Have to say, it was more fun when the Steam Deck launched. That was a cool thing, afforded the space and the grace to just be a cool thing. The new Steam Machine, by contrast, arrives at a time when the creative industry it relies upon is being stripped to the bone, and the physical components it’s built upon are trapped in a historically terrible econo-ravaging. Also, everyone hates each other.
As powerful as Valve are, there’s only so much a little SteamOS box can shrug off. The original Steam Machines, sent on their way before the game support was ready, already proved it. And it’s impossible to ignore how this new system, pitched last year as another Deck-inspired entry in the underserved budget market, is nearly 900 quid - assuming you go for the lowest-spec option. This, alone, will surely launch a thousand YouTube thumbnails declaring that the Steam Machine (8th in Steam’s Wishlist charts at the time of writing) is dead on arrival.
That, however, would not be a deserved end. The Steam Machine might not spark the same childlike wonder that its handheld uncle did, but looking past the numbers and actually living with it – as a discreet but quietly capable companion, more at home under a TV than perched on a desk – reveals it as not just a superior to those original Machines, but truly unlike any other PC you could build or buy. That’s worth something, even if it that something isn’t necessarily 1208 of your pounds.
Read more
