their mission is SteamOS, then I'm tempted to say they need to expand their area of influence beyond what they're doing with linux now which seems to be strictly game related, which likely involves whittling down the major or minor reasons people don't use desktop linux (and all the projects that comprise it) in general, not just their distro. So long as they're supporting (in one way or another) the majority of windows games in a foreign environment and the richness that mods can bring they could do with improving the experience of that relative to windows and not just the happy path of what happens if the base game launches. And that's before the enigma of anti-cheat. Then find some way to reap the rewards, if any, for doing that greatly expanded workload or investment.
> won’t try a third time
I see no evidence for this, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. Notably, after the initially failed Steam Machines, we now have Steam Deck, Steam Machine Mark II, Steam Frame, Steam Controller Mark II, etc.
And critically, Valve seems to be learning, iterating, and the Steam Deck and Steam Controller Mark II are both much more enjoyable to use than the first Steam Controller.
From their perspective, Valve are otherwise dependent on Microsoft or Apple who see them as competition to squeeze out. Success of the Steam hardware platforms is their only way to change that situation. Therefore all evidence points to Valve continuing to iterate until they find success. They are a private company, so they can afford to do so indefinitely without worrying about pissing off a board or investors.
Because steam/valve ist bound to gabe, not sure who comes after him. (10 years between the steam machines)
But such changes are mostly more negative.
Eh... again, Valve being a private company plays a role here. Whoever succeeds Gabe will likely be chosen by Gabe, not some board or activist investor looking to maximize short term profit. There is much more freedom in private orgs to make long term strategic decisions.
The 10 years Valve took between Steam machines was invested (wisely, I think) in Linux infrastructure like Wayland, Wine/Proton, GPU and audio drivers, etc. None of which Valve will have to repeat.
To make my point, there was only 1.5 years between the release of the Steam Deck, and Steam Deck OLED, and that involved a new silicon tapeout.
> In two years, you’ll upgrade your M1 to an M4+: there’s the power upgrade.
Only to play almost nothing or very badly if not supported natively. And no devs won't support mac games there is no incentive. Emulation is subpar compared to Proton on Linux, Apple people should really start stop thinking macbooks can do modern gaming, excepts for a couple of Capcom portings that were paid by apple to have them and some retro gaming
I have been trying for a long time to find a way to play my PC games from my couch without dragging my desktop into the living room.
Steam Link works okay but is still noticeable for some games. Docking a Steam Deck wasn’t powerful enough. Running a long HDMI cable isn’t feasible in my current living space. So I’m very intrigued to have this lower powered cube sit under my TV for when I just want to do some couch co-op or play something more casual to wind down at night.
I'm doing a Needs-only-November - Non to 'wants'. But this was top of my list of 2026 'wants'.
Your list has hopefully saved me ~300eur thanks. And to add to your list, hopefully it comes non-upgradable, choca full of adverts, forced AI, spyware/root-kit/anti-cheat, mandatory age verified account requirements, and all the other modern essentials to make me never ever want one.
Still, it is kinda cute.
Kudos to the author. I also will not buy a steam Box. But i appreciate the effect it will have on gaming and Linux. I use Mint and use steam to play my games just fine. For some games it is a little bit shaky. Game company’s now have a incentive to make gaming just feel right on a Linux machine much more than like the switch deck. Just my thinking of course
if you read to the end, you'll see he gets one anyway
I think the author could use another TV if they have the space. Solves both the missing HDMI input and the "TV in use" error. :)
This list actually convinced me to get one, since I'm almost the opposite of every list item, haha.
> You can’t buy this without buying the Steam Controller.
Oh, this is ugly! Haven't noticed this being mentioned anywhere.
AFAIK one Steam Controller is included in the purchase of a Steam Machine already. Also, I find it unlikely that the Steam Machine is not going to work with other controllers, since the SteamOS works with pretty much any controller out there (Xbox, PS4/PS5, Switch, 8-bit Do, you name it).
Not sure what the author meant here. Maybe they're referring for the fact that you can't purchase a cheaper version of Steam Machine without the Steam Controller.
I was going through the list, nodding as I read all the reasons, agreeing with them all. But also thinking each time I’ll get one anyway. I guess I agree with the last sentence of the post haha. If anything, I’ll justify this by saying I want to choose with my money and encourage this further. But that’s really just to give me good conscience.
I too won't be getting one, especially since I already have enough power at my desk.
But I love how amazing of an idea it is. A form factor and ease-of-setup of a console that brings all the best features of PC gaming (inter-generational compatibility, free multiplayer...) into the living room. And unlike with the original Steam Machine, the market is ready this time.
Why can't i just shake the feeling that Steam Machines will Valve's gateway to release Half-Life 3 as a Steam Machine title exclusive? Furthermore, HL will only be Linux exclusive, at least for the first few months to put pressure on Sony, MS and Nintendo and the GTA6 launch.
Are people who know of or remember Half Life even a significant fraction of the market anymore?
At this point it's like releasing a new Fred Astaire musical. A new episode of The Lone Ranger.
Why it feels like "this year will be the year of Linux desktop" didn't sound absurd enough for you so you went and upgraded the idea to "HL3 will be a Linux exclusive."
Fair reasons. I won't be getting one, because the Steam Deck is enough for me.
> It’s Steam, not Good Old Games. Sure it can run GOG games but the Machine is primarily designed to run Steam. You avoid purchasing from Steam like the plague, yet you’re willing to buy a Machine dedicated to it? Are you crazy?
I prioritise getting games on GOG, and the Steam Deck experience with it is good.
I use Heroic Launcher to install them, and Steam mode to play it.
> You don’t have time to fiddle with configuration. Button and trackpad mappings to get the controls just right enough to play strategy games designed to be played with keyboard and mouse will only leave you frustrated.
+1. I don't bother with configuration. If a game only supports keyboard and mouse I just play it when docked.
> Fuck it, I’m getting one.
Haha.
It ultimately comes down to the price. If it’s low enough, I’ll get Steam machine as a living room indie box and for streaming from my main desktop. I would feel bad for overpaying for 8 gigs of VRAM in 2026.
all that matters is price. if it's a bang-for-your-buck (similar to the steamdeck) then i'm in. I don't have a PC in my current living space and it takes up as much space as my laptop, if not less.
I need a VR linux environment. With eye tracking letting you use a mouse without taking your hands off the keyboard.
Funnily Valve doesn’t need it either to some extent. It’s almost like a pet project. They won’t sell it retail, no ads, so certainly won’t even hurt the sales of Switch 2 and PS5. Mind you the former just sold more than 10m units in less than 6 months.
Secondly Valve makes disgusting amount of money from the lootboxes and the unregulated underage gambling market (estimated billions) which are almost a 0 effort system. Running an API and releasing a new lootbox every 2nd month or so are peanuts compared to the development, manifacturing, and distribution of the Steam Machine
Tail risk for valve is they get locked out of the windows ecosystem via the App Store or some other trusted computing shenanigans. Steam hardware running windows games on an open OS mitigates this.
I don't need it either. I want it so I'm going to get it. I also don't need the controller and the VR headset. But again, I am going to get it. I am the master of my life. Whatever I say goes. I am getting all 3. But I don't need them. No, no no.
Let me be that guy: we live in a time of collapse, for both the environment and international relationships – do we really need more gaming rigs?
Yes. Because if unrelated industries decide to give up then a theoretical collapse becomes an unavoidable economic collapse. And history has proven that war usually follows economic collapses.
So literally the best thing Valve could do here is carry on like usual.
OK, but do you expect Valve to do anything about first two problems you have mentioned? (OK, saying “our next console will be a bunch of refurbished PCs we have sourced from local junkyard” would be a flex)
Both the CPU and GPU Valve chose for the Steam Machine are cut down ("binned") versions of silicon AMD likely had lying around. The CPU is a laptop part which didn't sell in huge volume and has had the GPU fused off. The GPU has several CUs disabled compared to top-of-the-line. This indicates to me that Valve is using silicon which AMD either couldn't use otherwise, or couldn't sell for top price.
You can see the alternative with PS5 and Xbox, where AMD designed and produced large bespoke custom chips. Versions of these chips which don't fully pass QA could have a few defective cores or CUs fused off and used elsewhere, but we don't see that outside of some very niche Chinese motherboards.
Valve's approach instead allows them to re-use standard PC components which just didn't quite meet muster.
So in effect, "our next console will be a bunch of refurbished PCs we have sourced from local junkyard" is exactly what Valve did here.
The Steam Machine is "just" a normal Linux PC, with good integration.
The point is the target demographics. And, just like the Steam Deck, this is not something for power users. Most people on here know how to build a PC and install Linux with KDE on it, which is the same experience you would get with a Steam Machine.
Valve is selling this to an audience of gamers, specifically those who want an easy gaming experience on low end hardware. This is the same demographic which Sony and Microsoft are selling to.
I don't really need one either, but I'll buy it anyway, mostly because I want to support vendors who make hacker-friendly hardware and software. For that reason alone, Valve gets my money.
I was kind of annoyed at the blog post for being kind of pointless until the last line, which cracked me up.
The Steam Machine is surely meant to be somewhere between mainstream and niche. It’s going to be cheap enough to be a pretty good deal for what it is, but I think those who are already PC builders (at least, those who aren’t unusually high-income and will toss money at a novelty) might not jump on it.
The device does offer some unique features you can’t get on the PC market like HDMI-CEC, which will make it a great living room box.
Perhaps it’s even being somewhat underrated as a PC on your desk type of solution. Perhaps the type of person who wants a small form factor plug and play solution at their desk and isn’t a small form factor expert would want it. The only barrier there is that SteamOS doesn’t bring you to desktop mode instantly, but in that case the user could install their own OS like Bazzite or Windows.
For those who didn't read til the end:
> Fuck it, I'm getting one.
A lot of notes about Switch 2 on there.
I'm a Nintendo fanboy. Untold thousands from my wallet to their pockets over the last 30 years. NES on up, we've had every console except the virtual boy and specific iterations of mobile consoles (e.g switch but not switch lite). 512gb sd in the switch to fit all the games I bought on it. My house has 5 3DSs in it, which I maintain to this day is the best console ever made.
Sadly though I'll not spend another dollar on a Nintendo product for the rest of my life. Their aggressive targeting of emulation developers and their litigiousness in general I believe is harmful to the videogame industry.
Nintendo imo makes some of the best games ever made, but that's ok, there's still lots of other really good ones that run on my steam deck or my PC, and I can do whatever I want with the save files for those games, play them on my own terms.
Fully agree with the sentiments here in terms of "you might not need this", and for many of us the Steam Machine is not really marketed toward us in particular. I think it's not marketed away from us, though.
For me, I am considering it, depending on the price. I already have a small form factor PC that I run Bazzite on in the living room. The problem? There's some kind of hardware issue. Unfortunately, it might be the Intel CPU. It results in sporadic issues including periods of time where memory errors spike like crazy. I love the PC ecosystem for what it is, but here's the problem: without redundant parts, I can't reasonably isolate the problem to figure out what to RMA. It's not abundantly clear, because the problem is sporadic. I'd need to replace parts one-by-one. So I've just been working around it for now.
But the Steam Machine is sold as a single unit, and it already runs the KDE desktop that I'm used to using on my TV. (It's better than you'd expect, with a couple of tweaks, though I hope the SteamOS version that ships with the Steam Machine moves to a Wayland session as my TV supports HDR.) If I have a problem with the hardware, I can send it back to Valve. Even better, I kind of actually trust Valve.
So for me it totally depends on price point. I don't game all that much on TV, but I do want a box connected to my TV that can game. Plus, bonus points if it's able to achieve a better idle power usage than my current small form factor build. Plus, even better, the device ships with native HDMI CEC support, which is fairly rare on PC graphics cards, requiring very frustrating workarounds. This is clearly a potential killer option for people who want a living room PC setup for their TV.
(Aside: if you are wondering what the experience with using a living room PC with KDE is like, it's not too bad. You have to crank up the scale factor a bit, but with a Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad device, it's pretty easy to use. There's no easy way to support receiving Chromecasts, though, though there is Shanocast, but it's a bit sketchy. Funny enough, I believe Apple's AirPlay is less locked down and you can use UxPlay to receive AirPlay requests. I mostly just use Librewolf with some quality of life extensions like YouTube Shorts Block and Sponsorblock and the like. It is a little clunky but my previous weapon of choice was Android TV and it has been horrifically enshittified, so those devices are basically ewaste now.)
If they manage an under $800 price point and deliver on performance, thermals and noise, you simply won't be able to beat this thing in almost any dimension buying parts new to make a build yourself. It is significantly smaller than anything you can build, and it theoretically packs significant power per inch in the sub-$1000 price point. As long as you don't mind paying Valve, I absolutely think this is a potential killer deal for many use cases that will involve barely ever actually using Steam.
(But, despite the end of this article, it is definitely worth some consideration whether you really need one. Even if you ultimately decide you want it anyways :P)
"Why I Don't Care That Someone Somewhere Doesn't Need a Steam Machine"
I think working on "AGI" is more important than getting a Steam Machine or any other console these days.
What are you doing on Hacker News? You should be working on "AGI".
This may come as a surprise to you, but us humans need entertainment