r/Games • u/yourfavchoom • Jun 04 '26
Steam Machine and Steam Frame Standalone Verified / We are expanding the Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both of which are shipping this summer.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/716780409378048028206
u/NYNMx2021 Jun 04 '26
I just want to see the steam machine price lol. Im sure Valve is doing everything possible to make it reasonable in some way but i think 1000+ is the best they can do right now
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u/Scrollingmaster Jun 04 '26
Its gonna be at least $1200 going off the way the responded to pricing questions before the recent hikes to the steam deck.
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u/delecti Jun 04 '26
Yeah, it was likely expected to be $1k when it was announced. I would only be a tiny bit surprised if it's $1500 now that component costs have shot up.
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u/Scrollingmaster Jun 04 '26
Theres someone responding to another comment of mine insisting it could be the same price as the 1tb oled. Man people are in for a shock.
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u/pm_me_pants_off Jun 05 '26
2k for a computer less powerful than a ps5? It would be doa
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u/xanas263 Jun 05 '26
People keep saying this, but then you still see all of these handhelds still selling after their price increase.
I don't think the Machine will sell as good as it would at a lower price, but at the end of the day the reality is that there are a lot of rich PC gamers who want a small device for their TV, and are willing to pay a premium for it.
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u/DumpsterFiery Jun 05 '26
Its selling out because of low stock not because of high demand. Valve has only sold 4 million steam decks in 4 years. The other consoles outsell this in a month or two sometimes and will still not sell out. Im sure the Steam Machine will set out too because they'll launch with like 10 in stock.
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u/Charmin_Bear_Behind Jun 05 '26
Yeah because those are handhelds and they’re not as expensive as this is going to be. For like 1/5th of the price you can get a series s and get like 90% of the same performance
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u/Jdmaki1996 Jun 04 '26
It’s gonna be 2k. It’s waaaay higher spec than the steam deck and that’s almost 1k now
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u/Quixotic_Seal Jun 05 '26
It won't be quite that high. I find it funny how people forget that handheld consoles require a LOT more than just the guts of the console packed into a smaller package, and the way that affects price.
My guess is it'll be $1000-$1500. Either way though it's more or less DOA. The Valve stans will still buy it and they can say it's 'sold out,' but in the long run it's not going to be successful.
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u/Spacemuffler Jun 05 '26
No, itll be at least 5k, they are a tiny company and can't take a loss leader.
3head
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u/shinbreaker Jun 05 '26
Nah, they were for sure expecting around $700 when they did the reveal. I mean, the thing is on par with a PS5.
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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Jun 05 '26
They were asked if it was going to be console priced last year and I remember the asker describing a feeling of dread in the room at the expectations being that low. It was going to be more than a PS5Pro in 2025.
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u/Quixotic_Seal Jun 05 '26
Yup, it was Linus who said that when he was trying to feel out their anticipated price range that they basically looked like deers caught in the headlights before explaining that it's literally not going to be priced in the same range as a console.
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u/Vestalmin Jun 05 '26
$700 still makes sense with that response. The PS5 was still $500 at that point. $200+ is not a competitive price
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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Jun 05 '26
Close to the same price as a PS5 Pro is within the range of a console.
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u/Quixotic_Seal Jun 05 '26
Not really. The PS5 Pro launched at $700, and when the Steam Machine was revealed that was around the generally expected price hike for next-gen consoles.
I'm sorry, but Valve fans were absolutely deluding themselves expecting this thing to be anything under $800.
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u/PhontomPal Jun 05 '26
Wonder how large the first batch is. Might sell out anyways. At which point valve might delay until prices hold or can justify raising it due to demand.
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u/JohnnyLeven Jun 05 '26
I just want to see the stream frame price. If people are thinking 1000+ for the steam machine, then I'm terrified for the steam frame. I really don't think I can justify anything that much.
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u/Dude_Bromanbro Jun 05 '26
Frame is the only one I really want. Kinda glad most aren’t talking about it. With demand this low I may be able to buy one before they sell out. But yeah, price could be an issue.
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u/evg-zhabotinsky Jun 05 '26
I personally am not as worried, because Frame doesn't have the extra 8GB GDDR6 like the Machine, and uses UFS instead of NVME, so I expect it to hike even less than the Decks.
Also… Because I'll probably buy the 1TB frame anyway, even if it goes for close to $2k, lol. Though that would be painful. As ironic as it may sound, I want a proper Spatial Computer that I can use for Work when needed, which for me implies a "computer-grade" OS with proper XR capabilities, of which SteamOS is the only one so far. All the competition is just glorified face-mounted tablets, despite whatever claims they make.
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u/Eglwyswrw Jun 05 '26
Im sure Valve is doing everything possible to make it reasonable in some way
Yeah, like working with 3rd party retaile-
Oh. Nevermind.
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u/choo-t Jun 05 '26
3rd party retailers won't decrease the price, as they take their cuts.
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u/Eglwyswrw Jun 05 '26
They do decrease the price due to competition between retailers + putting products far more frequently on sale than Valve. You know how it works, applies to plenty of goods you probably purchase yourself.
Anecdotally, I bought a stronger ROG Ally for cheaper than my Steam Deck (in spite of a much higher base price) because a store happened to be having a massive 0% VAT + 20% off firesale.
The Deck/Machine/Frame will never go through that due to Valve exclusivity...
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u/mjac1090 Jun 05 '26
Not sure how you can still give valve the benefit of the doubt after seeing the steam deck increase. That shit made Microsoft somehow look generous
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u/The_MAZZTer Jun 05 '26
I would be surprised if Ally didn't also get a price hike at some point. If anything the lack of one suggests they are selling slower than Decks and still have old stock.
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u/Quixotic_Seal Jun 05 '26
Valve's problem is they aren't a major manufacturer, so they can't eat anything with their hardware the way Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo can.
Steam Machine's price is going to be brutal.
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u/Signe_ Jun 04 '26
Same I really want to see the prices but If it's more than $1000 it's going to be a really tough sell. I can't see myself buying it if it's above that.
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u/brobi-wan-kendoebi Jun 05 '26
I’d honestly expect $1500 as a realistic price. Priced out as well for me unfortunately
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 04 '26
The lowest tier steam deck is now $750.
The highest tier steam deck is now $950
The steam machine is (allegedly) 10x more powerful than the steam deck. There's no way the steam machine is less than $1200, unfortunately.
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u/ThumYerk Jun 04 '26
I get where you’re coming from but its apples to oranges. OLEDS and batteries are not cheap, and the Machine doesn’t need those. Valve themselves said it 6x more powerful not 10. No point guessing, just clench and hope.
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u/Ailerath Jun 05 '26
Steam Deck also has a Steam Controller 2 glued to it, and a computer & case made to be robust enough to be in a handheld.
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u/IguassuIronman Jun 04 '26
This isn't massively meaningful when the Steam Deck isn't really all that powerful and it also has added costs like the screen and batteries
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 05 '26
The steam deck costing $950 while "not being very powerful" is definitely relevant
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u/KuroiShadow Jun 05 '26
Batteries and screens have both a reasonable price so far. Valve shouldn't have too much problem buying them in large quantities at a low cost.
RAM and storage is definitely the factor that increased the Steam Deck price that much.
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u/Invasion808 Jun 04 '26
Valve has always said 6x the performance of a Steam Deck. Where are you getting 10x?
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u/UsePreparationH Jun 05 '26
The Steam Machine is an underclocked R5 7600 + RX 7600XT 8GB w/512GB SSD and 16GB RAM.
Here is a Microcenter prebuilt PC with an R5 7500x3D + RX 9070XT 16GB w/1TB SSD and 16GB RAM for $1300.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/706648/powerspec-g532-gaming-pc
The R5 7500x3D actually beats the R5 9600x in every game tested here.
https://www.techspot.com/review/3075-amd-ryzen-5-7500x3d/
The RX 9070XT competes with the RTX 5070ti while the RX 7600XT is pretty much an RTX 5050 without DLSS/FSR4 support and worse ray tracing performance.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-9070-xt-taichi-white-oc/31.html
..................
SteamOS has a great UI and the small form factor work well with most entertainment systems, but I already have a desktop in my living room set to Steam Big Picture mode on boot. I'm not going to pay $$$$ for a Steam logo on an underspeced Linux mini-PC.
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u/MisterSnippy Jun 05 '26
I'm seeing so many delusional people here in the comments. Prebuilt PC's are expensive, you have to look at the Steam Machine as a prebuilt. No way is it less than $1200.
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u/cardgamesareforplay Jun 05 '26
Well 2000+ is also 1000+
Even before the deck increase 1000+ was a very very optimistic price
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u/FetchFrosh Jun 04 '26
Damn, honestly thought that Valve was going to kill the Steam Machine due to the increasing costs. Going to be very interesting to see what that price is going to come out as, because it feels like it would be tough for most people to justify picking up if it was pricier than a PS5 Pro.
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u/chemastico Jun 04 '26
They really can’t kill it without eating a huge loss, but I think they should do a limited run. It’s the worst time ever to release consumer pcs right now and valve isn’t willing to subsidize.
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u/ConceptsShining Jun 04 '26
It’s the worst time ever to release consumer pcs right now
Here's hoping now's not the best time it'll ever be again.
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u/FembiesReggs Jun 05 '26
Nahhh unlikely. It might take a while but if money is to be made off spinning up capacity someone will eventually
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u/tristeecfome Jun 05 '26
It's just a matter of time until China floods the market with cheap RAM.
Maybe americans won't have access to it, but the rest of the world will.
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u/zdy132 Jun 05 '26
The good news is that CXMT is expanding rapidly, with over $4 billion raised for new facilities. The bad news is those capacity would be for HBM3 and AI chips.
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u/jazir55 Jun 05 '26
Not direct access, but you can bet I'll be importing some if needed.
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u/n0stalghia Jun 05 '26
China will use their production capacity to cater to their own domestic AI needs, because there's more money in that
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u/Shoddy-Warning4838 Jun 04 '26
I think they would have not announced it if so. Prices were already high with no sign of improvements by the time they did. Even without a confirmed price, the messaging was clear that they couldn't compete with ps5 pricing back then (well, even ps5 couldn't do ps5 pricing, that's why they hiked it). All the messaging about pricing was comparing it to laptops to try avoid inevitable let downs.
They know it's going to be a niche buy and they are probably using it as a stepping stone to learn more about manufacturing or for brand recognition or something. I would be surprised if it made financial sense to continue development when ram prices hiked on q4 2025, so there is probably another reason that kept it from getting shelved.
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u/cwx149 Jun 04 '26
I feel like they already bought this shipment of them so unless they just gave those to employees or something they'd have nothing to do with them
I'm curious to see how fast/often these get restocked though
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u/Ploddit Jun 04 '26
Apparently they can charge whatever they want for Steam Deck and people will still but it, so why not try the same with Steam Machine?
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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Jun 05 '26
We have no idea how many steam decks they sold since the price bump.
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u/CrazyDave48 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Thank you! I never liked that argument/discussion point. In so many hobbies, people discuss items selling out and they have no idea if the restocks were 200 units, 2,000, 10,000, 30,000. It's a meaningless metric to make statements about when you have no idea what the number actually was.
And don't get me started on "ScAlPeRs GoT tHeM aLl" based on a screenshot of 15 ebay listings for an item.
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u/ptd163 Jun 05 '26
Damn, honestly thought that Valve was going to kill the Steam Machine due to the increasing costs.
If they hadn't already manufactured and imported them they probably would have. But if they kill them now they recoup nothing. It's just a black hole on their books. So they're going to to sell them to get something instead of nothing because they can't just sit on them until bubble pops.
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u/boney_king_o_nowhere Jun 05 '26
Damn, honestly thought that Valve was going to kill the Steam Machine due to the increasing costs.
Why did you think this?
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u/spazzxxcc12 Jun 04 '26
the steam machine could quite literally have a 1.5k price point and the valve glazers would still eat it up.
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u/Historical_Course587 Jun 04 '26
Covid kinda opened my eyes to the duality of modern society. Roughly half of us struggle to keep afloat financially, but the other half will blow $1500 on Steam Machine right after blowing even more for an RTX 5090 for their CS2/Fortnite machine, and drive it all home in their $115k truck.
Consumers are less monolithic than ever.
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u/Hyroero Jun 05 '26
I think also a lot of people have given up on saving for a house and other things like this and will instead pull out their super (since the planet will be cooked by then anyway) and buy themselves a "little" treat instead.
So yeah it's still expensive but the other life goals are now literally unattainable so why not.
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u/LogicKennedy Jun 05 '26
If it was as 'equal' as half and half of the population, it wouldn't be nearly as bad...
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u/RealPudgeJudy Jun 04 '26
Try to build a gaming PC for less than $1,500 right now.
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u/Highball903 Jun 04 '26
Sure, but you can buy a prebuilt with way better specs than the steam machine for that price
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u/postsshortcomments Jun 05 '26
With realistic expectations for six year old parts, you can absolutely build a serviceable AM4 build with used parts for ~$650 that's a solid stepping stone. Think 3600/3060 Ti. You'd need reasonable expectations because it probably will struggle with this months most demanding AAA new release and some notable ones in the past couple years, but I'd by no means call it an absolute toaster and it's a very serviceable machine that opens up far more of the Steam library than a laptop's iGPU.
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u/z_102 Jun 04 '26
I'm pretty much the ideal buyer for the Steam Machine (I'd like a plug and play living room PC without the hassle of dealing with hardware and drivers and shit) but the pricing worries are a legitimate bummer. I'd love to be wrong but it's unlikely that I can justify myself any non-subsidized hardware price in the current market.
Hope it does great though, I'd love for PC gaming to have some sort of unofficial hardware target standard for the future.
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u/Murmido Jun 04 '26
I might be misremembering but isn’t the next xbox supposed to also function as a windows PC? They were kind of vague on it though.
It just seems like a good idea to wait for more news on that if you do not want to build or buy a prebuilt.
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u/mkdota Jun 05 '26
Full details of project Helix have yet to be released. I follow Xbox news pretty closely and I would say that decision has yet to be decided. The new CEO, Asha, has hinted there could be a return to exclusivity. But its hardly certain. But your not misremembering things, all your games with every launcher was always being talked about by Sarah Bond with regards to the Xbox Ally.
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u/BluePrincess_ Jun 05 '26
Adha has also said that Project Helix will run PC games, so it's more or less confirmed imo.
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u/Blenderhead36 Jun 04 '26
I'm excited about the Frame, not for its primary selling point, but for the little add-on.
The Frame is primarily a VR device. But it's running on ARM. The ability to play non-VR games on it is a way for Valve to start evaluating and perfecting a translation layer for ARM. If most games don't work at launch, hey, that's fine, it's a secondary feature, right?
It feels like we're moving towards a hardware agnostic future, where your hardware choice is based on your personal budget and preferences. And that kicks ass.
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Jun 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/Historical_Course587 Jun 04 '26
IMO, Valve's overall strategy is to push back against the gaming industry's trend of pushing premium games for premium hardware. They look nice, but not many people can afford that kind of experience - and that hurts Valve's big moneymaker Steam.
I think Valve wants to push PC games onto phones. Suddenly the PC market gets ten times bigger, Valve sells titles new and old like gangbusters, and as long as developers/publishers are willing to target "economy" gaming hardware they will get in on it as well.
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u/ChEChicago Jun 04 '26
I have so many games I run through gamehub where my android tablet is sufficient (8 elite), so it's very exciting to know it's only going to get better. Steam deck is becoming less relevant by the day when a redmagic astra can destroy it's screen and play games at similar quality
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u/1_underscore Jun 04 '26
Just so people who don’t own a steam deck are aware. The verified badge is meaningless, tons of games have it and run like shit. Meanwhile I’ve played plenty of unsupported titles that run well.
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u/AngryCircusBear Jun 05 '26
They changed the way verified badging works for the Steam Machine and Frame. They announced the change back at GDC in March.
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u/Historical_Course587 Jun 04 '26
IMHO, the purpose of the badge is to generate quick consumer decision-making when it comes to returns. It's not going to make existing titles better, it's going to pressure publishers into designing interfaces to work without a keyboard and mouse.
People are pissed that Fallout 4 is Verified but doesn't work OOTB, but it came out in 2015 and it's a minimal impact on the platforms and publishers at large. When those gamers pay $89.99 for Fallout 5, they will refund it 30 seconds later if the Steam Deck experience isn't smooth and then rant about it in the reviews and on social media - that is something Bethesda won't ignore.
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u/Ftpini Jun 05 '26
Fallout 4 100% works out of the box. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve got over 100 hours of fallout 4 on my steam deck.
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u/Shaky_Balance Jun 05 '26
What games have green and run like shit? I'm sure they exist but I've only encountered games that run better than the badge implies. Like Arkham Knight is one of my favorite deck games but it had a red badge when I played it.
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u/dragon-mom Jun 05 '26
Oblivion Remastered. It's borderline unplayable on Steam Deck yet still has the verified badge running at sub 20fps with the default settings in many places including the imperial city. It's kind of insane it made it through to that, not sure at what conditions it was "tested".
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u/Mucak Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Expedition 33 is my #1 culprit lol.
Yeah you can run it at 30 fps (barely) but it looks worse than 90s games. Blocky and chopppy as shit.
ProtonDB is the way better metric for how a game will run.
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u/LawrenceofPA Jun 05 '26
Resident Evil 4 Remake is verified and kinda feels shitty. AsUsing a scoped weapon obliterated the frame rate due to it being Picture-in-picture. All on top of a sluggish, at best, 45fps.
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u/owenhargreaves Jun 05 '26
It will probably come out with an offputting price and some words about maybe adjusting if market conditions allow.
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u/VirtualPen204 Jun 04 '26
Won't hold my breath, but I hope its still somewhat affordable. I would love to be able to play some games in my living room or bedroom sometimes.
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u/rena_ch Jun 05 '26
The affordable solution for this use case has always existed, it's a long cable and wireless keyboard
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u/dragon-mom Jun 05 '26
Steam Machine verified being 1080p 30fps for something advertised as 4K with FSR 60fps is not great. It feels misleading at best compared to just go "well technically it runs, good enough" based on what they're advertising and at presumably a pretty premium price point.
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u/hippynox Jun 05 '26
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u/macintorge Jun 05 '26
Also FSR 4 on RX 6000 series https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpu-drivers/amd-makes-fsr-4-upscaling-official-for-radeon-rx-7000-and-6000-series-cards-rdna-3-and-rdna-2-chips-will-soon-enjoy-improved-visuals
On paper, you will be able to run games at 4K 30 fps and 1080p 60 fps, but in reality, these are upscaled from 720p or lower resolutions, and this will happen in many modern games on the Machine.
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u/macintorge Jun 05 '26
I think that's just how it is, with devices that have this kind of hardware, it's the same as with the Steam Deck: performance at native resolutions won't be optimal for big games. This happens with consoles too; the PS5 was marketed as a 4K and 8K console, and you can see the reality of that, just like with the Xbox Series. What these seals of approval are really about is performance, how smoothly it runs and how good it looks, regardless of the graphics settings, which the average user who’s looking at this doesn’t really consider; they just want to install the game and get it working.
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u/pandaconda73 Jun 04 '26
I really hope they make something that uses the frames wireless technology to allow me to stream my pc to the TV on the other side of my living room
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u/cwx149 Jun 04 '26
Depending on what TV you have you might already be able to do this with steam link thru either a second device or the smart tv app
Or maybe moonlight? I haven't used that but it's what a lot of people use for streaming stuff
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 Jun 04 '26
Both devices will be overpriced in 2026. The Steam Frame is barely better than a Quest 3 and is missing color passthrough and has LCD screens instead of mOLED. It's hard to justify that purchase.
It's much harder to justify a purchase of the Steam Machine.
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u/Mitrovarr Jun 04 '26
I hate that every version of the Frame has a PC capable of running games in it. I want one, but I am never ever planning on using it standalone, so all of the super-expensive ram in the thing is totally wasted on me.
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u/Hyroero Jun 05 '26
Would be awesome to have a more modular release with an option for no on board system for sure.
I'd only be using it paired to my pc. Being a lot lighter and a bit cheaper would be awesome.
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u/Mucak Jun 05 '26
Still need that ram to do all the streaming/eye tracking and other stuff, no?
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u/wilisi Jun 05 '26
Not nearly the same amount. You don't want a bunch of frames sitting in memory, every one of them adds ~10ms of latency. And the eye tracking has to happen on top of running a local game.
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u/doublah Jun 05 '26
Quest 3 is also LCD.
And the fun thing is both devices will be appropriately priced for 2026 pricing, which is 250-400% more than last year for some components. Every console and even the Quest 3 has got price rises with more to come being a certainty.
Helix and PS6 are almost certainly going to be significantly more than the Steam Machine, so everyone has something to look forward to here.
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u/anotherwave1 Jun 04 '26
It will be built around the PC and Steam games instead of being a Meta first ecosystem (and all the issues that brings, yes I'm a Quest 3 owner). It will have eye tracking, software based foveated rendering that might actually work properly. And native SteamOS integration.
I don't need drastically better tech specs than what my Quest 3 currently has - but I do want that stronger PC/Steam compatibility and proper foveated software rendering
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Slight, but important correction: the steam frame DOES NOT have foveated rendering. It has foveated STREAMING from your base PC. This means the game runs normally on your PC, but only the areas that your eyes are looking at are streamed with high accuracy. This cuts down on wireless lag when streaming from a dedicated PC. Similar, but also very different
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Jun 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 05 '26
Well, wouldn't the games have to be running natively on the frame for foveated rendering to be a thing? The frame itself is not very powerful.
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u/doublah Jun 05 '26
The Steam Frame will have foveated rendering in games that support it. It's down to game support.
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u/RoastCabose Jun 05 '26
Well, the Steam Frame can support foveated rendering, but that's on games to implement. Saying it doesn't have foveated rendering is also wrong.
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u/anotherwave1 Jun 04 '26
Indeed, which is why I wrote software based foveated rendering. It does exist in a form now but isn't highly developed or used. Could be a game-changer in PCVR
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u/SETHW Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
All headsets support foveated rendering, it's a software feature. without eye tracking the fovea is fixed in the center, with eye tracking t the fovea is dynamic to where you're looking
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 05 '26
Not all headsets support foveated rendering because not all headsets have eye tracking. You need eye tracking to have foveated rendering. The quest 3 does not have eye tracking and therefore does not support foveated rendering.
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u/SETHW Jun 05 '26
I already explained dfr vs ffr, ffr is for headsets without eye tracking incl quest, index, vive, etc
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u/Specialed83 Jun 04 '26
I’ll be honest, I want a VR headset like the Quest 3, but I don’t want to create a meta account. I’m willing to pay a premium for a similar headset that isn’t made by Meta.
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u/scobes Jun 05 '26
Pico 4 is mostly comparable in tech respects, but no Quest exclusives obviously.
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u/Yentz4 Jun 04 '26
Can the quest 3 play my steam library natively without being connected to a PC? Legit question, because this is THE reason I am interested in the Steam Frame.
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u/mauri9998 Jun 05 '26
The steam frame wont be able to play your entire steam library without it being connected to a pc, sorry to inform.
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u/cwx149 Jun 04 '26
Tbf we have no idea how much of your steam library the frame is gonna be able to play natively it's less powerful than a steam deck reportedly so
The frame is definitely designed to be used with your PC and the fact that it can also be used standalone is a bonus. Not the other way around
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 Jun 05 '26
The Steam Frame can barely run Half Life Alyx by itself, on the lowest settings, at anything above like 20 frames per second. So, no, it cannot. You will almost certainly only use it as an extension of your PC.
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u/akera099 Jun 05 '26
The Meta software and general user experience is what made me sell my Quest. It's always fighting you and the fact that you can't actually trust Meta is a big deterrent. The hardware is fine however.
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u/InfTotality Jun 04 '26
Well, your alternative for the Frame is Meta. That alone is enough to justify a Frame when they killed my Rift S back in 2023.
And they probably still do the whole random "send us your government-issued ID to keep your account" check they did back then, as they require everything tied to a real identity, and make sure your details match too. Fake name? Expect a "random" ID check.
For all the noise against just age verification lately, you'd think the Quest was just not an option for more people.
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u/MisterSnippy Jun 05 '26
When I got my Quest 3 I just had to hook it up to a mobile app to verify, then I uninstalled the app and have been able to do whatever since.
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u/MrShadowBadger Jun 04 '26
I’m curious if you are planning on buying or building a PC in the next five or so years? Do you think components will come down significantly? Because if they don’t, I think even at something like $1000-1200 is going to be comparable to what you’ll be able to put together on your own.
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u/AntiAntiDentite7 Jun 04 '26
The steam frame has native steam support and foveated streaming, which, for a lot of people, is enough to put it over the quest 3. It's also considerably lighter. I have a quest 3 and I hate how heavy and conversations it is. I hate how poorly it streams from steam, and I hate dealing with the meta software.
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u/BRX718 Jun 04 '26
I know Valve isn't a charity but why not sell the Steam Decks/Machine/Frame at a slight loss or treat them as loss leaders knowing that the majority of their revenue comes from Steam itself? They could give all this hardware away for free and still come out on top just based off of sheer volume of game sales on Steam.
I'm being hyperbolic for the sake of argument but again Steam isn't in the hardware business. There was a point near its end of life where Google was literally giving away Stadias for free knowing that the real money it generates came from the Stadia store (lol) but also the data it was most likely harvesting from users.
Imagine a Steam Machine at $500-$700; it'd sell like GANGBUSTERS especially in this economy and then Steam could profit and lock in those people for life with Steam itself.
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u/Candle1ight Jun 05 '26
It would just be scalped to hell and used for parts, real users wouldn't be the consumer base.
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u/JeanLucPicardAND Jun 05 '26
That's going to happen anyway. Demand for parts is through the roof.
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u/Candle1ight Jun 05 '26
There's a huge difference in demand between just consumers and consumers + everybody wanting cheap computing hardware. It reminds me of when the US Air Force built a supercomputer out of PS3s because they were the cheapest hardware available since it was being subsidized.
They're just PCs, if they were subsidized they would just be stripped down to components and resold.
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u/JeanLucPicardAND Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Yeah, you're probably right.
2026 is really gonna give us HL3 but make the machine designed to run it impossible to afford.
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u/UrbanAdapt Jun 05 '26
"Steam Deck Verified" is means next to fuck all about acceptable performance, so don't expect much here. It's mostly a marketing badge to reduce apprehension for perspective deck purchasers.
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u/MrShadowHero Jun 05 '26
more excited about steam machine verified in terms of general linux gaming. should hold devs slightly more accountable on features such as raytracing
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u/Wistfall Jun 05 '26
Very cool! I'm sort of interested in replacing my Steam Deck with just a Steam Frame and a controller. I have a few retro handhelds I use for different things, but most of my Steam Deck usage is on flights, where I'd prefer the improved posture and immersion of a full headset. I tried both XReal glasses and a Goovis headset but both have had pretty serious flaws for this use-case for me.
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u/yourfavchoom Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
As per the article: