Why you're probably not the target audience for Valve's Steam Machine

Valve has finally revealed the price of its long-awaited Steam Machine, and thanks to AI bros ruining the technology for us all, it comes with a price tag that many consider unacceptable.

Starting at $1,049/£879 for a 512GB model and rising to $1,349/£1,149 for 2TB of storage, it's a machine that, as with regular games consoles, has limited room for upgrades that a PC has. It also costs significantly more than even Sony's pricey PlayStation 5 Pro ($899.99/£789.99), despite being technically inferior.

Now I understand. Many of you were excited about Steam's new cube, which promised a lot when it was first revealed. It still does – the official store cites 4K gaming at 60fps with FSR, and the claim that it can “play your entire Steam library, including your favorite triple-A titles” remains true.

However, early hands-on reviews, like this one from PC Gamer, have suggested that there are major caveats to this compared to similar PCs. If you play the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, hitting 60fps even at 1440p is a dream. In the end, its underwhelming specs for the cost make it a bridge too far for many, and rightfully so.

But this is where I paint a target on my back – this machine is not for you and never was.

Gaben's eye sees everything, especially your hardware

A crucial point that many currently engaged in online discourse seem to forget is that Valve has vast amounts of information about what hardware Steam accounts are running on, thanks to its monthly survey. This gives it detailed information about which CPUs, GPUs, RAM configurations, and even how much hard drive space gamers have to play with. And it's clearly this data that has driven Valve's decision-making to make hardware like this.

Let's compare the Steam Machine's specs to the survey, regarding the most commonly returned answer:

So when you factor in the fact that the Steam Machine uses more up-to-date components like DDR5 RAM and GDDR6 VRAM, Valve's claim that it will be more powerful than 70 percent of what Steam users have at home seems true.

PC Master Race? You miss the point

Questions about who the Steam Machine is for are completely valid. It's ambitious in its desire to be a viable alternative to your PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch, but the pricing has obliterated that ambition, at least for now, leaving it in a strange place. But one thing I think we should all agree on is that it was never designed for PC purists, many of whom are the loudest dissenting voices online. They might want a Steam Machine under their televisions, but I bet those very people already have a powerful PC and a couple of consoles.

It's not a Frankenstein's monster made up of different parts from many manufacturers, like regular computers are. Sure, it seems underwhelming on the surface, but we need to stop looking at just the hard specs and think of the Steam Machine in a different light – as a highly optimized piece of kit designed for relative ease of use. A console, though not a console, as it comes with (most of) the benefits of Steam and PC gaming in general. It is an important new platform.

And just like consoles, Valve will roll out updates aimed at further optimizing the machine, such as a planned update to AMD's improved FSR 4. The Steam Verified program aims for a base 1080p at 60 fps — six times the power of Steam Deck — showing that it prioritizes a smooth experience for gaming on your TV rather than fancy fidelity or fancy.

There's no juggling Windows, Nvidia Control Panel, AMD Adrenaline, or any of the other tuning programs you need to get your regular machine ticking along nicely. Steam Machine, to me, is really for people who don't do it want the hassle of micromanaging a PC.

The best value for Valve's average user

Valve

I'm far from a PC tech, but I did a search with PCPartPicker to find components that were the closest match to the Steam Machine based on known specs like clock speeds. Just the four main parts of CPU, GPU, RAM and storage came out to around £700. It does not take into account the case, cooling, motherboard, power unit and other necessary components. Nor is it considering the fact that the CPU and GPU on the Steam Machine are semi-custom, with Valve having worked with AMD to design circuits that work better with the hardware than just throwing in any old stock chip.

A quick, uneducated look at retailers like PC Specialist, SCAN, Currys and Argos tells me that similarly priced prebuilds either come with outdated components (DDR4 over DDR5 or 6 RAM, for example) or just outright inferior parts. So while more experienced managers might be able to find better options than me or build custom rigs, it just seems like so much work to do it.

No matter how you look at it, Valve's offering will still be the best value on the market current marketfor target market. Dirty casuals, not Master Race doyens.

Time to say goodbye, Windows

Despite the discourse, I fully expect the Steam Machine to sell out. There will be many who buy one just because it's the Shiny New Thing, and many who buy because of the weird parasocial relationship people have with hardware manufacturers or platforms. I see it having broader appeal in a similar way to the Xbox Series S which, according to leaked court documents, at one point outsold the more powerful Series X. It offers a gateway to PC gaming without such a high barrier to entry.

I also see it occupying a wider space for those like myself, who either want to upgrade from an older PC or laptop to the convenience of a plug-and-play PC, or (finally) ditch Windows for a decent price. I tend to play things like DayZ or Final Fantasy 14 on my laptop and reserve AAA games for my PS5. I don't need anything that can solve dense linear equations.

With the Steam Machine I get everything I need from a PC, with a better and more optimized user experience, for £879. The reality is that computers only cost so much money these days, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. Let's all go back to being mad at AI bros, shall we?

Stamp

Valve

Original MSRP (USD)

$1,049 (512GB) / $1,349 (2TB) – without controllers

Operating system

SteamOS 3 (Ark-based)

Processor

Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP

Resolution

Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K @ 60Hz

HDR support

Yes