Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Sony's SIE Worldwide Studios, stated that Steam Machine from Valve was “difficult to recommend” due to its eye-popping introductory price and performance issues. However, Yoshida said that the latest device from Valve has some advantages.
Steam Machine is Valve's latest attempt to combine PC gaming with a console experience. Powered by a custom AMD Zen 4 processor with Radeon RDNA 3 graphics, the Steam Machine's form factor and compatibility with many Steam titles is one of its main selling points. However, the Steam Machine's high introductory price of $1,049 made it more expensive than the PS5 Pro by $150. As of this writing, the Steam Machine has sold out at Valve's storefront, leading to Valve's portable PC being resold for ridiculously high amounts by scalpers on eBay.
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Shuhei Yoshida shares his personal review of Steam Machine
After purchasing a Steam Machine of his own, the former Sony executive gave a review on Twitter, listing the pros and cons of Valve's portable PC. Yoshida said the Steam Machine was “hard to recommend to people” outside of research purposes because of its high introductory price. Yoshida added that the Steam Machine's graphical performance was, in a word, “meh.” Yoshida said that Steam Machine recommended a default resolution setting of 1080p compared to the 4K performance that Valve advertised. Following the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve quietly updated the device's Steam page to state that 4K could be achieved via AMD's FSR upscaling technology on some games.
Yoshida further compared the Steam Machine's 1080p recommendation to the PS4, which first launched in 2013. Yoshida said that some games on the Steam Machine have longer load times compared to other systems, even with shader compilation included. Although the Steam Machine uses a solid-state drive for fast load times, it is also limited to having a single channel of 16GB of RAM. Yoshida expressed hope that game developers will optimize their games for the Steam Machine in the future.
Aside from his concerns, Yoshida also shared some positive thoughts about the Steam Machine. Yoshida said that while the Steam Controller's sticks are “a little looser” than he would prefer, he said being able to start up the Steam Machine by pressing a button on the Steam Controller is a plus. Yoshida also stated that the SteamOS system interface was easy to use, and he liked how the device's interchangeable front panels can give the system some personality. Yoshida also praised how Valve was able to keep the Steam Machine quiet while maintaining a small form factor. Despite his concerns, Yoshida said the fact that the Steam Machine allows him to play Steam games on the TV is reason enough to keep it.
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Although Valve stated that the Steam Machine's price was due to the company's reluctance to sell the system at a loss, that has not stopped the Steam Machine from being criticized for its price-to-performance compared to other computers on the market. It remains to be seen how the Steam Machine will fare in the long run.
