Steambox may cost above 750 $ (Source: random twitter guess)

The company with $17B annual revenue with only ~355 employees will not subsidise its new games console to promote market penetration.

They're clearly dedicated to and really getting behind this product.

I mean they could afford to give away 1m units every year for free and that cost would look like a rounding error on their balance sheet…
 
Does it come with the controller? 😬

So I got this info from eurogamer and they're saying that you'll have the option of getting the steam machine with the controller or without the controller. It dosen't come bundled with it automatically supposedly.

https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-machine-everything-we-know-about-valves-new-console

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$750 is only justifiable if it comes with the controller and Half-Life 3. I'm a Valve simp but it's old tech. I get that prices suck for everything right now but I think $649 for the system only is about as high as you can go before it's only a niche device. Knowing Valve though, they don't care if it's a niche device. They are just putting out Steam companion devices for the people that want them. I don't think they really have an intention to compete with consoles but I think they should. $500 and you have a chance of being a competitor.
 
$750 is only justifiable if it comes with the controller and Half-Life 3. I'm a Valve simp but it's old tech. I get that prices suck for everything right now but I think $649 for the system only is about as high as you can go before it's only a niche device. Knowing Valve though, they don't care if it's a niche device. They are just putting out Steam companion devices for the people that want them. I don't think they really have an intention to compete with consoles but I think they should. $500 and you have a chance of being a competitor.
What is even the benefit of "competing with consoles"? Valve has already won. Their margins are fat as fuck.
 



They said that the specs, form factor, and quietness of the device are reasons for the cost of the device when they eventually unveil the cost of it.


I can buy a laptop with a 4060 in it for just over $700 today. Strip away the screen, battery, keyboard, Windows license, etc... from that laptop and $500 seems reasonable.

I don't care what pundits are saying or what Valve may be thinking; if the Steam Box isn't $500 or less, it's going to be a terrible deal.
 
Those guys make $17B with 336 employees and can't even be bothered to subsidize this to grow their brand and the PC market.

Cunts.
It was never meant to grow the brand, its entire purpose is to target people who, perhaps, like Steam a little bit too much. That's how Valve can make a ton money out of each purchase.
As BennyBlanco BennyBlanco said, people who don't actually need it, but still want it.
 
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But these machines cater to two different audiences.

Those who look for a console experience on PC won't likely get it since it's more expensive than a console. And those looking to use it as PC already got a more powerful one, or can build a better one for just a few hundreds more.
 
At this point it's safe to say this device was never meant to take considerable chunks of the enthusiast scene by storm. It's very much a boutique, niche product for dedicated Steam fans and the five people globally who don't have any PC, yet. I'm totally fine with that, but expected something different initially.

Seems like PS6 remains my personal favourite for next gen for the time being.
 
What is even the benefit of "competing with consoles"? Valve has already won. Their margins are fat as fuck.
84 million PS5s have been sold. I'd guess that at least at minimum, 75% of those people don't have PCs. Why would you NOT want to go after that market? It would be like making a car and only selling it in a few states.
 
I think even at 700/800 it still would have interest a lot of folks if it comes with 16gb of vram so people can have some peace of mind knowing it'll be ready for all near future games. Even 12gb vram while not ideal would be better.

But at 800 dollars or more with only 8GB of vram especially if it's in the base 512gb version where you gonna spend at least another hundred for more memory then yeah can't see this interest even a decent amount of people.

8GB vram is the main problem here cause this is going to push a lot of people away where they'll even spend hundreds more for a better more future proof like PC instead.
 
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84 million PS5s have been sold. I'd guess that at least at minimum, 75% of those people don't have PCs. Why would you NOT want to go after that market? It would be like making a car and only selling it in a few states.
Because that market can't afford this device and Valve doesn't want to subsidize it for them. Why would they want to? It makes no sense.
 
I feel there is no way for Valve to have won this fight. Spec it too low (as is) and no one is going to be interested unless you practically give it away. Spec it too high and no one is going to be interested because the price is too high. The Frame and the Controller serve a purpose, but the cube is this sort of a middle ground that will probably be shunned by both casuals and enthusiasts.

Curious to see what happens with Magnus if it really comes in at $1200 but has the specs to back it up.

In a way if Magnus really does play Steam Games, Valve should have just let Microsoft make the machine and profited from Microsoft's investment and work and put the cube plans on a backburner, but I guess the cube was in development long before Magnus was a thought.
 
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I feel there is no way for Valve to have won this fight. Spec it to low (as is) and no one is going to be interested unless you practically give it away. Spec it too high and no one is going to be interested because the price is too high.
IMO, Valve shouldn't have created the Steam Box at all.

They should have focused on the controller and Frame and the next generation of Steam Deck.

They also should focus on making SteamOS compatible with as many hardware configurations as possible, including NVIDIA GPUs, and release it as an alternative OS for people looking for a console-like experience on their PCs.
 
IMO, Valve shouldn't have created the Steam Box at all.

They should have focused on the controller and Frame and the next generation of Steam Deck.

They also should focus on making SteamOS compatible with as many hardware configurations as possible, including NVIDIA GPUs, and release it as an alternative OS for people looking for a console-like experience on their PCs.
It does make more sense just to release the OS into the wild and let people build their own. Valve loses nothing.
 
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I think even at 700/800 it still would have interest a lot of folks if it comes with 16gb of vram so people can have some peace of mind knowing it'll be ready for all near future games. Even 12gb vram while not ideal would be better.

But at 800 dollars or more with only 8GB of vram especially if it's in the base 512gb version where you gonna spend at least another hundred for more memory then yeah can't see this interest even a decent amount of people.

8GB vram is the main problem here cause this is going to push a lot of people away where they'll even spend hundreds more for a better more future proof like PC instead.
It's primarily going to be an indie box/backlog killer.

When it comes to newer titles there will be exceptions for AAAs but probably won't be good in most cases.

Super Robot Wars Y 👍🏻

Space Marine 2 👎🏻

Being honest, the appeal for me is stuff like Fire Pro Wrestling, EDF, Hunter Call of the Wild, Angler Call of the Wild, boomer shooters, indies.

Even so, the price matters to me a lot. While I'd love to have one, I'm not dropping $700+.
 
Wouldn't be surprised. I currently try to buy components for such a system. I don't get to this price even with used components. Am4 system might be a bit cheaper (especially used) but than there is no more upgrade path
I currently land between 1200-1800€ for a bit to much better than steam machine with new parts. Really expensive hobby these days.
 
Listen up: it's a known fact that the Steam Womb might come in right at $299 including Orange Box 3 and the Valve keyboard and mouse that they're shadow dropping, special Orange Box 3 faceplate and of course a controller.
 
Didn't valve say it would be priced like a pc and not a console? I was thinking 800 to 900 myself
Similarly specs machines can be bought for as low as $700, i assume this is the "safe" price for them. I think they might still be in the process of trying to reduce production costs, probably why they havent announced prices yet.

If they can drag this down to 599 or even 649, despite what the "experts" here say, it would be a very good deal.
 
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It's primarily going to be an indie box/backlog killer.

When it comes to newer titles there will be exceptions for AAAs but probably won't be good in most cases.

Super Robot Wars Y 👍🏻

Space Marine 2 👎🏻

Being honest, the appeal for me is stuff like Fire Pro Wrestling, EDF, Hunter Call of the Wild, Angler Call of the Wild, boomer shooters, indies.

Even so, the price matters to me a lot. While I'd love to have one, I'm not dropping $700+.
Yeah a Indie box/Backlog killer sounds about right for the countless games that's already on Steam.

It should be fine for most AA upcoming games too and maybe some less demanding AAA ones like RE9 since the Switch 2 could handle it but then the Switch 2 also has 12GB of VRAM instead of a pathetic 8GB

But yeah most of the future stuff would be out of the question when it'll already suffer from current ones like Space Marine 2 and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart unless Steam OS does some magic.

Same would love to own one as it's a cool little cube but also ain't dropping 700+ for it.
 
It's primarily going to be an indie box/backlog killer.

When it comes to newer titles there will be exceptions for AAAs but probably won't be good in most cases.

Super Robot Wars Y 👍🏻

Space Marine 2 👎🏻

Being honest, the appeal for me is stuff like Fire Pro Wrestling, EDF, Hunter Call of the Wild, Angler Call of the Wild, boomer shooters, indies.

Even so, the price matters to me a lot. While I'd love to have one, I'm not dropping $700+.
Space marines 2? Game runs very well on gabecube equivalents, as in 1080p/60fps ultra
 
It's primarily going to be an indie box/backlog killer.

When it comes to newer titles there will be exceptions for AAAs but probably won't be good in most cases.

Super Robot Wars Y 👍🏻

Space Marine 2 👎🏻

Being honest, the appeal for me is stuff like Fire Pro Wrestling, EDF, Hunter Call of the Wild, Angler Call of the Wild, boomer shooters, indies.

Even so, the price matters to me a lot. While I'd love to have one, I'm not dropping $700+.

All the specs criticism is completely legit and the only real way I can think to answer that criticism is with the price. If the base model without controller is over $500 then the wise move is to wait for the inevitable clearance sale that will be coming around at a later date. I'm hoping Valve is paying attention.

For real, man all of these takes regarding Valve and the Steam Machine have been wild, lmao.

My favorite was the one where Windows is the only real "PC". That was a real knee slapper.
 
For real, man all of these takes regarding Valve and the Steam Machine have been wild, lmao.
Most ridiculous takes are the ones who somehow think this cannot handle modern AAA. Like dude, i run modern releases on laptops with older 6gb gpu models with a weaker cpu. On good settings and performance too
 
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