I got a place on the 512GB with Controller list, and got an email a few days after they started. I ordered it on Friday the 3rd and got it today on Thursday the 9th. The tracking codes were all over the place and gave different estimates depending which branch of each company I used. Steam claimed it was shipped when the courier said they hadn’t got it so I was worried for a few days. But this morning Royal Mail (UK customer) sent me an email saying it would arrive today, while GLS said it would arrive tomorrow.
Safe to say I’m happy to have it now and be playing games!
My main issue with it is that’s it’s not upgradable and does not support eGPUs.
It’s console like pc like the Playstation for the average gamer that just want to connect and play.
Yes, but it’s marketed as also just a PC. Yet, it cannot be upgraded and you cannot use an eGPU. This makes it a terrible choice for PC gamers.
The thing about consoles is that they can be guaranteed to play all the games that are available for them at 30 fps minimum, but more often 60 fps or greater. The thing about the Steam Machine is that it certainly cannot play all the games available to it even just from the Steam store itself. On top of that, it is not at all upgradable so you’re stuck never being able to play those games on this “console.” The whole point of the Steam Machine was to be a dedicated gaming PC that also feels like a console. They have thoroughly missed the mark on that.
You will soon see people who “just want to connect and play” complaining that they cannot play the game they want to on the Steam store, and cannot even upgrade their PC to be able to play it.
This is a pretty ridiculous take if we’re being honest. Saying the Machine misses the mark for all gamers assumes that all gamers want to only play the latest releases at 4K60, meanwhile, many are more than happy to play at 1080p or 1440p, and most buyers of the Machine will have preexisting libraries that they want to play (especially as reservations were gated to existing steam accounts). Most of those games will likely not be the most demanding titles available. For instance, I’ve yet to actually find a title that hasn’t ran well at 1080p (and in many cases 4K) out of my 1,000+ game library, especially since not every game is ideal for couch gaming which is what the Machine is intended to provide.
Additionally, anything that ran on the Steam Deck will run even better on the Machine. Plus it gives a fixed hardware point for devs to target, which is likely to happen similar to what we’ve seen since the Deck launched.
Sure the Machine is expensive, and it may not be the perfect device for some customers like yourself, but for many it meets enough criterias to more than justify the price.
That’s not at all what I said.
I made the claim that it’s not a good choice for specifically PC gamers. I then gave a few reasons why.
It can’t play all of the games in its own store (even at 1080p, some games do not reliably hit at least 30 fps on it). The CPU and GPU are not upgradable. It lacks USB 4, so cannot be upgraded externally with an eGPU.
If the argument is that it’s good for people that want a console-like experience, I’d still disagree, because with a console you are guaranteed to be able to play all games that support the console. SteamOS is great for people who want a console-like experience. The Steam Machine really is not.
Well technically it is upgradable: you can add more ram to the Steam Machine. But that’s me being pedantic, the rest of the device is absolutely not upgradable.