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mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• kevinsky@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’m not sure why everyone is so upset about the price.

  Because this is a 6~700 dollar machine that is now this price because of Sam Altman and his competing AI cronies having gone full scorched earth on the hardware market for no good reason.

  It’s significantly less than a gaming rig with similar specs that you can custom build.

  Youtube’s full of people that build comprable or better performing machines in this price bracket. There’s obviously more to this steam machine than just performance, but it’s not particularly cheap in any respect.

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  • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m not concerned with what YouTubers are doing.

    What I know is if I go to my local microcenter, I live in a city they has one close to me, and try to build the same or similar computer I’m closer to three grand.

    As a matter of fact the computer that I have currently is very close to the spec of a steam machine and it cost around $2500 when I built it on 2022.

    And we live in a fucked up time where things are more expensive than they ever have to be.

    The price to performance is acceptable if not slightly under powered on this product for our time. Keep in mind you’re getting a fully built Linux machine that anyone can just power up and use. Also keep in mind that consoles sell at a loss because they make they’re money in games sales. That’s not something valve is going for.

    Honestly I think people would have been upset no matter what they did.

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    • Mistic@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      if I walk into my local Micro Center and try to build a comparable machine, I’m getting dangerously close to $3,000.

      I have a massive issue with this claim. Just what kind of parts (comparable in performance) do you choose to bring it up to that point?

      This claim sounds bogus. Send the pcpartpicker list.

      At most, you should end up at like 1500$, but only if you spend on looks or are clueless of what you’re doing.

      It’s really not difficult to make a PC with similar or better performance at that price.

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      • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        pcpartpicker.com/list/DPMv4g

        Here you go. I will admit prices have gotten much better since last I built a PC.

        The above build is somewhat worse than the steam machine and it’s close to 1200 bucks.

        And this isn’t my microcenter and doesn’t involve taxes and assembly.

        I’d say that I’d be pushing closer to two grand not three.

        And pc parts picker isn’t the end all be all for pricing. It’s a relatively close estimate.

        Still easier for most people to simply buy a steam machine and plug it in.

        My point still stands it’s fine for what it is and what it’s supposed to be.

        Which is pretty much what people are saying about it anyway so if you want to complain about price feel free to do so but you’d be wrong.

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• ChairmanMeow@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  A PS5 pro blows this out of the water for a lower price. This thing has less performance than a base PS5.

  Valve targeted a price/performance point that did not exist anymore. They advertised 4k/60FPS, you’re just not getting that with this box. They ended up targeting 1080p. As component prices got more expensive they ended up compromising on performance to keep the cost somewhat manageable, but ended up in a very unfavorable part of the price/performance curve. That’s why it’s so underwhelming to people.

  You can build an equivalent or more powerful pc for slightly less than this. But if you’re willing to shell out a couple hundred more, you get a multiple of the performance this thing offers. It’s outcompeted on both price and performance.

  I was quite hyped to get one of these but I’m not shelling out that money for what you get right now. I’d rather spend a little bit more to get something that will actually last and stay relevant for a few more years.

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  • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    A PS5 pro blows this out of the water for a lower price

    Why everyone us this stupid argument? The PS5 pro cost less because sony will get back the money with the games they sell on the playstation store and the monthly subscription you are forced to pay if you wanna play online

    The playstation plus essential is €70 for a year, let’s say you will pay for 5 years, it will be €4350 sum it to the €898 of the console and you get €1248 spent

    The steam machine with 2TB is €1359 (or 1428 if you really want the controller) and you can use it forever, run old ass games with emulators, mod games, play pirated games, use it how you want, even for productivity and without any subscription

    Do you see why Valve can’t sell hardware for less like Sony does?

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    • ChairmanMeow@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s the thing, I do care about all of that. But it’s still a very expensive deal for what you get. That’s why I was very interested in it, but the price/performance scared me off.

      The only thing hard to match right now is the small form factor. But honestly, that’s not the primary selling point of this thing that most gamers care about when they’re happily purchasing consoles or pcs several times the size.

      Everything else it offers is matchable or handily exceeded with a pc build you put together (or let someone put together for you). Just today LTT put out a budget build video that doesn’t do anything complex to reach essentially double the Steam Machine’s performance, for the same price. If you want to fix the minor things they compromised on you end up maybe paying 100/200 more. Sure it’s a tiny bit more expensive, but when you get twice the performance out of it it’s an easy deal to make. Especially given that it means you’ll make the build last much longer, and it’s more easily upgradable making it much cheaper in the long run. And you still get all the benefits that you mentioned that the Steam Machine offers (especially if you install SteamOS on it, which ended up running better than on the Gabecube as it showed an apparent bug with quick-resume).

      The comparison to consoles makes the Steam Machine a bad deal for those who just want a console-like experience. For those who care more about PC gaming, it’s a bad deal due to the bad spot it sits in in the price/performance curve. This narrows the target audience to a very small sliver of gamers, who then need to be willing to shell out that much money on an already dated system that will be harder to upgrade in the future.

      You don’t really get enough performance for the AAA games, and there’s cheaper out there if you’re just an indie enthusiast. Given the pretty overwhelmingly dismissive response from the community, I doubt this thing is going to sell very well.

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      • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I didn’t watch the LTT video yet, how muxh they cheaped out?

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    • dreamkeeper@literature.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s funny how you say this as if valve doesn’t make money on steam sales. The legal gymnastics on display in this thread are definitely something. Song doesn’t even sell their consoles at a loss anymore.

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      • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Games aren’t a physical object, it doesn’t take 30€ to host a single game so it’s really not a problem to make discounts on games

        I don’t defend a company because i like it, i hate corpos but this time y’all are saying no sense

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  • ptu@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    If they wanted to gain market they should have included a AM4 option that matches PS5 price and performance.

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    • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Ps5s are sold at a loss.

      This team could have done the same thing but then again a steam machine isn’t a PS5.

      People would immediately abuse that and start buying these up in bulk for reasons other than gaming on them.

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      • dreamkeeper@literature.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        PS5s are not sold at a loss. They’re sold at cost. Sony stopped selling at a loss this gen.

        Greedy Gabe would never even consider such a thing even though valve would still easily come out ahead from the steam sales alone.

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• SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is it? Capped at 1080p, low power consumption to control heat, but at a performance cost. Overall pretty meh.

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  • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That’s the issue with the PC gaming community. A lot of people seem disconnected from how most people actually game.

    The most common graphics card on Steam is still the 3060, and the most common resolution is 1080p.

    Only a relatively small segment of gamers is chasing 4K at 60 FPS or higher. The Steam Deck is not a particularly powerful device by modern PC standards, yet it’s proven to be extremely capable for gaming.

    So, yes, I see a decent product here. It will work perfectly well for the overwhelming majority of people who are actually going to buy it.

    Luckily, you don’t run a business, because dismissing a product simply because it doesn’t cater to the enthusiast minority is a great way to ignore the customers who make up most of the market.

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