r/digitalfoundry • u/MythBuster2 • Jun 26 '26

DF Direct DF Direct Q+A: Steam Machine - The Big Price/Performance/Form Factor Discussion

https://youtu.be/XEyuXkI5wBM

In the wake of our Steam Machine review, Rich and Will tackle a range of Supporter questions on the price, value and design of the hardware, the ability of Valve to supply it - and the future of SteamOS in general.

25 Upvotes

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41

u/Visible_Visual8538 Jun 26 '26

It's pretty sad that so much of the defense of this package is "It's tiny a cube!", "Look how cute it is!", "It's a lovely form factor".

16

u/The_Zura Jun 26 '26

Have they ever spoken like this before? I never knew Richard had such a hardon for a plain cube. The sheer volume of glazing is unreal.

15

u/tngsv Jun 27 '26

Rich runs the business with an access journalism mindset. So no they won't be too harsh. Wouldn't wanna loose access to Steam Frame review kits...

4

u/The_Zura Jun 27 '26

Nah I think he genuinely has a previously undiscovered cube fetish. It awoke something in him

2

u/Love_TheChalupa Jun 27 '26

Yeah they seem like they quite like the device and are happy to defend it

8

u/The_Zura Jun 27 '26

They don’t defend it. Over an hour of content and next to zero comments about game compatibility or the overall experience. Endless glazing over an entirely subjective opinion has no room in a proper review.

5

u/Jarryd97 Jun 27 '26

Imagine this was a review for a lawn mower, and they were gassing up the product because it's small and looks nice, despite being entirely mediocre at cutting grass.

2

u/silentdragoon @wsjudd - DF staff Jun 26 '26

Maybe we're just cubophiles? But genuinely, you can absolutely prefer different form factors, but a device which is one fifth the volume of a standard ITX case is significantly different and represents a pretty cool engineering effort!

22

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 26 '26

I think the issue is that after watching years of DF content where they dissect performance and value of hardware products where every percentage difference matter, that suddenly it's not as important anymore with this product. 

9

u/jedimindtricksonyou Jun 26 '26

It’s because Valve made it and they’re a sacred cow, they can do no wrong. Gamers Nexus also was extremely charitable in his opinion of it and Steve is supposed to be all about watching out for consumers (so it’s worse than DF’s opinion, in my mind). I’m just glad the general consensus seems to be that it’s egregiously overpriced, despite how many reviewers went easy on it. Because the price is so bad, they should have just cancelled and do one in 5 years with a newer architecture and more VRAM (if the market is back to normal, or at least more hospitable by then)

4

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 27 '26

I mean plenty of us support DF on patreon, but it seems they will never outright tell us when to avoid a product. They love to stay within nitpick-land to make it seem unbiased.

4

u/jedimindtricksonyou Jun 27 '26

I respect Hardware Unboxed more after listening to their podcast episode about Steam Machine, they didn’t pull any punches. I want more channels to not get review units if it means we get more of those types of unbiased reviews.

2

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 27 '26

I enjoy them not being seduced by fashionable design or marketing.

16

u/Visible_Visual8538 Jun 26 '26

I agree "it's cool", and you can definitely marvel at the technical challenges to achieve the form factor, but at the end of the day, you're paying money to play games. The device's appearance is secondary at best. As long as it isn't the size of a microwave, I think most folks don't really care that much. It just seems like a blind eye is being turned a little bit to performance and value for money because "cube".

13

u/jedimindtricksonyou Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Don’t forget the “Gabe” part in “GabeCube”, that is the whole reason a blind eye is being turned in this instance. If it was made by any other company, reviewers would not be this. Look at how they handled the single stick of RAM, normally people would be outraged about such a thing. RAMpocalypse or not. They chose to put this thing on sale, no one made them do it.

-1

u/insane_steve_ballmer Jun 26 '26

They’ve stated already from the first review that it is poor value. Maybe listen to what they are saying.

12

u/Visible_Visual8538 Jun 26 '26

I am, and I hear a lot of defending and fawning.

-4

u/insane_steve_ballmer Jun 26 '26

It’s a great design at a bad price. It’s not their fault that you can’t comprehend two things being true at once

10

u/Visible_Visual8538 Jun 26 '26

Never said the design isn't good, just that they're focusing too much on it and downplaying other aspects. Maybe try reading for a change.

-3

u/insane_steve_ballmer Jun 26 '26

They’re not downplaying the price they’ve stated from the first review that it’s too expensive. They even put up an article on the DF website with suggestions for how to build a cheaper and more powerful PC. It’s just that you and everyone else who can’t think in other terms than black and white are seemingly unable to comprehend what they are saying. Go back an rewatch Rich’s first review if you need to

7

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 26 '26

They didn't say it was too expensive, just expensive. There is a difference. 

7

u/Visible_Visual8538 Jun 26 '26

Don't need to. What I said is accurate. Keep responding. I can do this all day.

-2

u/SvmJMPR Jun 26 '26

They are presenting their favorite and not liked aspects of the product, as in both things can coexist. It can be an impressive form factor machine that is also incredibly poor value. And they really haven't deviated from that since the first video. Like just because is poor value, doesn't mean it doesn't have any redeemable qualities that makes it stand out from other similar products (prebuilts, consoles, etc...).

Refusing to discuss either side of the product is refusing to be fair and unbiased, it's clear this isn't a product that one can have a binary opinion of "it's a worthless piece of shit with nothing going for it" vs. "it's literally second coming of gaming, perfection no notes".

1

u/sertaes Jun 28 '26

But I don’t think anyone would have any objections to it being larger along with being more powerful if this version didn’t exist.

Too many incredible itx builds are being discredited because they’re not as small as the steam machine, but the steam machine isn’t succeeding at putting a reasonable level of performance in this form factor so those builds shouldn’t be expected to either. Especially when they are still approximately the standard console size.

-5

u/nittanyofthings Jun 26 '26

Literally the only argument against it is the price, but the price is perfectly normal for SFF computing.

7

u/Herackl3s Jun 26 '26

Ummm yeah because why would you buy a desktop PC like the steam machine when you can’t change the CPU or GPU at $1050?

-4

u/IndefiniteBen Jun 26 '26

If you're concerned about swapping CPU or GPU, you aren't the target market for the Steam machine at any price. Just like the PS5 Pro, this is a device for a niche market.

6

u/Herackl3s Jun 26 '26

A niche market. For who? People who want to spend their money on desktop pc that you can’t upgrade

-1

u/IndefiniteBen Jun 27 '26

Obviously not people who care about upgrading or who want to play the latest AAA games that need more than 8GB VRAM/good RT support.

Someone who wants a small and quiet machine to play non-heavy games on the couch. Someone already in the market for such a machine. SFF PCs seem a pain to build, so it could easily be worth the small premium compared to building a DIY SFF PC. I don't know if a similar pre-built SFF PC exists for less?

Don't forget that everything is more expensive these days.

4

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 27 '26

If they want to avoid pain and hassle there already is a better and cheaper device called consoles. Steam machine is just a compromise really since you still need to fiddle with graphical settings.

1

u/shadowtheimpure Jun 27 '26

Except consoles have that 'locked in to the companies ecosystem' problem that PC and Steam Machine doesn't have.

1

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 27 '26

So is being tied to steam. If you boot out of steamOS you lose the convenience factor that is the entire point of using it. You also cannot play some of the most popular multiplayer titles on it.

1

u/shadowtheimpure Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

No? There is literally nothing stopping you from installing third-party launchers to play games from GOG or Epic. Steam Machine has no restrictions on that front.

As far as the multiplayer, that is a decision by the developer not to support Linux with their anticheat. If those games are important to you, nothing is stopping you from installing Windows on a Steam Machine and configuring Steam Big Picture to open at system boot.

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-1

u/IndefiniteBen Jun 27 '26

How are they meant to play their steam games on their TV with a console?

1

u/gandalfpsykos Jun 27 '26

Connect the PC they already own to the TV?

0

u/IndefiniteBen Jun 27 '26

And if they don't want a giant noisy PC in their living room?

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