More than ten years after the original Steam Machine initiative, Valve is coming back for seconds with a new iteration. Those who have followed gaming news since that original launch back in 2015 will no doubt be familiar with the failure of the original platform, and it’s easy to look at it and say the new Steam Machine is a recipe for disaster.
But the truth is everything is different for the second round of the Steam Machine’s life. From Valve and Steam’s position itself, to the state of the gaming industry, and what the hardware itself looks like, things are set up for a much more positive outcome this time around. It may not be a runaway success, but the Steam Machine has the potential to stand on its own for a good while into the future.
The Steam Machine is actually a great prospect — we’re just looking at it wrong
It might not be for you and me, but it justifies its existence pretty well
Linux gaming is a totally different beast
Not the big bad monster it used to be
Both the upcoming Steam Machine and the models launched all the way back in 2015 shipped with SteamOS, which is a Linux-based operating system. And even today, some users worry about the potential limitations of playing games on Linux, but if you still think things are bad today, the situation 11 years ago was absolutely terrifying.
Contrary to what many believe, gaming on Linux today is nowhere near a terrible experience. There are some games that won’t run, that’s true, but the Proton translation layer — developed in big part by Valve on top of Wine — has made it so that almost any game designed for Windows is technically capable of running on Linux, with very little work, if any, required on the developer’s part. Outside of games that actively choose not to support Linux, or titles that rely on kernel-level anti-cheat, just about any game you’d want to play can work on Linux, and as some people have found, many of them even run better on Linux compared to Windows.
In 2015, Proton didn’t exist. Proton was first launched in a very limited capacity in 2018, and only in the years following did it become the powerhouse it is today with support for basically every game. If you were buying a Steam Machine in 2015, you had to depend on the base Wine package, which was nowhere near as polished (especially for gaming) as it is today, or native Linux ports, which were exceedingly rare.
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In fact, SteamOS was initially developed more so with the goal of being a platform for streaming games from other platforms. The concept of a PC that tried to run games natively on Linux in 2015 was doomed to fail, but devices like the Steam Deck would later come to show that it was simply ahead of its time. SteamOS has become a solid enough platform that the Steam Deck is easily the most popular PC-based gaming handheld, and other handhelds have tried to follow suit with SteamOS-based variants in addition to Windows models. The idea tjh
Valve has established itself as a hardware maker
And SteamOS is better than ever
When the original Steam Machine project came to be, Valve really didn’t have any hand in the making of the hardware, and it was something the company really wasn’t known for. And the Steam Machine itself wasn’t just one product, it was a line of products that other companies would build, just running Valve’s software. And unfortunately, a lot of the brands that did get on board had a niche audience, including the likes of Origin PC, CyberPowerPC, Falcon northwest, and Maingear. The biggest names were arguably Alienware and Zotac, so the appeal was limited.
It didn’t help that the only hardware Steam was really known for at the time was the Steam Controller, the first iteration of which was notably very controversial. It replaced the typical analog sticks with touchpads, though it still featured a singular analog stick, and it just looked off. Many who tried will defend its ergonomics, but suffice it to say it didn’t make a great first impression, so the idea of Valve-backed hardware wasn’t exactly enticing to a lot of people.
But since the Steam Deck entered the market in 2022, things have changed. Valve’s handheld gaming PC features very ergonomic controls with analog sticks and buttons as you’d expect, while also still incorporating the touchpads that make PC gaming far more feasible. The Steam Deck has turned Valve into a respected hardware designer and manufacturer, and that gives the Steam Machine a lot more credibility. Plus, a lot of the lessons learned for the Steam Deck’s control scheme will also be in the new Steam Controller announced by Valve alongside the second-gen Steam Machine.
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SteamOS itself has also become a lot more friendly to TV use. While the original Steam Machine led to the creation of Steam Big Picture Mode, this interface was completely redesigned for the Steam Deck and it’s more friendly than ever when used with a controller, while also working completely fine with a mouse and keyboard. It’s a great user experience for gaming on a TV, and generally better than Windows itself considering the lackluster controller support there.
Gaming is more accessible than ever
And diminishing returns are actually a good thing
Back in the days of the first generation of Steam machines, gaming was in a different place in general. Getting the latest and greatest hardware made a meaningful difference in the experience you got, so when the Steam Machine was introduced with a relatively basic set of minimum requirements, it meant that a lot of these machines weren’t overly powerful when it came to gaming, and a lot of games may have run less than ideally (even excluding the problems with Linux). Plus, this made for fairly expensive hardware if you wanted a higher-end experience.
We don’t yet know the price of the Steam machine, especially amidst the RAM shortage, but we do know that it’s not a piece of hardware meant to compete with high-end gaming PCs, and importantly, it doesn’t need to. Valve says the Steam Machine can run “most games” at 4K and 60 frames per second, and for most people, that’s all you realistically need. Graphics are at a point now where any improvements feel increasingly less important, and much of it is eye candy you wouldn’t notice unless you’re comparing different settings side-by-side.
That matters both in terms of the upfront price and the long-term cost of running it. Looking at the spec sheet, the CPU on the Steam Deck seems to use just 30W of power, while the GPU has a TDP of 110W, meaning this system probably has a power supply in the range of 200W, which is more in line with a console than a typical PC. A PC with an integrated CPU and GPU at this level of power will likely be cheaper than a typical gaming PC, and it runs at a much lower power level overall, yet it will offer an experience that most people will be more than happy with.
I built a Steam Machine out of spare PC parts and you can, too
If you have old PC hardware lying around or an aging Windows laptop, you might be able to breathe new life into it with SteamOS
And we’ve seen that the price and power advantage makes a huge difference for popularity. The Steam Deck is one of the weaker PC gaming handhelds performance-wise, yet it’s the most popular because it’s both affordable and has better battery life than many of its competitors. If the Steam Machine can come in at a lower price and save money in the long run compared to a typical desktop, while still offering an experience that’s good enough, its sales potential is significant.
It all hinges on the price
Coming out at a bad time
Valve has spent the last few years setting itself up to become an even bigger name in gaming, and the pieces are all in place for the Steam Machine to achieve the success that its precursors never could. Linux gaming has become good, thanks in great part to Valve’s own efforts with Proton, Valve has proven itself capable of making fantastic gaming hardware, and the landscape of modern gaming favors mid-range configurations more than ever.
All Valve has to do to ensure the Steam Machine is a success is price it right, and that’s where the trouble may come in. The company has said it will be priced more like a PC than a console, and the AI boom has caused RAM shortages and surging prices that have already forced Valve to delay the announcement of a final price for its new hardware. Hopefully, though, the company is able to ensure a reasonable price considering the current landscape and make the product a success. As a bonus, it would push Linux gaming to the limelight even more, which can only be a good thing.
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