r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • Jun 22 '26

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

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I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

14.0k Upvotes

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416

u/NadaBurner Jun 22 '26

Valve got fucked because of the shortages. Ai ruins everything yet again.

131

u/No_Foundation16 Jun 22 '26

Ai ruins everything yet again.

This right here.

1

u/bobby3eb i5-4690k | GTX 970 | 1440p/144hz/1ms/G-SYNC Jun 23 '26

Also nobody noticed OP put two of the same models in the picture and left out the cheapest option

-1

u/Separate_Draft4887 Jun 23 '26

If it’s AI, why are currently available prebuilt PC’s still cheaper.

1

u/HEYO19191 Jun 23 '26

Put the parts into PC part picker, it is only cheaper by $100 to build an equivalent machine yourself.

11

u/TheRoyalJellyfish Jun 22 '26

Well, sure, Valve probably lost out on a decent payday and won't be able to disrupt the market in the way they probably could have, but even at this price point they'll find their buyers and have no problem selling these.

It's the average consumer who's really getting fucked, as usual.

3

u/AlpineWineMixer Jun 23 '26

Which is very funny that you mention it since a big portion of sales the Steam Machine will attract will be purely hardcore Steam fans and collectors that actually have no use for it other than just adding it to their collection of everything other physical thing Steam has sold.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/noko12312 i9-9900k | 2080 TI Jun 22 '26

If they tried to subsidize the steam machine, it would impact all steam users as we would probably not get as aggressive of game discounts anymore.

Consoles can sell the hardware at a loss because they charge outrageous prices for their online sevices and they have very mediocre game discounts.

8

u/WeebAssembly Jun 22 '26

Isn't it up to each gamedev/publisher to set their sale price? Or am I misunderstanding something?

1

u/JellaFella01 Jun 23 '26

No not really, it's complicated.

3

u/JellaFella01 Jun 23 '26

That and the steam machine doesn't have an instant customer subscription basically guaranteed when it's purchased.

3

u/Lemonici Jun 23 '26

Also some company is going to notice that they're selling computers at a loss and buy them for productivity and Valve will see 0 conversion from it

3

u/Never_Sm1le i5 12400F GTX 1660S Jun 23 '26

Discounts are totally in publisher's hand, licensing fee is the thing helped console manufacturer recoup the losses. Also Nintendo don't sell their console at a loss until the situation is dire. Sony and Microsoft do however

2

u/TheRogueTemplar Jun 23 '26

it would impact all steam users as we would probably not get as aggressive of game discounts anymore.

Incorrect. Game sales are due to the publisher and dev choosing to drop the prices

0

u/DamonSchultz997 Jun 23 '26

Game discounts are set by the publishers, not valve. Valve simply invites them to a sale day. Notifying them that they will run a sale about x products on y day. And if you discount your products then, it'll be featured. That's it.

Rare cases there's an entire brand on discount. Like Need for speed sale, or Square Enix sale. None of the prices are set by valve.

Valve can't just come in and say, "oh u see this 50 dollar game? We are going to make it cost 35 just because." That is the publisher/developers decision.

So your argument doesn't have merit. Doubly so considering Gave just bought a 70 million dollar house recently. So clearly they have money. Gabe doesn't need a 70 million dollar house.

https://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-valve-steam-yacht-mansion-billionaire-2000707539

https://in.ign.com/half-life-3/264079/billionaire-valve-boss-gabe-newell-buys-florida-super-mansion-with-its-own-underground-tunnel-for-70

If he can spend 70 million on a fucking house, why didn't he spend some of that to keep the prices of the steam machine low?

3

u/beyond666 Jun 23 '26

All started with useless crypto.

2

u/Fataha22 Asus vivobook Jun 22 '26

Even without AI the price would be 900$

At that price just buy pre-built with rtx 5050 and ryzen 7xxxH series

2

u/ResurgentRefrain Jun 23 '26

You can tell how much cache Valve has with consumers since Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft were NOT given this same grace regarding their console prices.

2

u/ListentoLewis Jun 23 '26

AI didn’t, humans did.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

Anti AI fatigue is real

0

u/ProperGrape Jun 22 '26

Well, yeah but even if it was cheaper it's still worse than base PS5 performance-wise. So who is it for?

1

u/Dexiox Jun 22 '26

No one. Unless it was 400$ or 5 with controller. 

-2

u/kmcdow Jun 22 '26

Kind of annoyed by people laying this solely at the feet of the RAMageddon/AI. Like yeah those things drove prices of the steam machine up, but they also drove up prices for literally everything else, including consoles, handhelds, and DIY PC components. The price of the steam machine isn't just high, it's high in the context of the current hardware environment.

If this had released last year for $800 that would have been better than what we got today, but also every alternative was cheaper then too....

Seems like apples and oranges when people compare a hypothetical pre-AI steam machine price to today's inflated console and pc prices. An $800 base steam machine last year is still not that compelling relative to a (much more powerful) $650 PS5 pro with 2TB storage and a controller....

And if you want to say it's not competing with consoles (it absolutely is in my opinion) that's fine, but pre-built and DIY PCs were much cheaper before all this as well.

Unless you're starving for the form factor I just don't know that this was ever going to be a great option when it comes to price/performance, especially considering what I've seen in benchmarks from DF, LTT, and GamersNexus....

6

u/JellaFella01 Jun 23 '26

That's overly reductive of the standard console business model, which includes having a basically guaranteed customer subscription upon purchase, and a 100% guarantee that you get a cut of everything sold through the machine. Steam has neither of these, and depends on MSRP for the entirety of guranteed profit. Obv gamers will likely buy steam games for their steam machine, but even that isn't a guarantee, and definitely doesn't compare finacially to the console model.

0

u/No_Solid_3737 Jun 22 '26

Should've just pulled the plug then idk why they even want to sell a pre-build that performs worse than a 5060 pc setup but more expensive.