if you're willing to spend a grand just to free up a few inches of floor space I don't think you're going to understand the reaction of the average consumer to prices in the current economic climate
I understand there is a segment that is disappointed that the Steam Machine isn't being priced as a discount item, but there is a large segment that still wants to pay.
People that can afford a Steam Machine at the current price point are likely to already have stronger hardware.
A Mac Mini a similarly sized with like half the price with dramatically better CPU. Or if you could get a PS5 pro, still for cheaper with vastly superior gaming performance.
Valve could have started with a premium model for the hardcore fans that are less price sensitive and released a budget version later when maybe the RAM apocalypse has ebbed.
Still hope it sells, the form factor is amazing.
Who is it? Who wants a gaming machine connected to their TV? Every PS5 and Nintendo owner. Are they the target market? Why would a PS5 owner spend $1100 on a machine that places games worse if at all? So I can FPS with a mouse? DRM doesn’t work. So I can play RTS? No I’m sitting at my desk over my keyboard.
Who wants a Linux PC connected to their TV that doesn’t already have a Linux PC connected to their TV? Who wants a smaller, less customizable box? That you can’t swap out the graphics card when they inevitably become a lot cheaper? Who wants a last gen AMD GPU and not be able to swap it out for a 5080 once things are cheaper again and the 6060 comes around?
Who is this for? I’m not hating on it. It’s not for me and I don’t know who it IS for.
Lots of people don’t want to buy a ps5 and split ecosystems. Lots of people don’t want to tinker with sunshine.
Like, the sweet spot is they have to: 1. have $$$ of games, 2. have $1200 to spend on a second PC and 3. not have, nor desire to have, an upgradeable SFF PC.
$1200 is a 5070ti or a 5080 (just). We know they have a PC already (they have $$$ steam games). If I have a PC already and I play games, and it doesn't have a 5080, then I'm spending my $1200 on the 5080, not a living room console. So, now we're talking about someone who either has a 5080, or plays the kind of casual games that don't need a 5080. My experience is that those kind of games aren't great on a TV and a joystick. I'm not playing Factorio, Civ, Rimworld or Citizen Sleeper on a TV with a controller!
I've got quite a steam collection, but they are all non-console games. That's the distinction for whether I bought it on steam or for a console.
Is there a large demographic who bought console games on steam because they don't own a console?
Anyway, valve themselves have the demographics, so presumably they see a target market. I just don't know what it is! =)
And we don't know yet, but I am hoping for reliability. My gaming PC is a nightmare. Sometimes it works great. Other times, I have to sacrifice a goat to get the thing to work.
I assume many issues like that will still exist on Steam Machine, as it's kind of unrelated to what's running the buggy software.
There are fewer of those on Linux but they still exist.
My guess is that the extra $200 (over a custom built pc) will precisely be "everything mostly just working."