Steam users are celebrating the announcement of the brand-new Steam Machine, which actually looks like a massive improvement over Valve’s previous attempt at producing a PC/console hybrid.
While the Steam Machine isn’t a traditional game console, it will offer PC-like gaming on your home television set-up. The Steam Deck sort of did this by having an adapter that would make it playable on a TV or monitor, but the Steam Machine is a more complete experience and pairs nicely with a new controller and VR set.
In terms of specs, it’s more powerful than the Xbox Series S, but less powerful than the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. This puts it at a nice mid-point for non-PC gamers who want to play some PC exclusives without buying an enormous and expensive rig.
We’d need to see the price of the system but so far it looks like a decent bit of kit, even though it’s not a looker.
The only problem I can think of is how it might change the way Steam games are priced. Steam has always been a champion of affordable gaming through its never-ending sales, but this could now mean that the new console is basically a rival for the next Xbox.
While Microsoft hasn’t shared any specific details about it, the next Xbox is said to be a console/PC hybrid, and Xbox boss Sarah Bond has promised it’ll be a premium piece of hardware. One of the major selling points is that it’ll supposedly be able to run Steam as well.
Now unless you’re a purist who wants a system that has the best graphics and framerates possible, you’ll likely want the next Xbox, but for a more casual audience, the Steam Machine will likely be the better deal.
If Steam wants to continue making a profit, it’ll likely start raising the price of its games on PC, maybe even restricting how low the price drops during sales.
On the flip side, Xbox and PlayStation might start raising prices to cash-in on more casual gamers dipping their toes into PC gaming. Many are used to the premium prices of the Xbox and PlayStation stores by now so it wouldn’t be a surprise for both companies to keep a constant across all platforms.
This is all purely speculative, of course, and in all likelihood, PC games will largely cost the same on Steam moving forward, but we should never discount corporate greed.
