What Is The Steam Machine And How Much Will It Cost?
Valve is working on a new Steam Machine that aims to bring PC gaming back into the living room. Think of it as a compact gaming PC designed to sit under your TV, with the plug in and play feel of a console but the flexibility of Steam.
On the Friends Per Second podcast, Valve coder Pierre Loup Griffais shared a few important hints about what to expect. The big takeaway is that the Steam Machine will be priced around the cost of building a similar PC from individual parts, not like a heavily subsidized console.
In other words, Valve is not planning to sell it at a loss the way Sony and Microsoft sometimes do with their consoles. Griffais explained that the target price is the general window you would hit if you built a PC yourself with roughly the same performance level.
That does not mean it will be wildly expensive or feel like a boring prebuilt office PC. Valve still wants it to be a good deal for what it offers, but right now the company is still figuring out the final price. Component costs move around a lot, so Valve is being careful about making promises too early.
PC Gamer staff previously guessed the average price might land around 525 dollars. That would make it cheaper than a PlayStation 5 with a disc drive and only slightly more than the expected cost of a new Nintendo Switch. After Griffais comments though, the vibe is that the final price might be a bit higher than those early predictions, especially if Valve chases stronger hardware.
Why Not Just Build A PC?
If the price is close to a custom build, you might wonder why anyone would buy a Steam Machine at all. Griffais pointed to a few things that make the device different from a typical PC in a tower case.
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Small form factor
The Steam Machine is designed to be a cute little box instead of a giant case packed with fans. It aims to look at home in a living room entertainment setup, not like a workstation parked on a desk.
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Console style convenience
One of the big selling points is the ability to sit on your couch, tap a single button on your controller, and have the entire system wake up and be ready to play on your TV. It is meant to feel like using a console rather than dealing with a Windows boot process and desktop icons.
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TV friendly features
Valve wants it to work smoothly with a TV remote and be tuned for the big screen experience. That includes things like input handling, power states, and the overall user experience so you are not constantly alt tabbing or digging through menus designed for a mouse and keyboard.
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Low noise levels
The system is being engineered to stay quiet enough that it does not sound like a jet engine in your living room. That is not impossible with a custom build, but it usually takes extra time, careful part selection, and some trial and error.
Griffais argued that these pieces together are actually hard to recreate with a custom build unless you are willing to spend a lot of effort on case design, thermals, noise and software polish. The idea is that the Steam Machine ships with all of that already done, as a living room appliance instead of a hobby project.
He also noted that there is not really anything exactly like this in the current PC market. There are mini PCs and small form factor builds, but nothing that is tightly integrated with Steam and controller first usage in quite the same way Valve is targeting.
Can It Compete With Regular Gaming PCs And Consoles?
Under the hood, the Steam Machine is still a midrange gaming PC. That is both its strength and its challenge. It should be powerful enough to run modern games comfortably on a TV without costing the same as a high end desktop, but price matters a lot.
As PC Gamer pointed out, you can build a decent gaming rig with something like an RTX 5060 level card for around 750 to 800 dollars. If Valve goes far above that for similar performance, the Steam Machine starts to look less like a clever living room box and more like an overpriced prebuilt.
That is where the risk lies. For this device to really catch on, the value has to be clear. A big part of the appeal of the Steam Deck is that it feels like a bargain for the performance and portability you get. If Valve can hit a similar sweet spot here, the Steam Machine could finally crack the living room after earlier attempts stalled out.
At this stage there is still a lot of speculation. We do not have final specs, a hard price, or a release date. What we do have is a clearer picture of Valve strategy.
The Steam Machine will not be sold at a major loss like a traditional console.
Valve wants it to be priced roughly in line with a comparable custom PC build.
The main selling points are convenience, size, quiet operation and a console like living room experience.
If you love tinkering with hardware, you may always prefer to build your own PC. But if you want something that feels like a console while still giving you the full power of the Steam library, the Steam Machine might be exactly the kind of hybrid device you have been waiting for.
For now, it is worth keeping an eye on how pricing and specs shake out. The right balance could make this the go to box for couch gaming on PC. The wrong balance could send the Steam Machine idea back into limbo for another decade.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/valve-coder-confirms-the-steam-machine-will-be-priced-like-a-pc-albeit-at-a-good-deal-if-you-build-a-pc-from-parts-and-get-to-basically-the-same-level-of-performance-thats-the-general-price-window-that-we-aim-to-be-at/
