Or people that just don’t want to bother with building another machine to put downstairs in the livingroom or whatever. There are a lot of middle aged people who have been PC gaming for decades, are perfectly happy to build their primary gaming machine, and have hundreds of games in their library, and the means to consider the couple hundred dollar price difference between $1000 and whatever they could spend to build a machine to be worth the convenience of not having to do it.
Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 6 hours ago
I imagine most of the more tech savvy people on Lemmy would scoff at this and say “Might as well build a PC” (me included, which I already did), but this is aimed at the consumers who do not have that skill set and are willing to pay that price point for a Steam gaming system /shrug
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 1 hour ago
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
It’s also a fundamentally different user experience. Sure you could load SteamOS onto a machine you built. But the point is that this targets the couch players, instead of the desktop players. And very few PC players will build a new PC just for their couch.
I love my Steam Deck, because it has caused my wife’s complaints about gaming to dry up almost completely. When I’m at my computer desk, she can’t snuggle with me. But by moving to the couch, we can snuggle while I play. Her complaints weren’t really about my gaming; they were about my physical unavailability. And the Steam Deck allows me to access the vast majority of my PC games on the couch, so we can both be happy.
robocall@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
I think it’s more aimed at the people who will buy anything valve
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 6 hours ago
I wonder how many people there are that fall in that category but who wouldn’t just buy a much cheaper console instead.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
An existing PC game library, better pricing and flexibility for PC games, wider and more robust controller support …
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 5 hours ago
All true. If you already have a large library of PC games, it wouldn’t make much sense to get a console. But then you probably already have a PC as well, and can ride it out until the AI bubble pops. That’s certainly what I’m doing, as now is probably the worst time in history to buy new PC hardware.
Of course, some may say it’s only the worst time in history for now…
someguy3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
They said this is more powerful than 70% of steam user’s PC.
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 5 hours ago
Honestly that makes me like Steam even more. Any company that is willing to put up that much money to serve a niche market earns my respect. Sure they’re doing it for the simple reason of Steam machine owners being guaranteed Steam gaming customers but it’s still serving a subset of their customers like few companies do these days.
grue@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Sure they’re doing it for the simple reason of Steam machine owners being guaranteed Steam gaming customers
That isn’t even the most important reason, IMO. I think they’re doing it mostly to actively push Steam OS and normalize Linux for gaming. Not because they care about Free Software in principle, mind you, but as a hedge against the existential threat of Microsoft locking them out of Windows.
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 37 minutes ago
Shit I’ll take that as a reason too and gladly back them for it.
kinkles@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Bless Valve for investing money purely for the goodness of making money
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 4 hours ago
Sure, but they’re one of the only companies proving that consumerism doesn’t mean you have to be a complete asshole of a company. They make money, people get the product they want at a price point they are satisfied with.
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I just gave the neighborhood kid my xbox-s (with expanded memory), my switch hasn’t been touched since my deck arrived. I have everything I need already purchased on steam, I’m not building a second library, or paying 50% more than when I started for a rotating library, I’ll buy a few more games on steam but my catalog is insurmountably full as it is. And now I’ll get to enjoy it with slightly higher graphics on a much larger screen!
jordanlund@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I mean, speaking for myself, I already bought the consoles back in 2020. I bought a Steam Deck to access non-console games.
This does what the Steam Deck does only moreso.
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 5 hours ago
Yeah, but Steam Deck had an extremely attractive and competitive price when it launched.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
“Equivalent” consoles are much more expensive now as well. The entire playing field is fucked.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I have friends who only have consoles. This is who I think should be looking at this. People like me who wanted a second PC for the living room may pass on this because of the price, though. I don’t need a second PC that bad. But for my people with no PC, no monitors, no keyboards, this is pretty decent. Not to mention the it’s an alright deal when pricing out a build yourself.
shinratdr@lemmy.ca 3 hours ago
Except a PS5 Pro is $1100CAD and this is $1500CAD. That is a huge jump. This is too underpowered for enthusiasts, and too expensive for console only gamers.
I know why they have the price pressure they do. But I can’t say I’m not wildly disappointed. This had the potential to end the console market entirely and now it’s looking like another also ran.
I was almost definitely going to buy this. At this price vs performance, I don’t think I’ll even put my name on the list. Much of this is out of Valve’s hands, but maybe they should have just scrapped it until pricing is better. This might be worse than nothing.
someguy3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
With today’s prices how much cheaper would you get building similar yourself?
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 1 hour ago
I think it depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into sourcing and building everything and how important the form factor is. Lots of guys build pretty capable livingroom computers out of old Small Form Factor business computers, but once you have it all together its not a LOT cheaper than this.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I heard from a trusted colleague that the difference is about $70, but you also get a possible steam controller discount + a sweet-ass form factor.
suxen_tsihcrana@anarchist.nexus 2 hours ago
Don’t forget all the time you save not having to configure stuff and fight with drivers. I enjoy dealing with that stuff because I like to learn, but others might not.
lyrial@anarchist.nexus 1 hour ago
I was going to mention that driver support for known hardware is pretty huge. I am not a tinkerer at all, so I personally find this appealing.
someguy3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I’m gonna say that’s next to nothing, especially when you consider driver support.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Agreed - that’s part of what I meant by “compatibility guarantees,” but I should have called out drivers more explicitly.
adarza@piefed.ca 2 hours ago
i pieced together a comparable 2tb on pcpartpicker, using the cheapest reputable choices and vendors. it was about $200-250 less for the pc (without an os).
garbage_world@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
In Poland with already high electronics prices and 23% VAT, I could build something similar for around $1000.
someguy3@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Woo $49 savings.
garbage_world@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
The thing is, 23% VAT applies to the SM too.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
There are things this does that would be very difficult to achieve in a custom build. It’s very compact and quiet and has very good driver support without any tinkering. It’s a machine you hook up to your living room TV and for that it works very well, including CEC support which is not standard on PC hardware. The price is of course hard to swallow and performance isn’t great but i think this thing will definitely sell all the units they can possibly make.
grue@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
It’s very compact and quiet and has very good driver support without any tinkering.
The first two are real advantages, but I think any random AMD-based system (CPU and GPU) would be damn near equal in terms of driver support.
suxen_tsihcrana@anarchist.nexus 2 hours ago
Think about how much time and effort can go into selecting hardware, optimizing it, managing drivers, tweaking OS to play nice. I’m a masochist so I enjoy learning all that stuff - can’t really blame those who don’t. For them it is actually a bargain
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I have the skill, I built all of my families PC’s through the early 2010’s, I’m done with that lifestyle. I don’t want to diagnose and send evidence of wether it’s the ram or the motherboard that needs to be replaced, argue with foreign customer service for weeks, and then wait months for a replacement piece (that now I know has a higher chance of failure) to be delivered.
I’ll trade a slightly higher investment for peace of mind, as long as it’s a good business (sorry apple)
snooggums@piefed.world 5 hours ago
I wanted the tiny box format for playing my steam library on the TV without needing to run a cable from the PC. Wasn’t sure I could build one this small so I waited to see how much this was.
Around $800 for the 2TB model was my hope when it was announced. Stupid AI data centers screwing over memory prices.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I think $800 for 2 TB was still a bit overoptimistic, but I suppose we’ll never really know.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 1 hour ago
You could probably build a comparable machine for $800 or so today, but from that perspective you are paying a couple hundred bucks for the form factor and the convenience of not having to source all the parts.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 hour ago
Not by the outlook at how cheap a 2tb drive would have cost by now if AI data centers didn’t fuck it up. A 2TB nvme drive 3 years ago was ander $110.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Versus around $300 now, so that would theoretically only represent a $200 price difference.
Addv4@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I mean, before the AI bullshit picked up, I managed to get a couple of used Samsung 4tb 970 ssds for $250 a piece. $800 for a nice console/PC with that much storage wasn’t much of a reach then, given consoles usually are sold at cost to get you invested in the ecosystem.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Not a fair comparison. You found a very special deal for those drives which were half the price of a decently performant one at half the capacity at normal sale prices.
grue@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
The cube form-factor is nice, in a “sit on top of the furniture looking pretty” sort of way. However, I think a short-depth 1U form-factor to stack with hi-fi equipment would be a good way to do it as well, and relatively easily achievable to DIY with off-the-shelf parts.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 1 hour ago
Something like the Small Form Factor Optiplex computers fits nicely into any old home entertainment or stereo setup, but I suppose we already have about a thousand machines that will fit that slot and people that wanted to do that probably already did.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 1 hour ago
I don’t think I would have much success trying to build a SFF PC today for 1k or less. You pay a premium for mini-itx and really tiny cases, PSUs, everything. The only cost that is the same is the CPU really, even a heatsink often needs to be very specific to fit a case.
The last two SFF cases I picked up that are high quality were $200. Just look at minisforum stuff, their products are expensive and look nice, it’s all in the same vein.
You can definitely find better deals for desktop gaming performance, for sure, but I doubt people are going to find something that’s off the shelf at 27L or less and same or better perf for cheaper.
snooggums@piefed.world 2 hours ago
Yes, a completely different setup than I have would allow for other options.