It's a console for people who like PCs
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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And a PC for people who like consoles
Exactly. I have a PC and a Steam Deck but I'll buy it if the price isn't completely off-putting. It's just perfect for the living room.
You'd think those people would already have a PC...
Not one hooked up to their TV
May I introduce you to Sunshine and Moonlight.
No, I’m not asking you to open your curtains. Long as you have a good connection between your PC and TV, and some small TV device, you can play a lot that way.
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The use case is it's going to introduce gamers to Linux. And it's going to prove that in PCs, just like consoles, you don't need Microsoft to game.
I'm not a Linux person, but Microsoft, big corpos and oligopolies generally, are really starting to irritate me. I am looking at more and more ways to get them the fuck outta my life.
And maybe Linux is the way for tech stuff.
I’m not a Linux evangelist, but I will say that after an initial “what on earth is this” period of learning the basics and doing some distro-hopping, I’ve found that I really like Linux. It can meet all my needs, it’s a comfortable daily driver, and I have no desire to go back to Windows.
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The Steam Machine is the new Commodore 64 or Apple IIe. For one price, it's going to do almost everything just good enough.
If the price isn't ludicrous, it will likely be my default recommendation to anyone asking what PC to get for grandma.
Can she check her email?
Yes.
Can we just hook it to her TV?
Yes.
Can it play some kind of cooking simulation party game with the kids?
Yes.
Okay send me a parts list.
No parts list, just buy one and hook it up.
Okay. How often do I have to buy an OS upgrade?
Those are free.
Which game controllers work with it?
Pretty much all of them, but it probably also comes with one.
This is going to be the stupidly easy answer for casual gamers and casual PC users, as long as it doesn't cost double what either of those would.
Ngl price part mainly depends on how much chatbot girlfriend technology is hoarding up everything.
Hopefully it all will crash by then.
I want to just buy games and have them work on my machine. So a console.
Microsoft is surrendering the console war.
Sony has already put malware in their products and I will not be their customer again.
Nintendo is super locked down.
Valve has always shown me excellent customer service.
Nintendo has made it better to buy a fucking steam deck and pirate their games. I think the steam deck and the GabeCube will splash the market with better performance than other consoles, better use cases and usability, and therefore make other companies make there consoles better.
As a Nintendo fan, Nintendo is like all of our toxic boyfriends. But if Nintendo either a) licensed their games to other devices or b) allowed there devices to run linux/pc games I would step (a lil bit) back on the Nintendo train.
I disagree on what it would take to bring me back to Nintendo, cause... I think its ok for them to make a fancy digital toy with games that change how we play with it.
But I want the fancy digital toy to be worth it first and be fun.
Like the DS was a planner and a doodle pad, and a contact book, and a web browser and a gameboy and a DS. They had a version that let me see games in 3D. They had a console that let me swing swords like the main character in the game that came out just for it. I could play any sport like I was actually doing it right away day 1 and design a character to play as.
Now the console does nothing but play the games that dont come with it. And they dont even use a fun game mechanic they added to make the digital toy cool. They lost all passion and it is just a worse locked down version that only plays the game and goes away. Made to have you purchase more on it then use it.
I miss Nintendo.
You are actually right, I didn't think about Nintendo's past when making that comment but I would appreciate if Nintendo stopped competing with others in the market and did its own thing to a higher extent. I mean the switch 2 is straight up the steam deck but without only Nintendo games.
It doesn't even matter if it's linux or otherwise, as long as they are innovating in the gaming area.
This. I am wishfully thinking that even if it doesn't hit the ground running at launch, over time enough people will convert for it to be a commercial success. The only thing that could make me put another console in my home is my desire for physical media, but even then half of the games released are just glorified download cards. Truthfully there is almost 0 reason for an informed consumer to purchase a console now.
People want a console but also:
- A wider game library (Missing on Playstation and Xbox)
- No subscription (missing Playstation and Xbox)
- a working 10 foot UI (missing in windows)
- controller os navigation (missing in windows)
- no bimonthly fullscreen nags to use edge, office365, onedrive, etc. (missing in windows)
- Working ACPI sleep states. (Missing on most cheap mini PCs)
- Backwards compatibility for older titles and not needing to rebuy games when upgrading (Missing on PlayStation)
Microsoft could probably build an XBox that fixes the first problem but would probably fill it with nag screens.
People with technical skills can probably run Bazzite on a minipc but might hit issues with sleep depending on luck while purchasing.
People without technical skills just want a package that works
People WITH technical skills just wany a package that works. I don't want to fix every single fucking piece of technology I own, constantly - even if I am capable.
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I mean yes, jack of all trades master of none. But then again a mass produced hardware which will run all modern AAA games (Meaning cheaper), running on Linux (Linux being used mainstream in a user friendly sense is better than not Linux) and still being user friendly is overall a company doing something I like, and adding competition to the console marketplace.
I bought Helldivers and BG3 on PS4 for in total like $150 and I sold my PS5 and now I can't even play those games anymore. With it being linked to a steam account, this isn't a problem anymore they can access there paid games on any device, which I like.
EZ
I'm interested in the Steam Machine because I like playing on consoles. Steam's ecosystem seems interesting because it's more open than PlayStation's (what I'm on currently). Additionally, I like Linux. By using SteamOS, I'm hoping bug fixes and improvements will benefit the general Linux ecosystem. I don't want to install games on my regular computers. I want a dedicated gaming device. I don't intend to use the Steam Machine as a PC.
As someone who’s tried several PC-in-the-livingroom solutions, just try building a PC with good specs at that size and you’ll appreciate the niche that is being filled.
Smug basher: "But it's not stronger than my galaxy GPU 89,000 that costs four times as much! It can't even do 14k octovision and 122 fps dynaflax!"
Oh geez, no dynaflax?
It’s a pretty nice custom designed PC that is guaranteed to work well with Linux. The only downside, really, is that you can’t upgrade it beyond storage and RAM.
Price!
We can argue about it all we want, but basically everything hinges on its street price.
If it's cheap, all those critiques are irrelevant.
Expensive? "It's cute, I like Steam, I like how it mostly works OOTB," gets real niche, real quick.
I downvote all these memes because they want to shit over a product that isn't released yet with no price tag, all so they can feel smug superiority
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Regardless of the box cost, there's no arguing with the price of games in a Steam sale!
I don't think I've paid more than £15 for a game in years and years.
People always argue about the price of the machine, but hardly anyone mentions that console people pay to play online. Which is something i can't even really comprehend
Good point. Steam provides a lot of the same multiplayer services and match making and they've never cost me a penny.
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Well what if i want something like a console but hate the big tech and dont enjoy someone spying on me? this is the only option. What if i want a console that i can modify and use as a pc or a server if i damn want to? this is the only option. What if i want a true console like experience but want to play a title that just isnt on any consoles? this once again is the only option. This thing will have so many usecases, just maybe a little specific ones.. :D
Arch with KDE is for people who don’t like Linux?
Yeah, people who like Linux want to spend hours of their life debugging why the Bluetooth service starts up just fine but then crashes the computer when it tries to suspend. People who like arch would prefer if the Bluetooth service didn't even start correctly, ideally Bluetooth requires a manual kernel module install every time it starts which they fixed with a personal script they got from a random GitHub gist which they got to autorun using a systemd service.
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I just like that I can play PC games on my TV, know that I have hardware that games are built to work on, and not have to get up to turn it on.
That last one is the biggest one honestly.
Seems like a pretty consistent niche to me. People that want to get away from consoles but aren't good with Linux/pc and want something that just works. I wouldn't buy one for myself but I'd consider getting one for my nephew if he wanted to switch from his PlayStation. Anything that takes a bite out of Microsoft's market share is a plus as far as I'm concerned.
its a console without the insane locked down interface. its a computer without the need to fiddle with stupid technical stuff that should just work. its linux without the need to learn all the things you think you just always knew about other systems but actually had to learn and aren't willing to anymore.
This kinda blew up. For the record, there are probably decent use cases. I'm just befuddled by its popularity. The best I've seen is PC games on a TV more easily than moving an entire setup. But the form factor removes a lot of the upgradeability and repairablity that makes PCs so great, it has standard hardware like a console but still traps you in a (admittedly slightly better) ecosystem, it has Linux but masks it so well most people won't notice or care. If it pushes gaming to a more linux-friendly place, great, but it feels like it's packaging it to the point that it won't push the player-base, only devs. It feels like it packages almost all of the limitations of the 3 groups with very few of the best benefits. Truly do hope I'm wrong, I often am.
I thought you were listing all the positives and pretending not to get it. The whole point is that it is a steam console designed for a primary purpose of playing steam games, and also has the full functionality of a PC which other consoles don't.
I plan on getting one in addition to my PC for playing games in my living room that will be more fun in that format.
Steam doesn't trap you into an ecosystem. You can even add non-steam games to to the launcher for convenience!
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Hooking a whole desktop to a TV is intrusive with most desktop form factors.
Most people who want a console don't care about upgradability or repairability, and that's certainly not the main thing that "makes PCs so great."
Most people gaming on PC are equally "trapped in an ecosystem." This has a desktop mode if need be, but hardly anyone does games outside of Steam.
"It has Linux but most users won't notice or care" is a double positive.
"It won't push the player base, only the devs" is a double positive.
The point of a console isn't to make people into more technical proponents of open source projects. It's to play games.
And if it's competing in the console market, especially for people who aren't terribly interested in the "Call of Duty" type AAA titles of today, it seems like a perfect fit.
it has Linux but masks it so well most people won’t notice or care.
That's the best sales pitch for linux I'd ever heard!
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It's a PC for people who are too afraid or possibly can't afford (depending on price when announced) to build their own.
can’t afford ... to build their own
Soon to be: Everyone
Maybe Valve predicted this would happen... 🤔
Or it will equally harm them by affecting the cost of making the SM.
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It's for the people who can't afford to build their own PCs these days. Graphics cards went up in price, hard drives went up and now RAM.
Other than "not seeing the use case" I think the meme is right on. People hate Windows but don't want to deal with Linux, people hate being trapped in the walled gardens of Microsoft or Sony consoles, but don't want to deal with a full-on gaming PC. Kinda like how when iPads came out people where like, this is worse than a phone and worse than a laptop, who are these things even for?
I want them to build a top of the line gaming pc put into a small box and sell it to me at a huge loss. Why can't they do that?
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