Our first look at the Steam Machine, Valve’s ambitious new game console

It looks cool, but to me, if it's not being offered for around $500, then it's just a pc replacement in my eyes. From the questions he asked, it definitely seems like it's going to cost more than $800.

Good timing though, get your system out first before the next generation starts releasing at the end of next year or 2027. From what I have seen, the first to release generally does the best.

My problem seems to be how much it talks about the ps5. It's been 5 years, so of course, better hardware can fit into smaller space. My problem with that is generally any hardware that compacts it this much will run into heating issues a few years into owning it so I would absolutely prefer the bigger ps5 anyday which has shown no issues so far. Also, they were comparing it to the ps5 alot which is a 5 year old system. I would hope it does significantly better!

I also would like to know more about the OS. Is it just the steam deck OS slapped on this, or is it customized more? I would want/hope they deliver the things that a console offers and more that make it more convenient than just a PC.

Overall, I am interested in this, but if it really does costs as much as I think it will, I am not sure who this will ultimately be marketed to, and I could be wrong, but I doubt it will sell enough for them to say it was a success lets make more. They do have the money to throw at it though, so I guess that was enough for them to take a stab at it after the success of the steam deck.

As much work as the Verge article says they put into cooling, I’m not too worried about heat issues
- While the main cooling system is important, the thermal interface material they pick is also a big deal with systems intended to not be user serviced and with long lasting lifetimes like consoles... It honestly depends a lot on what TIM they decided to go with. Traditional thermal pastes are cheap but almost always dry out after just a few years causing much higher temps. Liquid metal is great, but more expensive and you must design it right, vertical orientation can cause leakage if not properly designed (some laptops end up having issues because of this). Phase change material is probably the optimal middle ground for ease of installation, and simplified design.
it's not a console
- It sort of is… I collect consoles, I have everything from the 2600 to PS3/Wii/360. I quit after that because the XBone and PS4 were just horrible shitty PCs that ran games like garbage and had insane load times. I like the newest XBox and PS5, but I’m done collecting consoles forever because they’re just locked down PCs now. The Steam Machine is a console for computer game players with MUCH LESS locked down OS than a PlayStation or XBox and I love that idea very much. I have four high-end computers for games at my house (maybe five, one is old but still works great with linux) and I would still consider a Steam Machine in my house as another first computer… but it does really taste like a console (in a good way)
- it's a PC, Personal Compsole

The controller would've been an instant buy for me if it had asymmetric sticks but I'll wait for it to come out and give it a try before I make a decision.

I'm down to buy the new controller. I have a Steam Deck and it's very comfortable to hold, other than the weight. This thing is basically the Deck controls without the screen and a bunch of the weight.
Plus, I've personally found the gyro, trackpads, and back buttons to be extremely useful for games that don't have controller support, or for simply easier use of existing buttons (like putting L3/R3 on back buttons). I'm really looking forward to this, looks way better than the 2015 Steam Controller.
Lastly, that charging connector / wireless adapter all-in-one combo is just nice.
My only concern would be haptics. This really needs to have good rumble motors, and not just trackpad haptics like the deck. The pad haptics are good for subtle effects, but near useless for conveying actual heavy vibration, explosions, stuff like that. Sounds like they accounted for this though:
High definition rumble
Steam Controller's powerful motors are capable of handling complex waveforms for immersive, accurate haptics.
That sounds closer to something like the PS5 DualSense enhanced haptics, and if so, I'm here for it.
- My experience with the Steam Deck and the Index controllers are the only thing keeping me from writing it off my mind all together. I have faith in Valve's team when it comes to ergonomics so I hope they surprise me.
  That said, I hope they improved on the Steam Deck because the face buttons on the Deck are so close to the edge that it's challenging to do quick presses for games like rhythm games.
- Yeah, Sony really nailed the haptics with the PS5 controller. The high-fidelity motors feel nice while still having punch, and the adaptable triggers give a nice satisfying squeeze when game designers use it properly.
  The newer God of War games had a few good examples, with the adaptable triggers getting harder on more “difficult” stuff. If Kratos was using a lot of strength for some quick time event, the triggers got harder to pull. It was a nice touch that helped add immersion and suspense to a game that was already very visceral. When Kratos cleaved into an enemy during a kill animation, feeling the trigger relax afterwards was a nice satisfying capstone to the “you just beat the crap out of this enemy” animation.
It's insane. Seemingly everyone but Sony figured out decades ago it's a terrible idea, and Valve does it anyway.
At least it has concave sticks, which weren't on PlayStation until 2013.
- That’s your preference though. I prefer Sony’s symmetrical sticks. It’s ok to have your preference, no need to state that it’s the objectively better one.
- I actually prefer Sony’s symmetrical design, but that’s probably because the PS1 was the first console I owned as a kid. I played other consoles like the NES/SNES/N64/Saturn/DreamCast at friends’ houses, but the PS1 was the first console that was truly mine. And I went straight from the PS1 to the PS2 in my early teens. The DualShock controller was the one I grew up playing the most, so it’s the one I’m most familiar with using. The Xbox 360 generation definitely tends to prefer asymmetry though, which is really just a matter of preference.
- But the DualShock doesn't have asymmetric sticks?
It’s possible placing the thumb sticks in some slightly different way helps to avoid patent issues.

I was hesitant about upgrading my ancient computer because I didn't want to spend $1,200 - $2000 on a new setup. This looks like a great option.

This isn't going to be a high end machine, it's probably competitive with the PS5, more or less.
You didn't mention what you have, but you could probably get a decent upgrade competitive with this for well under $1200. The GPU seems to be about an RX 7600 ($250-260), the CPU is about a 7600 ($190), motherboard is $170, and 16GB RAM is $120. So $700-800 mandatory, plus whatever you need to replace from your current rig, and the result should be a bit faster than the Steam Machine. That's probably a bit more than the Steam Machine, but it's upgradeable, whereas the Steam Machine won't be.
- Lol, my dumb computer is running DDR3 / no TPM, it's super old. I have been waiting for video cards to get better/cheaper. I'm totally down with not the fastest. If it plays 90% of my games, costs less than $600. I just read that it's six times more powerful than the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck can run Cyberpunk 2077, so this will do just fine. Another thing that I really like is that Valve is verifying games for their hardware. The games it can't run, I guess I won't play. I'm sold!

Lemmy sure is doing a lot of the marketing work for the Steam machines I see.

God forbid people posting the most exciting gaming-related hardware news of the past 5 years on a Gaming community! Must be all paid shills, I gues.
Lots of Linux and gaming enthusiasts in the platform. Still better of the latest pedotrump news.

Is it a console? Isn't it a tiny prebuilt?

I mean… What is a console, but a prebuilt running custom firmware and manufacturer’s OS? You can literally install Linux on a jailbroken PS5. Old consoles were obviously bespoke pieces of hardware that wouldn’t match any computer OS… But modern consoles are closer to prebuilt PCs than they are to old consoles.
It’s meant to be used with a TV, just like a console is. It’s targeting the console crowd, to try and capture that wing of the market and bring the console players into the PC ecosystem. It’s also trying to give PC players the flexibility to play in their living room, instead of at a computer desk.
That last part is primarily what I use my Steam Deck for right now. And it’s why I’m excited to potentially have something a little more powerful than the Steam Deck for my TV. My partner started to resent my gaming habits. After some discussions, we figured out that it was because they couldn’t cuddle me when I was at my computer desk. They missed the physical snuggle time that we got on the couch. So I got a Steam Deck, and made a point of shifting my gaming habits to be able to play more games on the couch.
Suddenly, the complaints about my gaming dried up. Because they could snuggle up next to me and read a book or scroll on TikTok while I played, which is all they really wanted. I’m still able to play my game to de-stress after work, they get their physical touch time, and we’re both happy. The only real change was in what kinds of games I played, because I had to shift more towards controller-based games instead of Keyboard+Mouse games. So fewer shooters, more hack-n-slash type stuff. But I enjoy playing both, so I just wait until after they go to bed to play the KB+M games at my desk.
And thus far, my only real complaint about the setup has been that the Steam Deck has started to struggle to run newer games. It was never meant to be a super high powered top-of-the-line device. The first consideration was portability, which meant they had to make some concessions on processing power in order to get an acceptable battery life. But with a standalone TV console, that isn’t really a big factor. So the standalone console can be much more powerful, because it’s not needing to take things like battery power consumption into account.
Aren't all consoles?
Yes.
- I didn't even read all that. But I'll trust your judgment. 👍
Yes, just like the Steam Deck, it's a pre-built that functions like a console and can do other desktop stuff too.
Frankly, the Xbox One and the PS4 marked those vendors transition to 'tiny prebuilts', by the standards one might call this a 'tiny prebuilt'.
One could fairly argue that Switch is "just a gaming tablet/phone"

Archived link: https://archive.ph/ydtw4

is it ambitious? is that what you would call it

I think so. It's trying to compete with Microsoft and Sony consoles in much the same way that Steam Deck competed with the Switch. Taking on the largest segment of gaming outside mobile is pretty ambitious. It seems to be launching along with a new VR headset and a new controller, so they seem to be targeting high volume sales for the living room gaming market.
The hardware isn't the ambitious part, the target market is.
- Absolutely! The opinions you see on platforms like Lemmy or Reddit don’t necessarily reflect the views of the actual target market. Many of those users are casual gamers. These are people who own a phone and an Xbox, and that’s the extent of their gaming experience.
  That market is HUGE. Valve is offering accessibility, convenience, and comparable (to consoles) performance without the complexity of PC gaming. I think it's a fantastic move, and I’m genuinely excited to see it succeed. I have long wanted to play with more of my work friends who fall into this category.
- The hardware is also the ambitious part - if they managed to figure out cooling of that hardware in that form factor, it's one of the most impressive feats of recent years!

The Verge

oh boy, here we go.

I've got my swiss army screwdriver ready.

Even if you could expand the RAM and storage,
You can.
everything else is just sitting there waiting to be obsolete in a couple years.
That's what some people said about the Steam Deck. More than a couple of years later, it is still popular; clearly not obsolete.
I just don’t get who they’re trying to make this for. You can easily build a PC with a reasonable budget that could easily tackle things this cube probably couldn’t.
I think you're overlooking the fact that most gamers have different skills and priorities than yours. Not everyone would find it easy to build a computer at all, let alone build a quiet and compact one with well-matched components, a tuned and convenient OS, and good support.
This device is probably not a good fit for you. It probably is a good fit for many people outside of gaming PC enthusiast circles. Especially now that Valve has established its hardware as a well-defined platform for game developers to support.
everything else is just sitting there waiting to be obsolete in a couple years
a bit out from the cutting edge, sure, but obsolete? This aint the 90s or the Aughts any more.
A machine put together 10 years ago will still run most things fine. Not at the fanciest settings, but fine. This is essentially the same criticism PC gaming has been lobbing at consoles for years, and now we have essentially a PC masquerading it's way into the console wing of the market -- of course the same criticism still apply! It's not incredibly beefy because it doesn't need to be. Different audience, different requirements.
- Mines nearly 7 years old. Never ran cyberpunk with Ray tracing on nearly top end card of the time. Runs everything pretty well though
It's supposed to be a console. You connect it to your TV and it more or less just works. Like a PS5 or Series X, except it has more games. The entire thing consumes about half the power of just my low-end graphics card from a few years ago (3060 ti). These CPUs also aren't available as socketed versions, nor would it be a good idea because then a user might use a chip that generates too much heat compared to the design here.
This ISN'T meant to compete with a PC. If you already have a gaming PC, you don't want a Steam Machine. If you have a current gen console, you probably don't want a Steam Machine.
There's a lot of speculation as to the price. If any of the guesses from various outlets end up being true, it could be less than $500 and potentially less than $400, while there have been hints at the next generation of Xbox costing $1000. But this is all speculation.
Basically, it's a way to get into gaming with a console-like experience, a low price, and the ability to keep your game library when you evolve into a "real" PC gamer. Honestly, if my kid was old enough to get into gaming, I'd consider one. Genius move from Valve targeting specifically a market previously untapped by them - not us folks who already buy our games on Steam.

Every device they make is called a steam machine... And then gets cancelled. They've all blurred together at this point

I hope this succeeds, but personally I'd rather have a less powerful machine at a more affordable price point.

Do... we know the price point yet?
- The article says:
  When I listen to my interview audio, I find an additional hint from Griffais: “We intend for it to be positioned closer to the entry level of the PC space, but to be very competitive with a PC you could build yourself from parts.”
  Poking around the web, I find I could probably assemble a computer with this performance for $800, not including labor. But it could easily consume half the room under my TV. A compact system with a similar GPU can cost $1,000 without storage, memory, operating system, or a gamepad.
  Which makes it reasonable to assume it's gonna be at least within that price range. And that is personally way too much for me.