An existing PC game library, better pricing and flexibility for PC games, wider and more robust controller support …
Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 3 weeks agoI 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 3 weeks ago
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
They said this is more powerful than 70% of steam user’s PC.
PonyOfWar@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
I believe it. I’m sure there are millions of people using Steam to play Dota or CS2 on stuff like old laptops. But how many of those are willing and able to spend 1000+ for an upgrade?
Ultimately, stocks may be so low that it doesn’t really matter though.
Caducous@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And those people cant afford the steam machine. I just don’t see how the steam machine isn’t DOA.
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
How many of those are Steam decks?
jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
Yeah, but Steam Deck had an extremely attractive and competitive price when it launched.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“Equivalent” consoles are much more expensive now as well. The entire playing field is fucked.
tomalley8342@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“equivalent”, base ps5 has equivalent performance while being half the price lol.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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 weeks 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.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
thaI agree. their best play here would have likely been to just delay release until the hardware market stabilized. its going to flop at it’s current pricing.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Except there’s ongoing costs to have manufacturing equipment and warehouse stock sitting around doing nothing. Plus they likely had minimum quantity manufacturing contracts signed
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sure, it’s a huge jump. But it’s also a mostly lateral jump if you already have a PS5 or Xbox. That’s why I specifically state that this is for people who have a console but no PC. Software availability semantics aside, BeamNG coming to PS5 makes my desire to have one of these in the living room close to zero now. Unless it can run Cities Skylines 2.
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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!
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 3 weeks 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.
kinkles@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Bless Valve for investing money purely for the goodness of making money
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app 3 weeks 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.
FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
They also profit off child gambling
grue@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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 3 weeks ago
Shit I’ll take that as a reason too and gladly back them for it.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Tbf, they can’t sell it at a loss because they aren’t guaranteed Steam customers.
If it was sold at a loss, businesses could easily buy a bunch of them as workstations. Plus, it’s just a PC with no lockdowns. If you buy a Steam Machine, there’s no reason you couldn’t reflash it with Windows and exclusively play games via EGS and Ubisoft Connect.