Competing with the console prices is not likely. Not only will they probably sell hardware at a loss, but they step on Sony and Microsoft territory, with whom they have deals to bringing games to steam. Selling at a loss works for consoles because games will recoup the loss. For pc there is no guarantee. If the steam box is that cheap, corporate sector will order steam machines (by the 100s or 1000s), without guarantee to recoup the loss.

Also, they use standard components. You can get the cheaper Version and upgrade in e prices drop. The beauty of pc gaming.

I think they might eat the extra costs because they know they'll more than recuperate it from increased software sales. Hell, XboX as a console was a loss leader for MS for over a decade.

This isn’t why it failed. It failed because the software, user experience, and compatibility was immature. That is no longer the case, as proven by the steamdeck, and offering a mature ecosystem with VR, controller, and console/PC that all interact seamlessly will be the major selling point. I’m expecting $799.99 for the low storage model, and if it performs as well as a typical $1000-$1200 PC, I think they’ll enjoy the same level of adoption seen by the Steamdeck. The target will be people looking for an entry level to PC gaming, and current PC enthusiasts on lower end hardware looking for an upgrade that’s simple and reasonably positioned price wise against traditional PCs.

I'm supportive of the effort, but unless it's under $500 (it's not) it's garbage and DOA.

I don't think that Valve will sell at a loss. Closed-system console vendors often do, then jack up the prices of their games and make their money back as people buy games. So why not Valve? Two reasons. 1. They sell an open system. If Valve sells a mini-PC below cost, then a number of people will just buy the thing and use it as a generic mini-PC, which doesn't make them anything. A Nintendo Switch, in contrast, isn't very appealing for anything than running games purchased from Nintendo. 2. They don't have a practical way to charge more for *just* Steam Machine users --- their model is agnostic to what device you run a purchased game on. So even if they were going to do that, it'd force them to price games non-optimally for non-Steam-Machine users, charge more than would be ideal.

It's going to be more than an Xbox, but not too crazy. Probably $800 is my guess.

What GPU/CPU did you go for to fit into that budget?

Yeah true the index headset wasn't a bargain compared to the quests that were clearly being sold as cheaply as possible.

Hah, this is where they get you and I’ve been dogpiled for this continuously. This is an illusion of an open system. Where are you going to buy games for Steam Machine? Steam obviously, there’s no competition. Then as your library grows you get more and more vendor locked. Then Valve does an Android application notarising switcheroo and you have Linux machine that’s no different from a Mac. Of course they can subsidise it, it’ll only accelerate the process.

Steam deck has customization you can buy with their points, I could see them getting some extra game sales that way

Also some of those old steam machines were comically expensive, in part because all the different vendors wanted a cut, in part because some of them made new cases

>VR, controller, and console/PC that all interact seamlessly I don't see it as a killer feature. In fact, the main advantage of these individual devices (as in the new ones, not Steam Deck) is that you don't need the others, rather than that they interact seamlessly. e.g with Steam Frame, you don't need a gaming PC to actually run Half Life Alyx to be able to play it. If you already have a gaming PC, at most it offers minor advantages over any other VR headset. e.g with Steam Machine, you don't need a gaming PC to engage with the Valve ecosystem and play on your TV. If you already have a gaming PC, you can already stream it to your TV for free. Also, ecosystem maturity won't fundamentally change that as a prospective steam machine customer, you will still need to configure game settings. You will still accidentally touch the trackpads in a way that causes issues in some games. Granted, the relative maturity and design improvements will make a big difference. But it's more of a difference in customer retention and satisfaction than a difference that will get Valve's foot in the door with someone invested enough in gaming to prefer a more open ecosystem, yet not invested enough to already own an equivalent console or equivalent/better gaming PC. There are many ways they could leverage a lower cost which Sony/MS can't/won't, e.g. make generic controllers compatible, sell the console without one, recoup margin on steam controllers (one of the highest-margin tech product categories around these days)

Prebuilt PC market is fucked, it could be 800 and sell like crazy, if the experience is good

Based on the specs it is a bit bumped up Ryzen 7000/8000 series (Zen 4 arch), with a beefed up GPU (sounds to be about two 780Ms soldered together with a bit of overclocking). I wouldn't be surprised if MS wanted a mid-generation upgrade to the Xbox but the current economic situation put a damper on it before the hardware could fully materialise and AMD ended up with a practically ready for production APU they couldn't sell to anyone before Valve strolled up.

Doubt it. The steam deck provides at least a compelling reason and it didn't sell all that great. This is just pissing money away on shitty hardware. Console buyers are not going to be pulled away from their eco systems and PC builders are going to know better. At best they're going to get a sliver of the pre built market and they will quickly adjust while the box sku will remain largely untouched. I'm looking for small cheap boxes to put in other rooms for the family and to replace consoles and it's a non starter for me. Who is actually going to purchase this thing?

Theoretically people could use it for a cheap non-gaming PC, except the cheapest non-gaming PC would be non-gaming specs. Anyone using it for cheap crypto-mining is an idiot, the cheap option there is a rack full of bang-for-buck GPUs. Are there any other use-cases that involve gaming-PC specs? Making videos, perhaps?

Microsoft and Sony have no leverage at all over Valve when it comes to PC sales. Reneging on their deals to bring their published games to Steam would only mean fewer sales.

No. It's going to be sub PS5 in terms of performance and should be priced accordingly. You can make the argument that games are a bit cheaper on Steam so they can maybe charge a premium for that, but I would only consider one if it could do the things my PS5 does at a similar price.

The issue is that if you sell the PC at a loss, you're effectively subsidzing every person and business who wants an SFF-PC but may not necessarily buy games for them. It's not like the Steam Deck where you can bet the majority of those devices are ending up in the hands of gamers.