Revenge of the Steam Machine.

So Steam announced that they are bringing out a new Steam Machine, this time designed in-house.


IF they can hit a decent price point I think they might actually be competitive in the console market this time, especially if Microsoft does try and price themselves out of the market with the next XBox, like they seem to be trying to do. They've got a huge library ready to go day one, since it essentially has all the proton-compatible steam games available out of the box, it looks nice(and even has customizable faceplates) and it can also run desktop Linux apps making it more flexible than any console since the PS3(before Sony disabled third party OS support). Maybe this will also convince a few game companies to enable their anti-cheat solutions on Linux as well.

They already said they intend to price it comparably to any other PC of its type, rather than sell at a loss like a console, so no, basically you're just buying a PC you can't upgrade or run Windows apps on for the same cost as one you can, just for an excuse to give Valve your money. And those so inclined are even less able to afford that now than they were a decade ago. I predict this thing will be dead in the water and have zero impact on the industry.

Hyped for the new controller though. It's been way too long but at least it's going to finally exist, and I'm eager to see if they finally fixed the haptic problem. New VR headset could be a game changer too if it's competitively priced.

Where is the disc drive?

Oh yeah.. I forgot.. For STEAM "FULLY DIGIITAL IS FINE!!!" For any other system "HOW DARE THEYYYYY!"

Sure, let's stick a disc drive in the machine that literally only plays games that no one sells on disc, and hasn't in like a decade and a half.

Pocket said:

Sure, let's stick a disc drive in the machine that literally only plays games that no one sells on disc, and hasn't in like a decade and a half.

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So are physical games necessary. Yes or no?

I like the idea of physical games, but it's not deal breaker for me these days. It's rather simple to copy games on steam to backup media for archiving. Only tricky part is stripping the DRM out in case steam goes under or turns into a typical tech company.

People still clinging to physical media for video games in 2025 is honestly ******* hilarious.

Like y'all have already lost the battle, digital games outsell physical games (and I don't just mean on PC) and have for a long ass time. You are the Japanese soldiers who didn't know World War II ended.

To say nothing of the fact that there's a goddamn reason why even the PS5 with a disc drive and the Xbox Series X require you to still install the content of your disc to the SSD - because optical media is slow as hell compared to an SSD. Even modern physical releases of video games aren't even actually being run off the disc.

Pocket said:

They already said they intend to price it comparably to any other PC of its type, rather than sell at a loss like a console, so no, basically you're just buying a PC you can't upgrade or run Windows apps on for the same cost as one you can,

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Because Proton and Wine don't exist, apparently.

To say nothing of the fact that this is a PC and Valve literally says you can put another OS on it if you want. So if you really need to use some piece of Windows software that won't run through a compatibility layer, you can go ahead and install Windows on it.

OK, then it's a PC you can't upgrade that costs as much as one you can.

Also, the people complaining about other platforms doing away with physical copies are probably not the same people who don't even own those platforms because they get all their games on Steam.

I like to have physical copies of games I'm strongly invested in, for various reasons.

In the Switch 2's case, it's in no small part to save on storage space in the system's memory for games I do have to get digitally for one reason or another.

I'm not a heavy Steam user, or PC gamer in general, though something like this might sway me. I was looking at getting some sort of dedicated PC for gaming on my TV if/when Xbox just full-on craps the bed, but what I have is already all digital there, anyway.

With Xbox and PlayStation, I have physical games I'd still like to be able to use going back generations, so having an option to be able to read those discs is important to me.

Frankly, I'm still annoyed that my wife grabbed the first discless PS5 she saw instead of our agreed-upon plan to get one with a disc drive. Incidentally, I've barely played PlayStation this generation...

Pocket said:

OK, then it's a PC you can't upgrade that costs as much as one you can.

Also, the people complaining about other platforms doing away with physical copies are probably not the same people who don't even own those platforms because they get all their games on Steam.

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While the processor and GPU can't be upgraded, apparently the storage is just a bog-standard NVME drive and is user upgradable and the system ram is on standard sodimms. It's more upgradable than a mac mini at the very least. It would make a great home theater PC, if the price is right.

Here’s my rambling thoughts on this new iteration of the Steam Machine (the Gabencube):

I really feel like this is a “long term” play by Valve. I think Valve is laying the groundwork for more significant things in the future by launching more of their own hardware. The Steamdeck has done WONDERS for game compatibility and translation to Linux, thanks to Valve’s support and the success of the device. I feel like Valve is taking some of the best lessons from the open source community AND from Apple: the OS is Linux based, and can be installed on anything with AMD hardware, but by making their OWN hardware, Valve has the opportunity to better tailer the experience (stuff like “SteamDeck settings”, but on more powerful hardware).
While Valve won’t offer streaming apps (because none of them are Linux native), but the OS itself is still a viable Linux platform (meaning, browser based solutions). I think Valve’s step in this direction could be another boon to the Linux platform. The biggest issue with Linux is that there is no “one version”, different flavors play differently and have varying levels of support. By Valve developing Steam OS (even with its gaming focus), there’s finally a Linux version that has the vertical integration the platform needs for wider adoption. Valve has the resources and focus to make a nice, stable, operation system that people are probably going to be less afraid of, or have more faith in stability.

And if more people are open to using Linux (especially on Valve hardware), that would offer incentive for mainstream app developers to offer native versions of their apps in the future (much as the SteamDeck did much to boost the profile of Linux as a gaming platform). And who know, more people on Linux, or Steam OS in particular, maybe Valve could expand its digital offerings from just games to other apps and digital content…


I feel that, depending on price, this is targeting at an underserved market: the intermediate gamer/semi-enthusiast PC user. I think there is a significant market of people who don’t need/want the latest and greatest…but for whom the typical “affordable” computing market is inadequate for. I’ve tried to find something like the SteamBox in the last few years, and couldn’t find anything to hit the “sweet spot” of performance and price and size. I ended up with a mid-tier gaming laptop to hit as many of my “points” as I could..but it’s still a pain to use due to its bulky size, iffy screen and other quirks. A desktop PC? Your choices below $600 are mid-tier office stuff or mini-pcs with passable APUs. Anything more powerful, the price leaps to $1000+ in massive towers. And aside from the four figure towers (and even this is true with some major PC makers), upgradability can be limited to non-existent. Used can be iffy and often not a viable value in many cases.
And all those issues are being compounded by the last 10 years or so of the crypto boom/bust, pandemic, and now an AI bubble causing prices on EVERYTHING to escalate.


Pricing is the biggest issue to me. My suspicion is that the base version will be about $600, with the 2TB model hitting closer to $750. Barring anymore extreme memory price increases (on average, memory has seen a 50-100% price increase over the past 3 months or so). Upper side maybe $800. Right now, an Xbox Series X or PS5 Pro are $650-750. If the device can hit close to that range, I think it will be successful enough.

Will note that Steam OS out of the box supports the KDE discover application that allows you to install all sorts of Linux applications(though it is missing quite a few). You can also install distrobox on it and install/run applications from other distros. Heck, it can run Heroic Game Launcher which can be used to manage games from the Epic, GoG and Amazon stores and run them through Proton(if configured properly it can even automatically add them to your Steam client when installed so they show up when browsing your library in Steam).

I've been comfortably running almost all my games under Linux for awhile now. Only the odd kernel-level anticheat title causes me to boot back into Windows these days.(I'm really hoping the adoption of Valve's new hardware can help rectify that issue) As far as desktop apps go, I don't generally use anything that has to run in Windows anyway. I admit I don't really use Adobe or Autodesk products, though.

Even with Heroic Games, there are some Epic games I still can't launch.

Princess Viola said:

People still clinging to physical media for video games in 2025 is honestly ******* hilarious.

Like y'all have already lost the battle, digital games outsell physical games (and I don't just mean on PC) and have for a long ass time. You are the Japanese soldiers who didn't know World War II ended.

To say nothing of the fact that there's a goddamn reason why even the PS5 with a disc drive and the Xbox Series X require you to still install the content of your disc to the SSD - because optical media is slow as hell compared to an SSD. Even modern physical releases of video games aren't even actually being run off the disc.

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This is completely missing the point. Aside from Nytetrayn's point about saving system storage space, it's not about where the code runs from. It's about ownership of the game. A functional physical copy is something that will always just work. There's no authorization or download required from a server that could just go offline some day. The company can't just decide to delist your game or ban your account. It's yours, and no one can just decide to make it stop working to try to force you to spend more money to play a game you already own. That's still something that's VERY worthwhile today. Possibly more than ever, as we keep seeing games delisted and online stores going offline.

How that physical copy works doesn't matter. It can be the thing the system directly runs the code from, like a Switch 1 cartridge. It can be just an alternative to how you get the data installed on your console, like a typical PS4/PS5 disc. It really doesn't matter. Either way, the game is truly yours.

Now where I grant you that it's feeling like a losing battle is that distinction about it being a functional physical copy. When a game has a required day one patch to even run, it's not functional. When it's only part of a game, or some of the games in a compilation (e.g. some of the Mega Man Legacy Collection releases), it's not functional enough. And Switch 2 game key cards are definitely NOT functional physical copies. I avoid such releases.

But when there's a true physical copy available for a game I actually care about, I definitely prioritize that. Otherwise, I just decide whether the price for a digital copy is worthwhile for a long-term rental, because that's all it is.

On a related note, I don't use Steam, and so have no interest in this or any other Steam hardware. If I'm going to buy a game for PC, it'll be on GOG, or similar stores that let me get the files DRM-free.

Exatron said:

How that physical copy works doesn't matter. It can be the thing the system directly runs the code from, like a Switch 1 cartridge. It can be just an alternative to how you get the data installed on your console, like a typical PS4/PS5 disc. It really doesn't matter. Either way, the game is truly yours.

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Any game that requires a download, even if you have physical media, is essentially the same thing as a digital download. A good chunk of new physical media releases on the Switch 1 and consoles dating back to the 360/PS3 era are like that. Eventually the company that owns the console will no longer have the files available on their servers and the disc will be useless.

Tm_Silverclaw said:

Even with Heroic Games, there are some Epic games I still can't launch.

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Only ones I've had issue with are the ones that use kernel level anticheat(frankly, requiring spyware to be installed to run a game is kinda wrong, IMHO), though there have been a few I've had to go in and tweak the profile for to get running.

Ungnome said:

Any game that requires a download, even if you have physical media, is essentially the same thing as a digital download. A good chunk of new physical media releases on the Switch 1 and consoles dating back to the 360/PS3 era are like that. Eventually the company that owns the console will no longer have the files available on their servers and the disc will be useless.

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I already mentioned not counting releases that require a day one patch to run. I'm not sure if you're saying the same thing here, or expanding that category to include other games too.

I mean, I guess I'd broadly group physical games as follows:

• Games that won't run without a download. I already said I don't count these as true physical copies and won't buy them.
• Games that have some of the game(s), but do not contain the full base content. I referenced this with some of the Mega Man Legacy Collection releases. I can't recall if it was Mega Man or Mega Man X where the card had only part 1, while part 2 was a download. I've passed on all the MMLC physical releases because of it.
• Games with critical bugs that get patched after launch. I mean, it's certainly not ideal, but I can't call it disqualifying. There have been plenty of games that shipped with critical bugs in the pre-digital era. FF6 Sketch bug, anyone?
• Games with other updates and/or DLC. Sure, I'd love to have all the content on the media. I actually like things like Game of the Year editions for that reason. But optional downloads and DLC are just that: optional. I can still play the core game without it.