Steam Machine launches today • Hacker News Board

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#831

Post by cryptonym » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:20 AM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #690

bigtex wrote: post #643

For reference to the current prices of consoles: Nintendo Switch 2 $449.99 Xbox Series S (512GB/1TB) $379.99 – $449.99 Xbox Series X (1TB) $649.99 PlayStation 5 Slim (Digital) $599.99 PlayStation 5 Slim (Disc) $649.99 PlayStation 5 Pro $899.99 From reading posts on X/Twitter, I got the feeling that PC Gaming enthusiasts truly believed this was going to compete with console gaming and those players would flock to the…

Idk why anyone thought this would be a "PC console killer" type of product. Consoles are subsidized because they act as the entry point to closed hardware/software ecosystems. You can't do that with a general purpose PC because it's an open ecosystem by definition. But there are economic benefits to an open ecosystem. The Steam Machine has a gigantic back catalog of games that can be had for cheap. You also probably…

This is a general purpose PC but it's also designed for Steam. Valve will get back a fair amount of revenue on games sold for usage on said machines. They could sell it with little to no margin (maybe they are doing it) while increasing gaming time and potential revenue. Sure, games can be had for cheap and so far it seems to be profitable.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#832

Post by madeofpalk » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:20 AM UTC

redox99 wrote: post #156

andy_xor_andrew wrote: post #93

This is a weird thing to call out, when there's so much else to talk about (price, specs, etc) buuuuuut- Check out the gameplay video partway down the page, where the two people are on the couch playing Cuphead. Right under "Your Steam library in more places." It's just... a real clip of real people playing a real game and reacting in a real way. It's funny. I know it's stupid to call out, but how many exaggerated ve…

If you sampled 100 steam players at random, it would look nothing like that.

Ignoring the sitting in front of the TV thing, I think if you sampled 2 steam players at random, they would look nothing like any other 100 random steam players.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#833

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

I know many people keep pointing at PS5 as the competition, but I'll throw this in:

I can buy a game on PC and play it on the go, I don't have to buy anything else.

The Steam Deck+a PC places Steam in a different league than the PS5 (for now).

Nintendo Switch 2 is way closer, however the games are different (I don't love Nintendo games).

Finally for those of us with a big Steam library and kids, buying a Steam machine or a Steam Deck means I will spend ZERO on games (I can confirm)

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#834

Post by utopiah » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:35 AM UTC

Wondering how it’d benchmark against https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-Nano-Pro-Gen14-AMD... in an even smaller form factor and similar price range for specs.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#835

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:36 AM UTC

radium3d wrote: post #46

I imagine Valve Software wanted to release the Steam Machine for $549-$699. The great RAM hoarding of 2025-2026 killed this product on arrival sadly.

Why dead on arrival though? If you want to buy the same kind of pc, price is the same.

You can buy a PS5, of course, but that's a different walled garden.

If you are in the market for a 3k pc, sure do it, but if you are in the market for a 1k pc, why not a steam machine?

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#836

Post by master-lincoln » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:38 AM UTC

valicord wrote: post #733

willis936 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve gets it. I very much want to support them and vote with my wallet. Unfortunately the Steam machine isn't a good fit for me. I will buy the frame in a heartbeat though. HMD with a FOSS OS? That's in its own class.

And yet Steam Controller somehow only works with Steam...

There is a linux driver that allows playing without steam. Are you on Windows?

If you are stuck to Windows there are some 3rd party efforts like https://github.com/ddeverill/SteamlessController

The last generation of steam controller still had a mode you could start it in where it would register as xinput device. Seems that's gone on the new generation.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#837

Post by Forgeties79 » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:40 AM UTC

Lucasoato wrote: post #684

> Steam Machine, like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world. The price at which we sell our hardware is a direct result of the cost of these components. We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023. That understanding was born from the many ye…

I totally get where they’re coming from but sadly it doesn’t change the fact that $1100+ is a tough sell for the benchmarks they’re hitting.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#838

Post by fragmede » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:40 AM UTC

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #833

I know many people keep pointing at PS5 as the competition, but I'll throw this in: I can buy a game on PC and play it on the go, I don't have to buy anything else. The Steam Deck+a PC places Steam in a different league than the PS5 (for now). Nintendo Switch 2 is way closer, however the games are different (I don't love Nintendo games). Finally for those of us with a big Steam library and kids, buying a Steam machin…

Until the next Steam sale. Steam Summer Sale is coming up!

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#839

Post by barnabee » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:46 AM UTC

moffkalast wrote: post #822

ThatMedicIsASpy wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why the frame will be the most interesting to the people on HN. A VR PC you can do whatever u want with.

At a price point of 10k if we extrapolate to its release.

Snapdragon gaming handhelds are much cheaper than a Steam Deck, so I’m hopeful that as an Arm device it won’t be completely crazy.

Re: Steam Machine launches today

#840

Post by green7ea » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:57 AM UTC

reddalo wrote: post #553

legitster wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different value props. The target audience for this already has an extensive Steam catalogue. To buy a PS5 Pro is going to require re-buying all of your games for it. Also, you can build a decent PC for $1049, but getting it into a decent form/noise factor is going to ratchet that price up. Add in the proprietary CEC stuff that Valve has done for it and it's not as terrible as it seems.

>To buy a PS5 Pro is going to require re-buying all of your games for it. Even if I didn't have a Steam Library, I wouldn't buy the PS5 anyway: no Steam Sales there. And Steam Sales are a godsend.

The sales are a nice thing but for me the biggest benefit of Steam is knowing that I can use my games library on other/future devices.

My games have been working on my desktop from 10 years ago, the SteamDeck, my laptop and likely any future computer I buy that runs Linux.