Who is actually the target audience for the Steam Machine?

Who will buy it?

  • Console players who want something more PC-like

    Votes: 84 45.2%

  • PC players who want something more console-like

    Votes: 78 41.9%

  • Steam Deck players who want a living room box

    Votes: 102 54.8%

  • Gaben enjoyers who likes the idea of a Steam ecosystem

    Votes: 64 34.4%

  • People who want an(other) Xbox

    Votes: 17 9.1%

  • Gaming enthusiasts who can't wait for next-gen

    Votes: 12 6.5%
  • Total voters
    186
Sebastian1295 said:
I don't see how this thing is going to be successful when it's not even coming to retailers. The mainstream audience and the casual gaming crowd that they're targeting aren't going to go look up a steam machine and buy it directly from valve because they're not going to know to do so nor know wtf it is. This thing just has bomb written all over it from the tech specs to the mysterious price to the concept of it.
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Like the Steamdeck, this is a niche product. Valve aren't targeting 100 million sold.

Multiple millions sold would be a success. Success for Valve might also be judged by how well it drives software/games sales and how much it expands the Steam user base.

They're not aiming for PlayStation or Switch numbers.
 
Deefinitely not any1 who wants even a midrange desktop, since steam mashine has relatively weak gpu(bit below base ps5 4sure- how much below depends on optimisation of particular game, could be 5 could be 15%) with only 8gigs of vram, 6c12t cpu with only 30W tdp isnt a massive performer either but it will be ok enough till crossgen with current gen ends(2030? maybe at max 2032).

Just to give u guys comparision, thats gpu inside steam mashine, just this one is 90W tdp, steam mashine one is 115W tdp, so at max it could be close to rtx 3060 just downgrade from 12 to 8gigs of vram and ofc since its rdna3 its ai upscaling and rt capabilities are 1gen behind too...
www.techpowerup.com

AMD Radeon RX 7600M Specs

AMD Navi 33, 2410 MHz, 1792 Cores, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR6, 2000 MHz, 128 bit
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com

Edit: Lets not forget that mashine isnt made for gaming in 2025, it will have launch sometime in 2026 and ppl who buy it will wanna have at the very least 3-4years of experience out of it.
With legit leaks of ps6/xbox pc coming holidays 2027 SM will be outdated as all fuck 2years from now already in every possible spec except ssd...
 
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Seems like it could lure in some console players who want a turn-key experience without spending $2000. Valve knows once they get their hooks in someone with Steam sales and they establish a digital library, they're likely to stick with Steam.
 
Matt_Fox said:
I think the presumption has to be that Valve really haven't sunk much money into putting this thing together, and will spend even less on marketing it. It's five year old tech in a black box. Selling direct to consumer they'll make more on each one sold, and they probably will 'manufacture on demand' and not hold much stock.

I suspect they will make money on each box and their sales aspirations are relatively modest.
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Good point. They can make money that way and see what level of interest that this thing brings to the market. It's just going to be a steep uphill battle that they're going to have to climb.
 
IDKFA said:
Like the Steamdeck, this is a niche product. Valve aren't targeting 100 million sold.

Multiple millions sold would be a success. Success for Valve might also be judged by how well it drives software/games sales and how much it expands the Steam user base.

They're not aiming for PlayStation or Switch numbers.
Click to expand...

I think it'll sell around 5 million tbh. I feel like valve should've released 1 huge exclusive to steam alongside the steam machine such as left for dead 3 etc to help market it more and drive eyes to it. Even if that exclusive was a limited time thing exclusive to steam, it still would've been noteworthy considering it'd be coming from valve themselves.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
I feel like valve should've released 1 huge exclusive to the steam machine such as left for dead 3 etc to help market it more and drive eyes to it. Even if that exclusive was a limited time thing exclusive to steam, it still would've been noteworthy considering it'd be coming from valve themselves.
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Yes the old 'killer app', it's not a phrase you hear much anymore because today's hardware never seems to launch with it!
 
- Console gamers who think PC gaming is just too much effort. The PC aspect is still there but you don't have to engage with it if all you want is to play (most) games. The Steam Deck is like this already.
- PC gamers who haven't kept up with desktop hardware. This gives them a nice baseline capable of playing their catalog at a pretty good settings. My coworker is in this group.

It gives another avenue to get people to use their Store which is the actual moneymaker. They're building a gaming ecosystem that feeds back into itself.
 
coffinbirth said:
Potato as in a pc that will be cheaper than this limp dick.
Both of those games would literally run on integrated graphics.
Seriously.
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At recommended settings? Both those games suggest cards with 8GB VRAM at recommended. I don't want minimum specs.

coffinbirth said:
If you build your own, ESPECIALLY if you don't mind used parts,
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Too much hassle. I don't want to fuck about with that. The Steam Machine is perfect for my needs, that is if the price is right.
 
Me. I am the target audience. Last night, my wife and I were discussing the merits of going with a living room PC to get off of the console treadmill (aside from Nintendo), when this video dropped on Youtube. Perfect timing. This is like exactly what I was hoping for. Small enough to fit in the TV console with room to spare, plus the potential of Steam games + hopefully bringing my emulators over via micro SD card or SSD.

Hoping the price is competitive with consoles and gaming PCs, so that I can scoop one up for after my Game Pass Ultimate sub runs out next summer. Pretty cool announcement.
 
People who don't get too excited for 'powerful' console hardware which becomes outdated after 12 months and just want to play games without £50 a year online fees.
 
DenchDeckard said:
I think its a foot in the door for console players. If its cheap enough, some who are interested in PC but want the ease of a console will pick it up.
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It's not targeting console players having power under PS5 and price at similar range at point when PS5 already 5 years on the market and PS6 is just two years away (and unlikely being cheaper than PS5)
It target is low-end gaming, something between laptop and old PC rig

DenchDeckard said:
Steam lacks populate games?
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Some games not on Steam (Fortnite, Genshin, Roblox etc)
Some games will not work on SteamOS (those with kernel anticheat) and switching to windows will kill a lot of "console feeling"
 
IDKFA said:
At recommended settings? Both those games suggest cards with 8GB VRAM at recommended. I don't want minimum specs.



Too much hassle. I don't want to fuck about with that. The Steam Machine is perfect for my needs, that is if the price is right.
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If price to performance and compatibility are your concerns, Steam Machine is the opposite of perfect, lmao.

The recommended specs for Rome: Total War Remastered are an Intel Core i5-4570 or Ryzen 5 1600 processor, 8GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB or AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB graphics card
PO-TA-TO
 
Matt_Fox said:
Yes the old 'killer app', it's not a phrase you hear much anymore because today's hardware never seems to launch with it!
Click to expand...

I miss killer apps cause like you said consoles rarely launch with them anymore. The series s/x and ps5 launches were both devoid of what i'd consider killer apps personally.
 
If you listen to Valve's reasoning it's that they have data showing up to 15-20% of Steam Deck owners use it docked or something. But that isn't a huge number if you assume ~4M Steam Decks.

Honestly I think they may have taken the wrong lesson here. Maybe the better way to approach this was just to make the Steam Deck 2 a switch-like device in that it would have a "docked mode" with higher clocks.

The problem is that the wording they are using to describe the pricing makes it sound like it will be more than the consoles. I mean it could cost the same as what the PS6 will inevitably cost's and that thing is going to be wayyyyy the fuck more powerful.
 
coffinbirth said:
If price to performance and compatibility are your concerns, Steam Machine is the opposite of perfect, lmao.

The recommended specs for Rome: Total War Remastered are an Intel Core i5-4570 or Ryzen 5 1600 processor, 8GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB or AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB graphics card
PO-TA-TO
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I just want easy access to PC games that I want to play.

If the Steam Machine is priced correctly, then it's the perfect device for me.

Thanks anyway for your concerns.
 
For all intent and purpose, this is a console. If you're a PC gamer, you're not waiting to jump into something like this, you probably have already made yourself a SFF PC and put it under your TV. And probably made it so you can control it with a pad.
Yes, maybe you can't turn it on easily, but it works for most use cases and it's more powerful than what this box will be. If you're a hardcore PC gamer you're used to this shit.

If you believe that under a TV there should be a box that just does one thing and can be turned on quickly, then this is for you. It's all your PC games under your TV. It's the Steam ecosystem that just works and is not trying to fuck with you in a way or another. You don't want to tinker, you want to turn it on quickly, get the game you want and just play.

This is the Steam Deck vs ROG Ally for PC gaming. It's the sweet spot between console gaming and PC gaming. Console games will be interested because of the cheap games and the performance for the price, cheap PC gamers who maybe up until now have been playing on the integrated graphics of their machine will find it a great deal to play on a big screen, but it will come down to the price.
 
FingerBang said:
For all intent and purpose, this is a console. If you're a PC gamer, you're not waiting to jump into something like this, you probably have already made yourself a SFF PC and put it under your TV. And probably made it so you can control it with a pad.
Yes, maybe you can't turn it on easily, but it works for most use cases and it's more powerful than what this box will be. If you're a hardcore PC gamer you're used to this shit.

If you believe that under a TV there should be a box that just does one thing and can be turned on quickly, then this is for you. It's all your PC games under your TV. It's the Steam ecosystem that just works and is not trying to fuck with you in a way or another. You don't want to tinker, you want to turn it on quickly, get the game you want and just play.

This is the Steam Deck vs ROG Ally for PC gaming. It's the sweet spot between console gaming and PC gaming. Console games will be interested because of the cheap games and the performance for the price, cheap PC gamers who maybe up until now have been playing on the integrated graphics of their machine will find it a great deal to play on a big screen, but it will come down to the price.
Click to expand...
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I think this whole thing is just a smoke screen.

I think the Steam machine is actually about the Steam OS. And by this time next year, you will be able to install Steam OS on any AMD-powered hardware.

And right now, the only people who should be worried here are Microsoft.
 
I'll be in the market for one of these 'PC consoles' and I'd rather get the Steam Machine, but if the latter is substantially less powerful than the next Xbox hybrid, I'm likely to get the latter( and then install SteamOS on it). Either way, I'm very likely done with the traditional consoles after this gen. I'll hold onto my PS5 for my existing PS4/PS5 library, but my main ecosystem in terms of time and money spent is easily Steam and has been for a decade.
 
FingerBang said:
For all intent and purpose, this is a console. If you're a PC gamer, you're not waiting to jump into something like this, you probably have already made yourself a SFF PC and put it under your TV. And probably made it so you can control it with a pad.
Yes, maybe you can't turn it on easily, but it works for most use cases and it's more powerful than what this box will be. If you're a hardcore PC gamer you're used to this shit.

If you believe that under a TV there should be a box that just does one thing and can be turned on quickly, then this is for you. It's all your PC games under your TV. It's the Steam ecosystem that just works and is not trying to fuck with you in a way or another. You don't want to tinker, you want to turn it on quickly, get the game you want and just play.

This is the Steam Deck vs ROG Ally for PC gaming. It's the sweet spot between console gaming and PC gaming. Console games will be interested because of the cheap games and the performance for the price, cheap PC gamers who maybe up until now have been playing on the integrated graphics of their machine will find it a great deal to play on a big screen, but it will come down to the price.
Click to expand...
idk... they basically made something that is about as powerful as a PS5, 5 years after the PS5 was released, and about what? 2 years before the PS6? And will likely sell it for about the same or more than the PS5.

I do not get why they did that.
 
No one knows PC gaming market better than Steam, right? They do have access to a very extensive dataset on what components people are actually using, the most popular titles, and the playtime, etc. And I am guessing the data is highly skewed towards lower-end (relatively speaking) specs and indie/medium-sized games, which justifies the Steam machine design as it is right now.

TBH PC gaming community sometimes can be a little bit like a c*** size survey. When you ask around everyone is 7/8 inches and beyond but in reality even 6 inches are not that common. The buzz is all about 5080/90 series, but as many have mentioned in this thread, a lot of gamers are still rocking 1050/60 cards or even Macs and they are having fun. Silent majority, yadda yadda yadda.
 
In my opinion, I love PC games but it annoys me having to go and sit at my desk to play. I ended up buying a handheld which is great, but a Steam machine would be perfect too, as I can still just sit on the sofa and kick back with some PC games on my TV. It's small enough that it can be on my TV unit, I don't have to mess around running a long cable from my PC to my TV, etc. So yeah, it kind of is best of both worlds in that it's a more console experience for PC games, but also a PC experience for console gamers. If that makes sense.
 
I'll either fall into either:

> PC player who buys the console + controller for living room gaming on a TV but ultimately forgets it exists the same way he did with the SNES Classic mini
> PC player who buys consoles + controller then puts them somewhere safe for future use but then forgets they exist for 10 years.
 
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It's for steam gamers with toasters, casuals, and people who want a plug and play pc gaming experience. I don't really think it's being marketed towards console players much at all honestly, just existing steam users.
 
Mr.Phoenix said:
I think this whole thing is just a smoke screen.

I think the Steam machine is actually about the Steam OS. And by this time next year, you will be able to install Steam OS on any AMD-powered hardware.

And right now, the only people who should be worried here are Microsoft.
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That's actually much more in line with how Valve has behaved in the past.
It is also obvious they want to dig into Windows' dominance as PC gaming OS.
2015 was a failed attempt, Steam Deck was a quite successful attempt, this seems to be the next step.

No console gamers are gonna be interested in a Steam Machine for two simple reasons:
  • Their library is already on PS/Nintendo
  • They don't care that it is "open" (in reality you're never gonna want anything other than SteamOS on this box anyway)
Same with PC gamers with a big Steam library, they already have a PC with Steam installed.

So I can't imagine Valve expects to sell very many Steam Machines, and that's probably not their intention either.
They just want to show that their OS can compete with Windows.
 
Felessan said:
It's not targeting console players having power under PS5 and price at similar range at point when PS5 already 5 years on the market and PS6 is just two years away (and unlikely being cheaper than PS5)
It target is low-end gaming, something between laptop and old PC rig


Some games not on Steam (Fortnite, Genshin, Roblox etc)
Some games will not work on SteamOS (those with kernel anticheat) and switching to windows will kill a lot of "console feeling"
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Oh, has the price been shared?
 
Alexios said:
People who want a modest spec mini PC. If they had console/pc before/already makes no difference to what it is, which is a modest spec mini PC and can do modest spec mini PC things so that's the reason to want it, to want a modest spec mini PC. Basically if Steam Deck sounded good to you as a portable mini PC but you don't care for the portable aspect (whether because you already have one or just don't want that). Idk why folks suddenly think mini PCs are Nintendont Switches or PolyStations and should sell as much when they're one out thousands of options for the same PC things 🤷‍♂️
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A mini PC needs configuration before it boots directly into Steam using a controller. You take this out of the box, plug it in with an HDMI cable, and it presents you a Steam login screen and store of games, like an Xbox.

This is a huge, huge difference.

Edit: You mentioned Steam Deck. Valve said that people were using Steam Deck on their TVs all the time, but the thing is weaksauce as a TV system. Why would they do that? Because the Steam Deck offers that "it just works" experience that a mini PC doesn't and is tailored for gaming. It's like docking a Switch, but for Steam games. I wouldn't discount this convenience as its secret weapon.
 
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IDKFA said:
At recommended settings? Both those games suggest cards with 8GB VRAM at recommended. I don't want minimum specs.
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You don't want minimum specs, yet, 8GB VRAM is getting old. The recommended VRAM for Sonic X Shadow on PC is 12GB, yes a non-open-world console Sonic game. Min is 8GB.

I'm not saying you necessarily care about that game, but see which way the wind is blowing.
 
BlackTron said:
You don't want minimum specs, yet, 8GB VRAM is getting old. The recommended VRAM for Sonic X Shadow on PC is 12GB, yes a non-open-world console Sonic game. Min is 8GB.

I'm not saying you necessarily care about that game, but see which way the wind is blowing.
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I'm good with older titles. This thing would last me a good number of years with the games I want to play.

This is all depending on price. If it costs too much then at that point I might as well spend a little extra for a pre build, but if it's cheap then it's perfect for me.
 
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