The Problem With The Steam Machine: Its Current Gen
- Thread starter TikiLagoonSam
- Start date
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
The two main reasons is because this gives Valve full control over pricing, inventory, and order fulfillment, avoiding retailer markups or discounts.
It also means every unit sold through Valve's store gives them a higher margin than selling wholesale to retailers.
As stated above, Valve don't have the goal of selling hundreds of millions because they don't need to. They already have almost 200 million monthly steam users. Adding a few million more while making a profit on the hardware is a bonus.
Why do MSI and ASUS sell at retail stores then? Those are also niche.
They sell the same products to a degree, although AMD have their CPUs as well. Very different and not really comparable to Valve selling a PC to Sony selling a PlayStation.
Thats true, we dont have to call it niche/irrlevant, it will be as relevant as steamdeck then:
(so irrelvant)
What makes it irrelevant? I'd say it was successful as it got others into the handheld PC space, such as MSI and ASUS. The problem is, you keep comparing success to console sales.
Right. That's because it's a PC. Devs optimise for a large range of PC specs already. I'm not sure why you keep comparing this to a console?
Good thing this is a PC then and not a console with it's own dev kit. Phew.
Majority of those 200m of steam users got lowend machines/laptops/outdated desktops, they can play csgo/valorant/fornite/pubg etc on them and they wont buy new AAA 70$ games(and defo wont buy any sizeable amount of gabecubes, same like they didnt give a damn about steamdeck
Okay? So we agree that most Steam users have low end systems. Wow. Wonder if Valve have seen this info? Do you think this influenced their decision on specs?
They're a small percentage of people who probably aren't the target audience.
Its total BS steam gonna profit in any major/significant way from gabecube, just like it really didnt profit from steamdeck users or previous steam mashine from 2015
Do you have the financial information to show they didn't profit?
I mean we had thread in august saying avg american(so much richer from gamers around the world) spends 325$ on games yearly.
And?
Guilty_AI
Member
Digital foundry fear mongered over 8gb vram by running the most demanding of games at the absolute maximum texture streaming values, now everyone thinks 8gb will cause the average game to keep freezing at every corner turn.
The major problem i see with 8gb vram is that some very capable nvidia cards have their potential stumped by only having this much vram. But for a mid-range build with a mid-range GPU? Its good enough.
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My bad, i was wrong about one of the games.
Seomel
Member
I was running 3060 ti from 2019 launch to 2023 fall, played cyberpunk at launch, meteo exodus upgrade with rt etc and many more games no problem. As long as you keep reasonable res like 1080-1440p with upscale and settings you will be fine for pretty much every game thats not unoptimzed ue5 slop.
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Ar¢tos
Member
Modern "cool" gamers play graphics, not games.
deriks
4-Time GIF/Meme God
I agree with OP
I was kinda excited about it, mostly because it's a pretty box. Still, it's a current gen device, and with that said, current gen started in fucking 2020. We are like two years or something to next gen, man. If Valve don't launch as US$400 or less, I don't think people will go for it
Also, remember that it is a Linux machine. Not every game is compatible - and also², not every game has controller support
I was kinda excited about it, mostly because it's a pretty box. Still, it's a current gen device, and with that said, current gen started in fucking 2020. We are like two years or something to next gen, man. If Valve don't launch as US$400 or less, I don't think people will go for it
Also, remember that it is a Linux machine. Not every game is compatible - and also², not every game has controller support
Yes, which is exactly what I said regarding Valve not wanting to eat margins because they wanted to sell as many as they can. Guess what a higher price to account for retailer margin does? Reduces sales. The reason isn't "we didn't want to challenge Nintendo by selling more at retail". It's the numbers that they can acheive and it's not high numbers and as I said it wouldn't be higher releasing retail. Now tell me what that has to do with me knowing "original projected sales" when we have real sales numbers that aren't great, and what has it got to do with Valve explicitly stating "they want to challenge Nintendo" when they're entering the handheld market to sell games on a consumer device?
They have the goal of selling as many units as they possibly can. The childish idea that "we aren't selling as many or entering retail because we're not even trying to challenge Nintendo" is silly. If they could sell more they would. They can't.
Because they have high prices to account for retailer margin and, you guessed it, even fewer sales than the steamdeck. So how would the steamdeck do better numbers if it released in retail? MSI and Asus are less driven by units, they're more driven by revenue on the hardware.
So going back to my initial point Steamdeck would not have done any better at retail because Valve did not want to eat margins to warrant that kind of distribution or marketing. They wanted to sell as many as they could and that's what they could achieve.Not because they're not in the same handheld market or that they did not want the sales. They wanted them and they wanted to drive more units for game sales. Especially the indie games that Switch was seeing success with. Doesn't mean it's not challenging it in the handheld market just because it can't get those sales.
You missed the point I see. The projected sales figures tell you nothing about who is "challenging" who. Just because Valve project lower sales doesn't mean they aren't going up against them. Same goes with AMD and Nvidia. For a consumer the Steamdeck is a similar product to a Switch especially for somebody who is in the market for a handheld to play the indie games that Switch was begining to get. With Switch 2 they are even more in competition now getting the bigger games like Cyberpunk or Starwars outlaws.
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MisterXDTV
Member
That's because PCMR only cares about Ultra preset (aka maxing out the game)
Scale back to high/very high and the 8GB VRAM problem becomes a nothingburger, especially at 1080p
Dr.D00p
Member
Not true. If any site banged on about the 8GB VRAM issue for longest and loudest amount of time it was Hardware Unboxed.
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
You're right that selling through retailers would require higher prices or lower margins, which could reduce demand. Valve's decision is clearly driven by maximizing total units sold in their niche while protecting margins. Retail just adds friction and extra cost. Valve's direct-to-consumer model makes sense financially and logistically.
Knowing projected sales versus actual sales matters if we're assessing whether the device met expectations, or as evidence tl your claim that they were gunning for Nintendo. You can argue that the real numbers (~3.7–4 million units) aren't massive compared to Nintendo Switch, but the Steam Deck is still a success in its PC-handheld niche. The fact that numbers aren't huge doesn't contradict Valve's strategy; it just reflects market reality and Valve's smaller target audience.
And let's be very clear here. Valve has not explicitly stated that the Steam Deck was designed to challenge Nintendo. Entering the handheld market to sell games on a consumer device is very different from saying, "we want to compete with Nintendo for market share." Steam Deck's goal is about expanding the Steam ecosystem and PC gaming portability, not launching a console war. Interpreting it as a challenge to Nintendo is a made up narrative, not Valve's own stated intent.
Unless you can prove this, we're done here.
Lokaum D+
Member
A 3060 ll run everything PS5/XSX run with better IQ cause DLSS and depending on the game even higher frames.Steam most popular GPU is 3060 and you are telling me steam box being current gen is a problem.
Also ll run every Nintendo game at 4k@60fps
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Guilty_AI
Member
Could be too, others followed the wave. Point is the problem isn't that 8gb isnt enough, but rather that having only 8gb on specific video cards that are quite powerful is a bottleneck for those cards in particular.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
While this is true (the original PC release of Oblivion got on my last nerve, it didn't support controllers even though there was an Xbox 360 version of the game that did) the Steam Input system pretty much has you covered here. It's also why the controller has those big dual trackpads that can pretty easily emulate mouse movements (while the Up, Down, Left, and Right keys - most likely WASD - can be bound to the dpad, left trackpad, or analog stick in Steam Input) to play pretty much any PC game.
Even point and click games and others that rely heavily on mouse usage can be played on the trackpads. Takes a bit of practice, but after a while it becomes a bit like second nature.
There's also a huge community of people on Steam uploading their custom controller configurations, per game, that get voted on. The ones with the best fit usually rise to the top.
MidGenRefresh
*Refreshes biennially
Yeah, I prefer to play the OG version of Oblivion, and luckily there is a great mod for full controller support. Button prompts and everything. Same for the original Mass Effect 1. God bless these modders.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
What is the use case of Xbox that Steambox can't do?
Also, Heroic Launcher and Lutris support almost every PC store. Really Steam and GOG is all you need.
Its as simple as installing a launcher in Windows.
vaibhavpisal
Member
This is opposite of freedom that you were talking about.
twilo99
Member
Nobody is discussing whether the Steamdeck is a "success" or not. You seem to think that selling very little compared to your competition means that you're not actually trying to compete though even with little marketshare. AMD and Nvidia would not exist or be in competition if that were the case.
We already covered this. why does them needing to say they compete with the Switch in some way need to be stated? Especially with "we're challenging Nintendo"? Why are you resorting to that strawman when I never stated they have said this explicitly? As I said can you find a statement that says "GoG are gunning for Steam or Epic store"? No but it's pretty self evident going after a particular market, no?
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Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
In Windows you also have to do the bare minimum of installing launchers.
vaibhavpisal
Member
How to install Epic game store on gabe cube?
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
vaibhavpisal
Member
Games work via compatibility layer?
If so, then it seems about as open as Windows.
Still, Magnus will be a major step up over this.
Sorcerer
Member
I think it's just meant to be a gateway for people, there probably will never be a next Steam Box. They don't need to sell many because every one sold is games bought on the store front.
I am even starting to doubt there will be a next Steam Deck.
If one is amused enough with this low spec system then the idea that they can buy something more powerful and get more fidelity, then the germ is planted in their brains, and Valve stays winning regardless, when they go out and spend $5000 dollars on a rig.
I think the one place Valve wants to truly be in is VR. It's something even they really haven't cracked yet and seem passionate about.
I am even starting to doubt there will be a next Steam Deck.
If one is amused enough with this low spec system then the idea that they can buy something more powerful and get more fidelity, then the germ is planted in their brains, and Valve stays winning regardless, when they go out and spend $5000 dollars on a rig.
I think the one place Valve wants to truly be in is VR. It's something even they really haven't cracked yet and seem passionate about.
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Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
How will Magnus be a step up over steam box?
asdasdasdbb
Member
Much better performance.
asdasdasdbb
Member
If they want to continue selling the Steam Deck, they will have to update it. Getting the parts will eventually become problematic.
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Sorcerer
Member
Magnus will certainly be a step up....in price!!!
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Sorcerer
Member
They will just have a fire sale and be done with it. A recent podcast noticed that the way Valve works is when teams become bored with something they can just drop it and move on the next project.
I think Valve was hoping for more vendors bringing out their own variations of the Steam Deck and I think they have had only 1 taker. Not even sure that model had much success in the marketplace.
Sorcerer
Member
But it probably won't be greater than the PS6, which is probably around the corner or two.
vaibhavpisal
Member
Console players are all old.
Barely anyone needs subsidy to buy next piece of hardware.
Topher
Identifies as young
Again, there are gaming PCs being sold as we speak with weaker specs than this. You can ignore that if you want but it simply shows you don't understand the PC segment and you insist on looking at this like a console, which it simply is not. But yes, if this were being introduced as the only device in an ecosystem that people either bought it or nothing then yeah, it would be a massive turd. Thankfully, that's not the case.
You can download the Windows installer off Epic's website, then run it through Steam like a normal installation. Once done you can launch it from game mode.
Or install Heroic Launcher right from the Discovery appstore that's bundled with SteamOS. Then sign into your Epic account. It will download and link the individual games to Steam for game mode launching.
You can do that with whatever launcher you want. The Windows compatibility layer, is just that "a Windows compatibility layer". It doesn't just run games, you can run productivity apps, or whatever else you want as well. Steam OS is geared towards a controller interface to launch games and otherwise stays out of your face. But you can do whatever you want with it. If you wanted to use a Steam Machine as a general purpose computer. Then go ahead. Though using Windows or a desktop focused Linux distro which be easier. Then just use Steam like you would for Windows to play games if you are using the system for that as well.
Humdinger
Gold Member
To me, they sound offended that Valve didn't target them. Trouble is, had Valve targeted them, their chance of success would be minimal. It would be priced to match and would sell diddly. That would be the end of Steam Machine v. 2.
Imo, this is better approach, because they have a better chance to get their foot in the door and make a reasonable success of it. Once that happens, then they can issue more powerful versions to please the niche who want them. But this is a good first step - a budget model designed to appeal to the average (actually above average) user, not the spec bros.
We'll see what the price is, of course.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
At 1200 $
D-Dude
Member
I have the 5070ti, which is pretty awesome and I play nearly everything on ultra settings with 150fps
A ps5 is much much weaker. But if the steambox doesnt cost more then 399€ I'll bite. Just for the conveniece and my steamlibrary. I have a lot 90s/2000s games.
Edit: and if Nexusmods works with the steambox, that would be very awesome.
A ps5 is much much weaker. But if the steambox doesnt cost more then 399€ I'll bite. Just for the conveniece and my steamlibrary. I have a lot 90s/2000s games.
Edit: and if Nexusmods works with the steambox, that would be very awesome.
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SegaSnatcher
Member
I still don't know why it exists either. A PC coming in 2026 with around give or take base PS5 level performance and is likely going to cost around $500 - $600 at the very least. Then one year later the PS6 will utterly destroy it in performance and still be sub $700.
SegaSnatcher
Member
They will only be "out of date" compared to super expensive PC rigs at the time they release, but in terms of a new baseline they will be well above the performance compared to the average gaming PC now.
Guilty_AI
Member
but will it?
SegaSnatcher
Member
Not at 4K 60.
SegaSnatcher
Member
but will it?
$699 still counts, lol. It will definitely not be more expensive than $699.99. I'm going with $599.99. They will want their base unit to still be considered somewhat affordable for the performance offered.
Then you would imagine the inevitable Pro unit and Sony would definitely not want to reach a $999 price point.
For the handheld I'm going with $449.99 max.
TikiLagoonSam
Member
Hypothetical question: if you had no pc or any system, which one would you buy? Which one would MOST people buy?
Switch 2 $449 Can play Nintendo exclusives
Playstation 5 $499 Can play PlayStation exclusives
Xbox Series X $649 …
Steam Machine $800-$1000 can play PC exclusives on the couch
I really find it hard to believe people can look at this and say yup I'm buying the Steam Machine ESPECIALLY if you own the other systems that came out 5 YEARS AGO.
And for those that are saying "but I can play thousands of old pc games and emulators on it" remember, you can do that on an old ass pc already.
You want to play pc on the couch though? OK, get a $20 cable and connect your current pc to the TV.
Unless you are deeply invested in the Steam ecosystem already and don't want to connect your pc to the tv with a cable, and have money to burn, and just want a new system, there is no reason to spend $800+ on this system. Thats PS6, XBOX NEXT, NEW GPU money that can be used. You would actually probably save money waiting for those.
Then again we live in a time where millions of people get a new iphone every year because its the new thing. THATS why this was made
Switch 2 $449 Can play Nintendo exclusives
Playstation 5 $499 Can play PlayStation exclusives
Xbox Series X $649 …
Steam Machine $800-$1000 can play PC exclusives on the couch
I really find it hard to believe people can look at this and say yup I'm buying the Steam Machine ESPECIALLY if you own the other systems that came out 5 YEARS AGO.
And for those that are saying "but I can play thousands of old pc games and emulators on it" remember, you can do that on an old ass pc already.
You want to play pc on the couch though? OK, get a $20 cable and connect your current pc to the TV.
Unless you are deeply invested in the Steam ecosystem already and don't want to connect your pc to the tv with a cable, and have money to burn, and just want a new system, there is no reason to spend $800+ on this system. Thats PS6, XBOX NEXT, NEW GPU money that can be used. You would actually probably save money waiting for those.
Then again we live in a time where millions of people get a new iphone every year because its the new thing. THATS why this was made
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Where are you getting this price from. If the Steam Machine costs that much you might as well build your own PC.
If that were the case Valve would have already released the Steam Deck 2.
Lokaum D+
Member
No console plays 4k 60 atm
Also, on PC i can run old games at higher res and frames, now on console you ll be forever locked at whatever low res and frames devs made they game first.
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Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Sony knows no one will buy PS6 if its above 599.but will it?
Kepler mentioned it will be 599.
HRK69
Member
No fucking shit
Guilty_AI
Member
I don't know about most, but a considerable number of people already pay $800-$1000 for a PC on the range of the steam machine (maybe slightly lower or higher, depends). If the GabeCube ends up being $700 or $600 it'll actually be quite a steal for the hardware.
But an old ass PC cannot also play modern games.
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Guilty_AI
Member
But do they?