Valve Prices the Steam Machine At $1,049 (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0184033908
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/06/22/1716254/valve-prices-the-steam-machine-at-1049
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/news/837022/valve-steam-machine-price-release-date
> You can now register your interest to [2]buy a Steam Machine as part of a reservation system. To offer a fair playing field for people who want to buy one, Valve will randomize everyone in the queue on Thursday at 1PM ET. After that, anyone who registers their interest will be added to the end of the waitlist. The first emails giving people the opportunity to buy will go out on June 29th.
>
> Valve will sell four configurations of the Steam Machine:
> - A 512GB model for $1,049
> - A 512GB model with a bundled Steam Controller for $1,128
> - A 2TB model for $1,349
> - A 2TB model with a bundled Steam Controller for $1,428
>
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/837022/valve-steam-machine-price-release-date
[2] https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/steammachine
Expesnive controller (Score:2)
- A 2TB model for $1,349 - A 2TB model with a bundled Steam Controller for $1,428
The controller is separate and is $80????
Re: (Score:2)
That's how much PS5 controllers are as well. The Steam one looks better though.
Re: (Score:2)
And the Steam controller is purported to use TMR sensors. I just put TMR sensors in my PS5 controller (it was the fourth one to get stick drift) and I'm hoping that should solve the issue permanently. I haven't noticed a difference in gameplay, but they're supposed to last a long time rather than the terrible potentiometers in the OEM controller. And the process of replacing the sticks was a bit of a nightmare, so I appreciate when a company uses quality parts from the start.
Re:Expesnive controller (Score:5, Informative)
For comparison the [1]Switch 2 joycons are $99.99 [nintendo.com] and the [2]PS5 DualSense is $84.99 [playstation.com].
When you think about all that's jammed into them these days, Hall-effect/magnetic joysticks so there isn't drift issues, touchpads, a battery, gyros, haptic feedback, and the microcontroller. It's easier to understand why it costs a little more than a rectangle with a couple red buttons of yesteryear.
And why force people to buy a controller if they are going to just use mouse / keyboard or are happy buying a cheapo corded controller?
[1] https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/nintendo-switch-2-joy-con-2-l-r-123677-3/
[2] https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/buy-accessories/dualsense-wireless-controller-rhythm-blue-for-ps5-pc-mac-mobile
Re:Expesnive controller (Score:4, Informative)
Pick up an [1]8BitDo wireless controller [8bitdo.com] for $40 (CAD).
[1] https://www.8bitdo.com/ultimate-2c-wireless-controller/
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah that's the winning move. I already use a pair of those (one on a Rasperry Pi that I use for Streaming and one on my actual gaming PC).
The benefit of this mostly being a PC is that you aren't locked to just using the "official" hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm. Not so fast. Part of the value equasion with the steam deck and steam controllers is they get to exploit the control scheme mappings already in place for the steam decks. The big thing tthere is the twin touchpads that replace the mouse on the steamdecks (Though they also have touch sensitivity, but the screens on the decks are a little small to make that particularly accurate). I'd hold out for an alternative that better maps onto the control scheme.
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The controller is actually $100; it's only $80 if you buy it with the Steam Machine.
That's about what Switch 2 controllers cost now.
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Yes. There's no reason to force people who don't want one to buy one.
Re: (Score:2)
> The controller is separate and is $80????
Yes, controllers generally cost $80 now. They used to cost $50, but there's this thing called inflation.
Re: (Score:2)
>> The controller is separate and is $80????
> Yes, controllers generally cost $80 now. They used to cost $50, but there's this thing called inflation.
That was my immediate reaction too. $80 now would have been about $35 in the early 1990s, which is probably pretty close to what good third-party controllers cost back then.
Some people asks why I hate generative AI (Score:4, Insightful)
But I have nothing else to say.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not defending AI, but it's interesting to compare the price to other machines released long before AI existed.
Adjusted for inflation, the 2TB model is a bit cheaper than a Panasonic 3DO or a Neo Geo was at launch. But a lot more than any Playstation ever had been.
Ryzen/AMD 16/8GB (Score:5, Interesting)
Skipping the paywalled article I found these [1]specs [thegamepost.com] and was underwhelmed.
Sure it looks fine for playing mid games but my guess was something unique, unified RAM or a clever bus or something. It seems like a decently tuned Ryzen build. I do like the lower TDP on the CPU which should be doing less work.
A nice form factor for those who don't build their own.
Hopefully this is their entre into the PC world and v2 will have more innovations.
What's most cool is the generation of teenagers who will have default Arch/KDE instead of default Windows.
[1] https://thegamepost.com/valve-steam-machine-full-specs/
Re: (Score:2)
I would guess it's as much for the operating system, which will be guaranteed to run approved Steam games without users having to figure out solutions for themselves, and the consistent hardware configurations which game devs can tune their games for in future.
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Consoles generally punch above their weight because games can be specifically optimized for them, compared to on PC where a compatibility is the most important thing. It will be interesting to see if developers optimize for this thing.
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They sort of have been doing with the steam deck. I've had one for around six months and I'm consistently surprised at how well the thing runs. Not everything runs superbly, but those that dont I just run on lower settings, and my eyes are too shit to tell the difference half the time.
Re: (Score:2)
This is basically a 3-4 year old laptop, stuffed in a cube, being sold for 2x what its worth and 3x what it should be sold at subsidized.
An investment really (Score:5, Funny)
I heard that every single one comes with a signed statement from Sam Altman stating that it is 100% guaranteed to go up in price by 2029 or your money back!
Official SteamOS (Score:3)
I hope the Steam Machines do well, but even more so I hope they will make an official release of SteamOS on a variety of supported PC hardware next!
Proton is already a fantastic way for gaming on Linux, having that wrapped into an official SteamOS would be even greater!
Re: (Score:2)
There is no value to running SteamOS on your PC over some other distribution except simplicity. If you actually want to do non-game things with it you'll wind up installing enough additional packages to erase the benefit. If you want simplicity, you'll also buy a steam machine, so you don't have to figure out the PC.
Re: (Score:2)
My Ubuntu PC use is 90% games, 8% web browser, and 2% else. Most PC users never need anything but a browser. I was hoping to install SteamOS on it when I built it, but that wasn't an option. Instead ubuntu tried to install steam as a snap for some stupid reason, which screwed up my disk layout (apparently snaps are all sandboxed, cool, but those sandboxes must go into your home directory? Because obviously nobody would ever have multiple users with small homes and a large shared partition for big things lik
Re: (Score:2)
Your wish has been granted:
If you are interested in installing SteamOS on your device and providing feedback, you can follow the instructions [1]here [steampowered.com].
(Link copy+pasted from [2]here [steampowered.com].)
[1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227
[2] https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
That is a sad state of affairs (Score:2)
I guess they have to do this. But it will slow down adoption. You can probably get a Linux-capable and about as powerful system for a fraction of that from the Win11 hardware apocalypse...
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. if you get an i5-8500 SFF and put an RX6600 in it you'll effectively have this.
hmm (Score:2)
I'm a busy man. I'm also a lazy man. Could someone tell me if this is cheaper or more expensive than a desktop gaming PC with the same stats?
"Valve also says that it's selling (Score:2)
the Steam Machine for the cost of its components alone instead of subsidizing the price." $300 more for 1TB more SSD? Sounds like more than just component cost.
Re: (Score:2)
> the Steam Machine for the cost of its components alone instead of subsidizing the price." $300 more for 1TB more SSD? Sounds like more than just component cost.
It depends on what brand/model of SSD. Looking at Microcenter, I see some 512 GB SSDs for around $100 and some higher-end 2 TB SSDs for $350-400.
Steam Link (Score:2)
I have a Steam Link for sale. Good price. LMK.
DOA (Score:2)
Weaker than a 5 year old base model PS5. Costs several hundred more. GG.
to bad that ram / storage priceing may this like $ (Score:2)
to bad that ram / storage pricing made this like $200 more then it should be