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Steam Machine
Launched this week
Steam Machine is a tiny, powerful PC for big-screen gaming. A roughly 6-inch cube with over six times the power of Steam Deck, it plays your entire Steam library—AAA titles included—at 4K 60 FPS. Sign in and your games are right there. It runs SteamOS for a plug-and-play experience, stays cool and whisper-quiet, and pairs instantly with the Steam Controller. It's still a full PC too: install your own apps or even another OS. Powerful PC gaming made easy, right under your TV.
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Launch Team
Raycast
The first Steam Machines launched on November 10, 2015 starting around $449.
The new Steam Machine launches June 25 allocated to randomized pre-orders... so if you want one, get in now!
However, sticker shock might prevent you from jumping in, given prices start at $1,049 (512GB), with a 2TB model at $1,349.
Valve originally aimed for a lower, “affordable” price, but a global RAM/storage shortage drove component costs up and made that target “no longer viable.”
Product Hunt
@chrismessina Waiting for the first actual user reviews to start coming in before I consider getting one! But yeah, unexpected price tbh.
Tabstack by Mozilla
STEEEEEEEEEEAM MACHIIIIIIIINE
Valve tried this in 2015 and the original Steam Machines quietly faded - mostly because SteamOS game compatibility was spotty and the price-to-performance vs a PS4 or Xbox One didn't hold up. Starting at $1,049 this time around, I'm not sure the core problem has changed. A PS5 is still $499 and runs every game made for it. The "it's a full PC too" angle is compelling on paper, but that's also exactly what the original pitch was. What's the story on SteamOS compatibility now - are we actually at a point where the vast majority of Steam's library runs without workarounds?
The timing is interesting. Steam Machines failed in 2015 largely because SteamOS wasn't mature enough and the price point competed poorly with consoles. SteamOS is in a very different place now after the Steam Deck proving it out at scale.
The "six times the power of Steam Deck" benchmark is doing a lot of work in that description. What's the actual TDP and thermal solution in a 6-inch cube? That's the number that tells you whether 4K 60fps is a marketing claim or a realistic expectation across AAA titles.
Curious whether this cannibalises Steam Deck sales or targets a genuinely different buyer.
Don't even bother launching at that price point. $1049 for the Base model which is 512GB storage. The other model is 2TB and that's WITHOUT the controller. Digital Foundry benchmarks are up. Looks like 1440p 30fps on low graphics on most newer titles, on optimized medium settings it doesn't even beat the base PS5. Not to mention for any of my Canadian lads out there its $1500 for the base model with no controller, $1500 for the base model with no controller, over 2k for the 2 TB + Controller bundle. Even if you ignore the price it having only 8GB of video RAM doesn't fill me with confidence about the longevity of it. 8GB wasn't really enough video ram 2 years ago let alone now, so unless I'm missing something you're paying $1000+ for a 1080p machine and that is far too high. I do not understand who is their target market for this, ik it's certainly not whoever they are advertising this for. Marketing it as a home console, yet you have to pay extra for the controller and the specs are weaker than a PS5. I feel like this is repeating the same mistakes as the first Steam Machines from years back. I’m sure it will “sell out” only because Valve will only stock a few thousand units. But this thing is dead after pre orders are sold through. No fucking way PC gamers will pay over a grand for a crappy PC, and no way console players will switch to a worse machine for a higher price
valve’s bigger contribution here is making linux less exotic for regular buyers, while continuing the software and driver work that helps everyone on linux, not just their own hardware. pairing that with hardware-software polish around things like hdmi-cec removes a lot of annoying setup gaps.
PC gaming is still weirdly complicated for a lot of people. A simple living-room-friendly Steam box makes sense if it keeps the freedom of PC without feeling like you have to build and maintain one yourself.