Ask Lemmy

No. I already own a PC.

It's not just the price, it's the hardware. They could have gone for a slightly more powerful gpu, even in their thermal emvelope, and it'd xonfpunding they didn't. This way it gets beaten by a PS5, on both price and performance.

Doesn't mean I'd buy a PS5, but does mean there's many better options, even if you want small and quiet.

Are you gonna be buying a Steam machine?

No, but I was never the target audience and I wouldn't have bought one regardless of price. I'm currently using a laptop and if I ever want a stationary gaming machine again I'll just build one myself, I don't care for a console-like experience either so even SteamOS isn't a selling point for me.

So, do you think even at this price point Valve is taking a hit?

Nope. Pretty sure that they're at least breaking even on the hardware. It's a PC, they can't be sure of future game sales. You could use alternative stores, pirate everything, or not use it for gaming at all.

Maybe if a major component in my PC dies, but for now I'm happy to see how it goes.

Nah. If it became cheaper or I found one on Ebay for a much lower price one day then maybe. The price it is at now is just too much and you may as well just build a very decent mid range gaming PC for that amount.

I sure hope it does not increase the cost of future consoles. Many will be locked out of the gaming market altogether if that happens because a lot are living on the edge as it is already from paycheck to paycheck.

Got a reservation but haven't fully committed yet. I guess I have…er…reservations about it?

I was going to save up for a 600 bucks version but I ended up buying a 200 bucks second hand gaming PC six months ago which will have to do.

No, just build a PC recently right before price going shit.

But also if i wanted to, i can't, or i'll be paying scalper + dropshipper price.

I can't find full-time work for over a year. I can't afford Chinese takeout. I want one, but it's far outside my price range.

I wish I could, but that price is way too high for me to justify it. If the price ever comes down I would be happy to see about getting one. I think at that price point it's only really accessible to enthusiasts with a lot of disposable income. There were a lot of more casual gamers that were interested in the machine before the price. They were able to get a deck at a $300-400 mark and they were interested to see what the Steam Machine would be offered at. But I am certain at this price that none of those people are going to get one. I'm sure the price is due to AI fucking everyone and not because Valve just wants to squeeze out money. But I think the result of this is that it's not going to be the widespread go-to option for a lot of gamers. It definitely hurt it's chances with a ton of potential customers.

Maybe in a year or so. My Deck still works fine, not in a rush to replace it. The Frame on the other hand, probably a day one purchase.

I don't really have a use case, but I would have considered picking one up anyways sometime down the line if it was a good deal. It's unfortunate that it's not. I was really hoping that Valve would try to subsidize it a little to at least make the cost not as painful, but I understand that it was never an expectation for them to do so.

I think it'll sell anyways, since there are people who don't want to worry about the technical challenges of building their own computer, and also don't want to spend time looking into and vetting pre-built brands. They just want a pre-built from a brand that they already know and trust. And I think the Steam Machine would fill that niche. It's a niche of a niche of a niche, but I suspect there would be enough people like that to still sell a decent number of Steam Machines.

As for the prices of other consoles? Steam Machine is such a low volume product that other consoles would not feel a thing no matter how successful it sells

Not really, I don't have money for a separate gaming console, and if I had, I'd probably still invest in my work machine. I want mass adoption for it become a reference in optimization for Linux systems but I myself can't chip in - I think that contradiction is shared by many.

I really want a powerful miniPC to replace my Rokus and also play 80% of my library. But $1100 for the 512gb without a controller is a hard pill to swallow. I can get an equivalent laptop for about the same price or less, and it's still portable.

Microcenter $1200

I reserved a 512gb and a 2tb, but I may hold out for the Frame. I fell like Valve should rethink the strategy, because there are a lot of console gamers that would break into the market if the price is right, $1,100 is too high. Especially since it still won't be able to play games with anti-cheat, so most of the competitive games aren't even an option.

I already have a full n gaming PC, but I also played a bit over the last month and built a Steam Machine for under $400 using an AMD BC-250 crypto mining card. From bc-250.info: A cut-down PlayStation 5 APU with 6 Zen 2 cores and 24 RDNA2 compute units, sharing 16GB of fast GDDR6 memory.

It takes some tweaking and it's not top of the line, but it's a fun project that can play most games. There is also a script that can let you unlock disabled compute units to increase performance assuming they are not damaged.

I’ve got a powered USB extension cable running to my basement so I can have my Steam Controller plugged in down there, and use my Xbox with Moonlight to stream my PC over Ethernet to the TV. No need.

I had considered it, but there’s no way at that price point. Also, like I said, no need.

Tbh I'm in the same-ish boat, but, given the unknown economic situation in 6 months, I'm saving my disposable income. If everything chugs along, that $1500 unit might be up to $1800; if we hit the operational floor on oil, that $1500 would be better spent elsewhere. I'd rather spend another $300 come Christmas than starve; the steam machine will still be there if bigger problems don't arise.

No. The most intensive game I play is Skyrim. Someday though I might take an used SFF pre-built (like the thinkcentre), plop a low profile GPU into it, and play some slightly heavier games lile Dark Souls 3

nope

When the ps6 costs over $1000 this will be positioned well.

Right now it might be ahead of its time but that’s not out of character for valve. It’s easier to react to market conditions if you already have a product than it is to spin one up in a hurry.

I think they expect early adopters at this stage, it will get them early feedback and drives some platform revenue.

Nope.

I'll be using Boosteroid.

Yes, it's a pretty well built gaming system. I could use a replacement and it's not that expensive compared to systems I've built in the past.

It's a point of pride to build my own PCs, including Linux boxes.

No, but i really want one. Maybe in a few years if this insane computer pricing chills out a little or if I get a lot of money somehow.

After it was announced I was considering it, to replace an old (non-gaming) PC that I still need to use occasionally. But honestly, even if the price was half what it is, I don't think it would really serve much point in my hands.

The Steam Frame is what I'm really interested in, if I have the cash to splurge on it when it finally releases I'll probably nab it.

No, i already have a pc and never really liked consoles. Got too comfortable with a keyboard and mouse setup. Yeah those do support keyboard and a mouse setup as well, but might as well get a PC at that point already.

And i do like to build and tinker with my hardware, much more easier on PC than with a console.

Nah, I have a Steam Deck for travel and I don't really feel like I need anything else. Also, I couldn't really afford one anyhow.

Yup

Nah, my existing PC is good enough. But I'm very likely to get the Steam Frames once they're out. And I'll probably be playing around with SteamOS on my own machine, just because apparently it's compatible

No the hardware is not good for the price.

It's weaker than the ps5.

Im not currently in the market for a couch gaming type of system, as I mainly game in my room where my PC is, and if I want to play on the tv I have an HDMI more than long enough to allow for it.

However if I did want a system for downstairs I'd be more likely to pick up a steam machine over a ps5, even at the current price point

I was lucky enough to out together a nice PC just before the AI thing made the prices explode, plus I've been a PC gamer all my life (except for the PS1 I had as a kid), so I won't buy the Machine.

That said, I had high hopes it'd be a success, more so given how well the Controller has sold, and that it'd be the things that brought Linux to lots of people who would never consider it otherwise.

Unfortunately, I fear the price will damped things quite a bit.

Eventually, when the gen 2 comes out, I intend to pick up a used gen 1 to replace my Raspberry Pi 5. It's one of the very few general-purpose computers that has HDMI CEC support natively, and with KDE Plasma Bigscreen it should be a monster of a set top box.

I play all my games on Steam and the console like experience sounds like it's up my alley but I prefer having a desktop and streaming over WiFi. If I were to upgrade anything in my setup it'd be a graphics card, not an entire machine.

I'm not really part of the target audience. I already have a laptop that's slightly more powerful and I could hook it up to my TV if that was a thing I wanted to do. I don't need a separate gaming PC for my living room.

I have no need for one. The PC I currently have vastly out-perforns it.

I already built my own loungeroom PC 18 months ago with a used rx580, amd 5600X, and 32gb RAM. This was just before the RAM crisis, so 32gb DDR4 was relatively cheap. I run Bazzite on it, and get a very SteamOS-like experience. Whole thing cost me less than half what they are asking for a Steam Machine.

Nope, but I wasn't planning to buy one even before the price announcement. I have a solid upper-midrange PC that easily outperforms the Steam Machine and I also have it connected to my projector for living room gaming. Aside from having a neat design and formfactor, a low-spec PC with limited ports that I can't really upgrade just isn't appealing to me.

Nope both because i don't have that kind of disposable income and my laptop is currently fine with the handful of games i play and I dont need it for anything else heavy.