Steam Machine price leak disappoints gamers, but uncertainty over release date continues

[Redaktion]

Buyers hoping the Steam Machine won't strain budgets have more reason for concern. A Czech website has posted prices of $950 and higher for the compact PC, which is more than the PS5 Pro. There remains doubt whether Valve will delay the Steam Machine release date due to inflated memory prices.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Steam-Machine-price-leak-disappoints-gamers-but-uncertainty-over-release-date-continues.1200723.0.html

[Wrassin]

The dream police. They get inside of my head.

[what a joke]

has posted prices of $950 and higher for the compact PC, which is more than the PS5 Pro.

Wait, so Steam Machine's 8 GB VRAM cost more than PS5's 16 GB VRAM, minus 4 GB for its OS, = 12 GB VRAM)? GG VOLVO

And, ofc, the obligatorily: youtube.com/watch?v=ric7yb1VaoA "Gaming Laptops are in Trouble - VRAM Testing w/ ‪@Hardwareunboxed‬"

[So what]

It's difficult to really compare the price of the Steam Machine to the price of the XBox or PS5.

Typically, companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will subsidize the pricing of their devices and sell them at or near the cost to manufacture and distribute them.

They do this because you will have to buy new games in order to fully enjoy the new console. Selling you new games for a new console on a regular basis is how they make their money.

The problem for Valve is that many of the people that would buy the Steam Machine already have hundreds of not thousands of games that they can play, and won't necessarily be buying any more games just because they got the Steam Machine.

The PS5 is $549 for the 1TB model right now. So that with 7-8 games will run about $1000-$1200 for it all, depending on the price of the games when I buy them.

Alternatively, I could buy the Steam Machine, and automatically have access to 427 of my games that are verified to run on it and I wouldn't have to buy anything else. Plus there's the additional benefit of knowing that even if they release a newer version of the Steam Machine later on, the one that I have will still be able to play even newly released games (at least until the hardware requirements outpace what the first Steam Machine has in it).

[fair enough]

Fair enough, but the 8 GB VRAM are still going to be an issue with the newest AAA titles, as per the posted vid (some other big YouTubers also tested and posted similar vids).

[A]

has posted prices of $950 and higher for the compact PC, which is more than the PS5 Pro.

Wait, so Steam Machine's 8 GB VRAM cost more than PS5's 16 GB VRAM, minus 4 GB for its OS, = 12 GB VRAM)? GG VOLVO

It isn't surprising, just a matter of bad timing. In the case of Sony and MS, they likely long secured their ram supply. For Valve, they likely didn't being a new product and at the time they started there wasn't exactly a shortage.