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Valve confirm the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC with similar specs, rather than a console
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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They can't, and they won't.
The way I see it, the people the Steam Machine is meant for are these:
People who are sick of the increasingly predatory nature of console gaming and want to switch to PC, but don't have the confidence or knowledge to build their own
People who are similarly sick of Windows bullshit and want to try Linux for gaming, but don't have the confidence or knowledge to do it themselves
People with plenty of cash who fancy an extra gaming PC to put under the TV
Valve fans who will buy anything Valve releases, no matter what
IMO it's not trying to compete against consoles directly, and especially not on price. It's trying to be an alternative for people who are already fed up with consoles - with lock-in and subscriptions and price-hikes and being advertised to - which is a certainly small but hopefully impactful market.
Something that I don't really see people talk about and could be a huge selling point for people is that it's pretty small. Especially for folks that live in a small studio, saving space can be pretty important. I know mini-PCs are big in China, which itself is a huge market
Absolutely, for real. It's smol and cute, and that's a plus.
Of course, it isn't like you can't build yourself a small PC if you want to. I've got a build in a Fractal Design Terra with a beefy GPU, and that thing is barely bigger than a shoebox.
But building small is even more daunting for newcomers than building large, so IMO it ties into the same angle of people wanting something that is premade and a product that just works, right down to the SteamOS operating system it ships with.
There is some overlap among those, particularly 2-4 and 3-4.
Also, I’ve read a lot of comments from people for whom the Steam Deck was their first experience with Linux and they are overwhelmingly positive. I can see this new device having the same effect.