Relevant part of the article.
Larian Studio’s Publishing Director Michael Douse took to Twitter to argue Valve aren’t looking to make a device that exceeds the power of the consoles, they’re making a baseline. “They’re probably betting on the fact that anyone who wants more demanding PC hardware on their TV is part of the audience who know how to turn any PC into a Steam Machine,” Douse argues.
[…] Douse says, Valve are setting a baseline. “If Valve can once again normalise and thus create that entry point there is potential for big growth in that new market”. Once Gabe and his kin establish a baseline, other companies, such as ASUS and Lenovo, can roll in with their more powerful machines.
Except we’ve already seen that, despite the success of the Steam Deck, those companies aren’t interested. Of the seemingly hundred handheld devices, there’s only a single one sold with SteamOS, and the subsequent one excluded it as well. In fact, ASUS doubled down on Windows with their latest handheld.
With SSD, memory prices, and GPU prices still going up, releasing console-beating Steam Machines still seems way over the horizon to plan for. Once the AI bubble “pops”, maybe … but with so much going on in the world in terms of geopolitics also threatening to affect markets, I wouldn’t dare to look into the future.
Emudeck person is working on this
https://shop.playnix.io/products/playnix-console
RX 9060xt and Ryzen 5600
Don’t need it. At least it’s RDNA4. Good bump up in performance compared to the Steam Machine and still fairly compact
Valve has amazing hardware engineering skills and I have no idea, why companies like ASUS struggle to compete. They struggled with the Steam Deck, they will struggle with the Steam Machine.
Because valve does not need to profit,since they get money from people buying games.
They don’t need to worry about shareholders demanding maximum profit. They are still going to be looking to profit but they can do things for purposes beyond just extracting as much as possible in the short term.
Sony is a shareholder corp and still does that.
With PC sales?
If this thing is $499, I will buy it, as I’ve wanted to get into PC gaming for a while and I will probably spend more in games. If it is more than $499, I will buy a used PS5 and continue to think about building a cool gaming PC and getting into PC gaming.
I think $700-$800 is a more realistic range unfortunately. It depends on how thin margins Valve is willing to accept, but I don’t think they want to sell at a loss like the typical console manufacturer.
I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider selling at a loss if it means bringing a massive user base over to their gaming ecosystem where they take a 30% cut of game sales. 700-800 is probably a good price point for what you get. I’m just not a big enough gamer to justify dropping that kind of money on a setup to try out PC gaming.
Console manufacturers sell at a loss because they have to sell the hardware first before they can sell anything else. They know they’ll get that money back on software you couldn’t have bought without the console.
While I’m sure Valve hopes to bring some new customers to Steam this way, I’ll bet that the majority of Steam Machines sold will be to users who are already invested in Steam and have an existing library of games to play. If they take a loss on hardware, they can’t be certain they’re actually making up for it elsewhere.
It’s not practical for the Machine to be a loss leader because it’s a supplementary product, not one the rest of their business is dependent on.
They used the same strategy for the steam deck. Valve acknowledged that it was sold at a loss or near loss and it was incredibly successful because it broke into the handheld market. Don’t know why they wouldn’t do the same for this console like system. I’m hoping they do.
Do you have a source for that? All I can find are conflicting rumors and speculation.
The only actual quote here is
Price point was secondary and painful. But that was pretty clearly a critical aspect to it.
But Newell didn’t actually say it was at a loss, did he? Seems like they’re just speculating.
You have to consider that this is a pc and can be mass purchased by industries other than gaming.
Who else is buying a PC designed for gaming for non gaming stuff? What other industry is this an optimal build and design for? The last steam machine didn’t sell outside of its intended audience. Why would this one?
Because the steam deck wasn’t a loss leader either? It is still a pc that could be used for anything. What makes it optimised for gaming after removing SteamOS? Maybe cec and what else? Pc can be used as a workstation anywhere.
The form factor kinda does that by having a controller attached, limiting power consumption to 15W, and limiting connectivity to a single USB port
If they sell the hardware at a loss, then miners or AI companies would 100% have reason to pick them up to plug into their farms since they would be cheaper than other market alternatives.
The last steam machines were 3rd party and not sold at a loss.
Bitcoin mining needs ASICs, and real AI needs massive, high-VRAM GPUs. This is a gaming PC with mid-range parts.
Probably slightly more than that, but it’s worth considering the long-term costs. Steam does not have a monthly subscription (minimum $160/yr with PS), they often have massive price cuts in their seasonal sales, and even many games can be had completely for free. Epic gives them away every week. GOG gives them away on occasion. And if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, that includes several games a week as well.
I‘d like to think that Asus and Lenovo would build „console-beating“ Steam Machines, but they‘ve also tried building more powerful Steam Deck alternatives and those were meh at best and terrible at worst.
Steam Machines are probably easier to design, as they‘re just PCs. But seeing how much thought and care Valve puts into their hardware designs and how little of both Lenovo and Asus have put into theirs in the past, I‘m not going to expect great products from them.
I’d be very happy to be wrong, though.
Have we forgotten the Nintendo Wii already? Sure its not a pc, but it was in nearly everyone’s living room.
Also, I will never purchase a gaming console for my kids to get addicted to it. Get the kids an “IPad”? I learned my lesson. Horrified by the results. Good luck out there! Don’t complaint if you don’t get into that graduate program that your parents dreamed of for you. Also can’t get a girl pregnant if you don’t know what that other joystick is for, so maybe this is not too bad. I’m conflicted by no, no “entry point” into my house or my pocket thanks.
