Who is the Steam Machine for?

This has been a question that has plagued me for a while. While I have read many articles on this they are either overly enthusiastic or overly critical. I want to take a more practical approach.

I feel the Steam Machine is a good piece of equipment. It will be a useful for many situations. There will be people who will buy it as either old Steam users who want convenience of a console type device or people who are new to PC who want a console experience without the apparent difficulties that come with PC ownership. This difficulty I would like to add is a misnomer these days but this is of course based on my previous years of experience with PCs. Windows has got better at being user friendly (yes I know it has its issues still) and games and other programs are better at deciphering your PC specs and therefore knowing what settings to use. Obviously dedicated PC enthusiasts will still fiddle and tweak settings (because let’s be honest it is the best part to eek out that last frame or stop that last bit of screen tear).

I personally feel the biggest issue with the Steam Machine and in the past with the Steam Deck is marketing. Valve is just appallingly bad at marketing. They run with the Waynes World view of ‘make it and they will come’. I would like to add that huge sales where never Valves aim I don’t think. They seem very happy with the Steam Deck even though outside of Valve people keep comparing the sales figures to sales figures of other consoles. The Steam Deck was prone to suffer the same question before and after it released and yet it is the handheld everyone points to now as the trend setter and the best on the market, even though it is a less powerful than most of the others. The Steam Machine will follow this I think. It won’t set the world on fire, but it will set a trend.

You cannot understate the effect that Steam Deck has had on the gaming industry as a whole. The Steam Deck forced Microsoft to reengineer their Windows OS in order to have some parity with the Lynix based Steam OS that people have raved about. Steam OS performed the dual function of creating a slim, powerful, user-friendly OS that is not tied to anyone as such, as well as highlighting and increasing the visibility of Lynix based OS by showing how far they have come, how easy they can be to use and how much further they can go.

Steam OS is not entirely the wonder OS everyone makes it out to be. Don’t get me wrong I love the Steam Deck, but a lot of games just don’t work on it. There is a lot of fiddling to get some of them to work properly or even at all. Steam could use a dedicated system that auto-selects the correct compatibility layer or at the very least let the userbase create a selection of compatibility layers that people can select from in the vein of the user created controller schemes you can select to map out the Steam Deck controller before playing a game on the Steam Deck. This system has its own issues as the controller schemes often don’t work as there is no oversight from Valve to ensure that they are checked to ensure they work. The verification system Valve has in place for games is hit and miss in my experience. Sometimes it registers the game as Steam Deck Verified but doesn’t work as intended or it is set as not working but actually runs exceedingly well.

I am really interested in the Steam Machine and whether the sales of the machine are significant. Obviously, the AI annihilation of RAM and Solid State chips is not going to help Valve or any console provider when selling a device especially an untested and device with a smaller consumer footprint. I doubt Valve will subsides the device or devices when including the Steam Controller and Steam Frame that are also being released even if they are less spoken about. Based on the previous Valve devices they have released, these devices will be actually very good and well received by the people who buy it. The Steam Link and Steam Controller where both really good devices and everyone who used them said they worked exceptionally well. I have seen numerous people disappointed they are still not being sold. I regret not buying the Steam Controller when they were selling them for £5.

I wonder, considering the new Xbox and PlayStation devices are due soonish, what effect the Steam Machine will have on the development and design of these new devices. The OS changes that Microsoft have made in order to make the handheld experience better on their device just evidence that they are paying attention after the success of the Steam Deck. Although the Steam Machine is not a powerhouse in terms of specs compared to what the new consoles are likely to be, if their claims about performance on the Steam Machine hold true, and I can’t see they wouldn’t be based on previous experience of Valve and their claims around their hardware, then both Xbox and PlayStation may have to rethink their drive towards pure brute power in their consoles. More and more consumers are focused on good quality games rather than the drive towards the miniscule increments in better graphics and FPS.

I will not be buying the Steam Machine (I doubt I could convince the other half I need this after a new PC, Steam Deck and the Ally X) and really as I have these other devices I doubt I would need or want it. This is not a Device for me. I could see my son buying this as he could put it under the TV and then play his increasing Steam Library on it. This I think is Valves plan. There is a drive towards PC recently and this popularity may just work in the devices favour. If they can keep the price down, ensure more games work on the device through refinement of Steam OS and do more to ensure that console player who don’t follow gaming news are aware of the device, I feel they could do very well. I think the price will not land where people would like and will be a hindrance to the device. It won’t be seen, like the Steam Deck was, as a well-priced value for money option. It will be a hard sell to people already squeezed. This will be in the region, pricewise, where consumers will have to think hard as to whether they will pick it up. This is a shame as I think that if people bit the bullet and bought it they would see the value.