I’m not sure why everyone is so upset about the price.
Because this is a 6~700 dollar machine that is now this price because of Sam Altman and his competing AI cronies having gone full scorched earth on the hardware market for no good reason.
A new branch of people is now confronted with this reality actually affecting them.
It’s significantly less than a gaming rig with similar specs that you can custom build.
Youtube’s full of people that build comprable or better performing machines in this broad price bracket.
There’s obviously more to this steam machine than just performance, but it’s not particularly cheap in any respect.
What I know is that if I walk into my local Micro Center and try to build a comparable machine, I’m getting dangerously close to $3,000.
My current PC is already very close to the Steam Machine’s specifications, and it cost me around $2,500 when I built it back in 2022.
We also live in a time when hardware is more expensive than it has any right to be.
The price-to-performance ratio on this product is acceptable, if not slightly underpowered by today’s standards. But people also need to remember that this is a fully assembled Linux gaming machine that someone can take out of the box, power on, and use immediately.
It’s also worth remembering that traditional consoles are often sold at a loss because manufacturers make their money back through game sales and platform fees. That’s not the business model that Valve is pursuing.
At this point, I honestly think people would have been upset no matter what Valve did. If they priced it higher, people would complain it was too expensive. If they priced it lower, people would complain it wasn’t powerful enough.
Because this is a 6~700 dollar machine that is now this price because of Sam Altman and his competing AI cronies having gone full scorched earth on the hardware market for no good reason. A new branch of people is now confronted with this reality actually affecting them.
Youtube’s full of people that build comprable or better performing machines in this broad price bracket. There’s obviously more to this steam machine than just performance, but it’s not particularly cheap in any respect.
I’m not concerned with what YouTubers are doing.
What I know is that if I walk into my local Micro Center and try to build a comparable machine, I’m getting dangerously close to $3,000.
My current PC is already very close to the Steam Machine’s specifications, and it cost me around $2,500 when I built it back in 2022.
We also live in a time when hardware is more expensive than it has any right to be.
The price-to-performance ratio on this product is acceptable, if not slightly underpowered by today’s standards. But people also need to remember that this is a fully assembled Linux gaming machine that someone can take out of the box, power on, and use immediately.
It’s also worth remembering that traditional consoles are often sold at a loss because manufacturers make their money back through game sales and platform fees. That’s not the business model that Valve is pursuing.
At this point, I honestly think people would have been upset no matter what Valve did. If they priced it higher, people would complain it was too expensive. If they priced it lower, people would complain it wasn’t powerful enough.