Tech
The Steam Machine will fail if Valve repeats this Steam Deck mistake
The Valve Steam Machine could be the single most important thing to happen to PC gaming in decades. However, the success of Valve’s first in-house desktop relies on how Valve chooses to distribute the Steam Machine. Will they make the right choice?
Valve needs to bite the bullet and partner with retail outlets to sell the Steam Machine
When the Steam Deck launched in 2022, Valve decided to only sell officially through the Steam Store. While you can buy the Steam Deck on Amazon and at other third-party retailers, it’s not being officially sold by Valve. While you might find sporadic stock at GameStop, you can’t just walk into a Best Buy, Walmart, or Target and pick one up like a Switch.
With the Steam Machine, Valve needs to change this. Sure, PC gamers already use Steam and have Steam accounts set up to purchase the Steam Machine and Steam Deck. However, newcomers to PC gaming might only have heard of Steam, and don’t have an account yet. Or, they might not even think to check the Steam website to buy hardware, as they think it’s only for games.
The Steam Machine isn’t for PC gamers, and that’s a good thing
The box has generated a lot of steam, but I’m not convinced.
Walk into a Best Buy and ask for a Steam Deck, and you’ll be shown to the handheld PC aisle with the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally X or Lenovo Legion Go S. There’s no Steam Deck to purchase in-store—Valve created a new category for other companies to profit from.
Whatever the case may be, the Steam Machines will need to be sold in retail if Valve wants to see mass adoption—be that just Best Buy or full retail adoption at Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, and others.
The Steam Machine could either be a niche product that sparks other companies to make similar devices (like the Steam Deck), or it could be a trend-setter and set the bar for others to try and reach.
The Steam Machine offers a catered PC gaming experience
Valve’s new Steam Machine is more than just another gaming PC—it’s an entire experience. From everything we know about the Steam Machine, it’s the most console-like gaming computer we’ve ever seen, which is a good thing.
Typical PC gaming requires carefully selecting your parts (or going pre-built), downloading games, then trying to dial in your game’s settings for the best experience. For enthusiasts, this is totally fine. For newcomers to PC gaming, it can be extremely overwhelming.
With Valve taking the same approach with the Steam Machines as they did with the Steam Deck—having a Steam Machine verified program—gamers won’t have to think about settings anymore. Of course, if you want to dive into the game’s graphics settings and tweak things yourself, that’s still available, but it’s no longer required.
Making PC gaming more accessible with this catered experience is something that the genre has been missing for a long time. I’m a big proponent that PC gaming is the best way to play games, but it hasn’t always been the most approachable. The Steam Machine seems to fix this.
The Steam Machine solves PC gaming’s most annoying problem
I really hope Valve doesn’t screw this one up.
Valve is missing out on a huge customer base by only selling the Steam Machine on Steam
Valve could make the best gaming PC in the world, but if it’s only available through the Steam Store, they’re missing out on a huge customer base. The average parent buying their kid a gaming PC isn’t going to visit the Steam Store, they’re going to visit Best Buy or Amazon.
Getting the Steam Machine into retail is the one thing that Valve has to nail. Even if the Steam Machine is priced higher than I’d like, having a console-like gaming experience on PC would still draw a huge crowd in retail.
The fact you can play online games with no subscription and many games are cheaper on PC than console through the abundance of sales is enough to drive a lot of people to gaming on PC.
Will Valve make the Steam Machine the next hot trend in gaming, or will they just create a market for other manufacturers to swoop in and steal their thunder? Only time will tell.
- 4K Capability
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Yes
- Brand
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Steam
The Valve Steam Machine is Valve’s first desktop designed to bring PC gaming to the masses. With a custom AMD Zen 4 CPU and AMD RDNA3 GPU, the Steam Machine will play games up to 4K60. The Steam Machine Verified program will make it easy for gamers to know whether a game will perform well or not. Designed in a small-form-factor size, the Steam Machine could be just the product console gamers have been waiting for to make their move to PC gaming.
If you don’t want to wait for the Steam Machine, or simply don’t care whether it’ll be sold in retail or not, then consider building your own. It costs under $1,000 to build your own and, in doing so, allows you to choose just how powerful your new gaming system is. Through Bazzite (which I just started running on my gaming PC), you can get a similar console-like experience—just without the Steam Machine Verified program.
