As a great fan of the Steam Deck, which runs a very basic, toned-down version of TSW at around 25-35 fps, or higher if it's an older route, I am very interested in the Steam Machine. Its ability to let you put games in sleep mode would be a great solution for longer runs in TSW. However, its specs are not that special. I'm not tech savvy, but does anyone here have an idea of how well Steam Machine would run TSW? (Edit: if it's ever released, of course.) Perhaps a dev could chime in? Here are the Steam Machine specs: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T Up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
Well, it’s very simple… This game console isn’t going to happen anytime soon. The costs of almost everything that goes into a computer are currently problematic to extremely severe, especially when you look at RAM prices. Microsoft and Sony also won’t be releasing a new series of consoles in the near future. You simply can’t sell products like these at a competitive price right now. So I definitely don’t expect it in 2026 anymore and possibly not for quite a bit longer.
Smart I definitely think this console has potential! And since it doesn’t use a Microsoft or PlayStation structure, there’s a lot more available for it. Steam has a huge library, especially if the console is priced affordably.
Probably it won't be priced affordably (and probably Xbox Helix and PS6 would be, either) because tech companies obsession with AI and the resulting massive surge of RAM costs..
If you had read my entire story, aside from the cost aspect you would have realized that this is exactly why there won’t be a release and why the consoles have been put on ice.
It's safe to say that you'll be able to launch it and see the menu. Still, this is a system below average in terms of specification + poor TSW optimization + lack of upscalers.
It literally is anything but average, to the point Valve took note of their own hardware survey to make a hardware package that is a "reasonable upgrade" for most people in the ecosystem already. It's not a massive bump yes, but your perception of the average users is entirely screwed up if you think they only have RTX 3060+ machines. Big part of the reason I'm so against people downplaying console performance issues despite owning a pretty top end system, those are a tiny portion of the market, and should be treated as such. Another reason I mention that is the reason I revive this thread, which is the fact Steam Machine finally got its price reveal, and... Yikes. I like Valve, and I respect that they don't want to do the PlayStation/Xbox model of selling the console below cost and relying on extra game sales to make a profit. However $1000+ without the controller being included is rough, and that will pretty well dash the hopes of anyone thinking this was going to be a console killer. (Not that those hopes were ever reasonable given how low volume Valve hardware is) I would dread to think what a higher spec Steam Machine would've cost, or what the upcoming Xbox Helix will be if it isn't delayed into 2028.
This are not really the prices I hoped for. In fact, I'm now really curious about on what price point Xbox Helix will be. From what I got, the Steam Machine specs are kind of on par with PS5 / Series X, but with more memory. Helix will be a step up over Series X, so if Microsoft can manage to sell Helix around 1000, then it will be a better deal then Steam Machine.
You're passing off necessity as virtue. If you open Reddit and read what people are writing, it's too high a price to pay for such characterizations. I agree that SFF assemblies are always more expensive, since you have to pay for the compactness. But who is Valve targeting? 1. PC enthusiasts? It's expensive for this kind of performance, and it's not without its challenges, but you can build a compact, slightly larger, and much more powerful setup yourself (Despite the reduced component power limits). Or sacrifice compactness and save even more. There's no upgrade for this system. So, the Valve ball hits the post. 2. Pre-built PC buyers? High prices again. For that kind of money, you could buy a pre-built computer with a 5060/5060Ti. Or these buyers are cutting corners again and buying even cheaper PCs anyway, even with the same specs. The ball hits the post again. 3. Console gamers? That would seem like the target audience, but again, it's expensive and there's no way to transfer the game library. But the price of the device is simply exorbitant compared to consoles. Here the ball doesn’t even hit the crossbar, but simply flies completely past.
If the next Xbox has many different manufacturers developing different SKU's, and allows you to load different shops and what not on it then no, it's not going to be anywhere near $1000. The reason consoles can be cheap is how standardized they are, and the fact you're locked into their marketplace, which means they can count on you spending more money on their marketplace. If they can't do that then they have to do the next best thing and actually earn money on the hardware sale itself, but then that means selling it at prices comparable to a normal PC. Only thing this might have over a normal PC is however their Xbox backwards compatibility is added in, since I've heard it might have special hardware for that aspect specifically. I've always assumed it will aim to be in the $1200 to $1500 range, but current hardware pricing does mean higher than $1300 is very possible. This also just assumes Microsoft don't just cancel the whole thing outright, something I don't think will happen, but is distinctly possible given how much of a mess Xbox seems to be after the management shake up. IMO even if the hardware itself is decent I wouldn't invest in it solely because I have no trust in Microsoft supporting Xbox hardware long term. There's a reason I said "Yikes" to the pricing, honestly even at the projected $700 to $800 price point it originally was aimed for I thought was too much. All I'm saying is that this machine is not "average" by literal metrics Steam use, most people on PC game with pretty middling setups. Valve enthusiasts. Like you write so much, but it's pretty obvious that's the only real market this thing has. Even before the RAM issues $800 would not be competitive with a PS5 in the same way $400 was to a Nintendo Switch. And even then the OG Switch still completely dominated the market over it despite being a much better deal than Switch 1. I do actually still think it will do well for what it is, but it's really supplemental machine for your living room for people already invested in the Valve ecosystem and that really like the unique form factor. It will not be the PS5, or even HP/Dell killer I saw some on here insist it was earlier in the year. And even a lot of more general PC enthusiasts will end up sticking to building their own machines or go with other prebuild manufacturers.
If Helix will be sold for way over 1000, most likely they will loose a lot Xbox players. Secondly, having access to multiple stores, will ruin there own Xbox store. So maybe they should release two versions, one with only access to the Xbox store and for a lower price (aiming at current console players) and a more expensive version with access to multiple stores. Or just one version without access to other stores. If they sell Helix for to much, Xbox consoles will be dead soon, if they allow multiple stores, the Xbox store will be dead soon. They make most of the money from selling games, so if that part is not there anymore, how will Xbox survive?
If you look at Steam's top 7 video cards, by the best estimates, it barely makes it into the average tier. Not to mention that the hardware at launch doesn't have the latest generation architecture. And who are these people? The ones with a steam deck and a Valve controller? Or maybe they have a Valve VR helmet? Valve doesn't have an ecosystem like PS4. Portable gaming can be enjoyed on a Valve device, as well as on any similar device from other manufacturers. Controllers? No restrictions whatsoever. Use whatever you want; it's not a closed ecosystem. Operating system? No restrictions. Use whatever you like, whatever's comfortable, etc. That's why most people don't understand who it's made for. The PC market is completely open from all sides. I doubt Valve will find enough fans, although I don't know the sales targets. It's possible Perhaps no one plans to sell this in millions of copies.
Xbox is dead even under the current model, they're a distant third place among the big three console makers. The only reason they've even stuck around this long is because Xbox is comparatively a tiny part of Microsoft's business up till recently. They've actually lost money every generation they've partook in. (360 would've been profitable if the Red Ring of Death hadn't happened TBF) There's statements from the now-former head of it talking about how Xbox One was the worst gen to lose due to push of carrying over prior library's starting here. https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/4/2...il-spencer-xbox-one-generation-redfall-launch It has greatly benefited Nintendo, Sony, and Valve, since hundreds of millions of players now have invested into those ecosystems and thus would prefer to stay on them. But conversely has hurt Xbox due to botching the One and to a extent the Series generation so hard. There isn't that many invested into the Xbox ecosystem, and it's gonna be hard to convince people invested into those other platforms to move. And honestly with the way they're running like a headless chicken right now in terms of corporate strategy I suspect even they don't know how to fix this.
Who said Microsoft values this division that much? I haven't looked at the reports, but who knows, the corporate AI market brings in an order of magnitude more money than the gaming division? After all, Nvidia's gaming division, which holds a huge share of the graphics card market, brings in such a small percentage of profit that it barely covers new leather jackets for Jensen Huang.
Agreed on the Xbox One part, they made a big mistake on how they put this device on the market. Since console games since this generation are backwards compatible, people with a libary of games won't switch over that easily. Before you started each generation with an empty libary anyway. Well, this are hard times for Xbox, like in or invest a lot to get people on the Xbox eco system or let it go and loose everything. They are not in a position to lean back and see. The gaming industry in general is in a bad position now, because of multiple reasons. So we have to see who is gonna survive and who not. The increase of hardware prices, can end in a collapse of the industry when people can't afford the hardware anymore.
I clicked on the link to the Steam Machine last night when it opened and promptly closed it again. Even with the hardware price hike, that’s still nearly as much as a reasonably decent new PC. Which will allow me to run all the non Steam games like Open Rails, Run 8, check my emails, use Paintshop Pro etc. etc. Should have been pitched at the £400 - £500 mark, in line with console prices.
Steam Machine is a full blown Linux PC, so you can check you emails and likely also run non Steam games. Even Paintshop Pro will likely run with emulation.
Well yes, the price point is a hard pill to swallow, but looking at regular PCs prices nowadays it certainly doesnt seem too out of place sadly. 1000€ for a gaming PC is near entry level. And in the current market conditions it doesnt seem to get any better soon, maybe next year we look back to it as an awesome deal. I plan on getting one as replacement for my dying windows PC. I have a steam deck and im very happy with it and Steam OS. Also as said it (both the machine and the deck) can be used as proper dektop setups. browsing the web, emails, installing mods, everything. And SteamOS and linux really work like a charm, almost all games (steam or non steam) are playable on it. And you dont have to care about windows versions loosing support and their AI BS anymore
That’s what I read about it in PCGH. With the new Steam Machine, Valve is focusing on its own compact system measuring 16.5 × 15.5 × 15.3 cm. The small black cube is designed to bring SteamOS, the Steam library and a console-like user experience closer together. This is precisely how Valve is marketing the device: the Steam Machine is not intended to be a custom-built mini-PC, but a ready-to-use living-room system that appears simpler than a traditional gaming PC, yet remains more flexible than a console. Specifications: Compact cube with PC-like performance It is fitted with a custom AMD CPU featuring 6 cores and 12 threads, 16 MiByte of L3 cache and a maximum clock speed of 4.86 GHz. It also comes with 16 GiByte of DDR5 RAM. The dedicated Radeon graphics unit features 8 GiByte of GDDR6 graphics memory and is recognised by SteamOS as ‘AMD Radeon Graphics’ based on the Navi 33 architecture – the Steam Machine therefore utilises the RDNA 3 architecture (‘GFX11’) introduced in 2022. The GPU is most closely comparable to a slightly scaled-back Radeon RX 7600 (PCGH test). Whilst the retail graphics card offers a full configuration with 32 compute units and 2,048 FP32 units, only 28 CUs and, accordingly, 1,792 ALUs are active on the Steam Machine. The power budget drops from 165 (Radeon RX 7600) to 110 watts (Steam Machine GPU). Price: Valve’s cube exits the console market But now we must address the huge, cube-shaped elephant in the room: how much does the Steam Machine actually cost? The answer is, in fact, a little sobering. The cheapest version of the Steam Machine starts at 1,039 euros. This gets you the version with a 512 GB SSD, though without the Steam Controller. With the controller, the price rises to 1,108 euros. If you opt for the larger version with a 2 TB SSD, it comes to 1,359 euros without the controller or 1,428 euros as a bundle with the controller. The problem is that, in this price segment, Valve is no longer really competing with consoles. The company made it clear very early on that it was deviating from standard practice in the console market and would not be cross-subsidising the Steam Machine. Consequently, the price is more in line with that of low-cost PC systems, and this is precisely where the comparison becomes rather uncomfortable for Valve. More hardware for a similar price A custom-built system running Bazzite – an operating system similar to SteamOS – can be put together for a similar price. Our example configuration based on AM4 comes to around 1,010 euros. The AM5 variant with a Ryzen 5 7500F and 16 GiByte DDR5 instead of 32 GiByte DDR4 comes to just under 1,150 euros. Both systems are larger, less elegant and not as well suited to living-room use, but they offer better hardware.
It's a bit of a double edged sword, being a PC also means the hardware isn't all that special. And not to mention it lacks one of the biggest benefits of PC, upgrades are going to be much more limited due to its weird form factor. You'll have to buy a completely new machine to replace it, which will likely cost more than if you buy a slightly more expensive PC with comparable parts. At least then you can use that as a base and then upgrade the parts as needed, which can save cost over the long term. And on Linux, I use it, I love it, but it does have issues, notably that certain productivity software doesn't work on it. (I think various Adobe products don't, which means people that need them can't go to it) Likewise a lot of multiplayer games which use anti-cheat software that still doesn't work on Linux, if you play those games you're currently screwed. I play mostly single player, and the few multiplayer games I do play luckily all work, so the switch was a bit of a no-brainer, but that's not true for everyone. Granted, you could install Windows on it due to it being a PC, but frankly even that's a barrier, part of the reason people like pre-builds is they don't need to do anything but basic setup. Needing to go in and install Windows will put off people for those who are less tech-savvy. Buying a prebuilt alternative with Windows installed from the start is a lot easier for those people.
It's actually the same as laptops and other prebuild small form factor PC's, upgrades are not of almost not possible. Steam Machine is more like console hardware with desktop software. I will not say Linux has issues, it does what it has to do. I avoid Adobe software anyway, but not everyone can I suppose, as people has to use is for work. Anti-cheat software on Windows is also a no go for me, it sits way to deep in the system with to many rights and raises significant privacy and security concerns.
Now that one does rile me. I have a perfectly good PMDG MD11 add on for FSX on CD-ROM which probably cost me £40 back in the day. But Windows absolutely refuses to let me install it, even as Administrator or from a Command Prompt. A similar fate befell their own MSTS on disc, which eventually would not install due to the copy protection their own company applied to their own product back in the day.
I will say that's not the best example to use, because as far as I understand the "copy protection" it uses is actually a virus. If I remember correctly basically if it detects you have a pirated copy of FSX it just straight up deletes the entire directory without warning, bypassing a bunch of stuff you really don't want a fun flight sim thing to be able to bypass. Famously the guy that came up with that brilliant idea ended up adding Malware to the FlightSimLabs A320 which would steal your passwords if it was a pirated copy. https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/xa58qz/a_retrospective_on_that_time_fslabs_shipped/ Like it sucks, but this is one case where Windows being overprotective actually makes a lot of sense. Though for the record it can be bypass, but you need to install it via the admin account if I remember right, I do have that very MD-11 installed on my other computer.
