Steam Machine wins praise despite price and upgrade limits
A Verge hands-on says Valve’s $1,049 gaming cube is quiet, compact and tightly tied to Steam, even as availability remains limited.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Valve’s Steam Machine is drawing praise from one hands-on tester for how easily it works as a living-room gaming PC. The reaction matters because the $1,049 device is competing against established consoles and do-it-yourself PCs while still carrying clear hardware limits.
The Verge senior reporter Jay Peters wrote that he spent about two weeks using the Steam Machine and would buy one at its current price despite owning a PlayStation 5 and an Xbox Series X. He said he agreed with colleague Sean Hollister’s more critical review, which gave the device a 6, but found that the machine fit his own gaming habits unusually well.
Peters described the Steam Machine as a small 6-inch cube that sits more easily in a TV cabinet than Sony’s and Microsoft’s current consoles. He also said he moved it to a desk and connected it to a monitor without having to rearrange much of his workspace.
Why the Steam setup worked for him
According to Peters, the Steam Machine’s biggest advantage over his consoles is access to his Steam library. He cited support for hundreds of PC games he already owns, Steam cloud saves that carry progress between the Steam Deck and Steam Machine, compatibility with Valve’s Steam Controller and the ability to use mods.
Compared with the Steam Deck, Peters said games looked better and ran more smoothly on the Steam Machine when played from the couch. He also said he could not recall hearing the device’s fan while playing games including Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, 007 First Light and Balatro.
Peters wrote that the device quickly became his preferred way to play games on a TV. He said it started quickly with a controller button press, worked well with his Sonos Beam soundbar and allowed him to get into games within seconds.
The trade-offs remain significant
The Verge’s earlier review, as summarized by Peters, identified several drawbacks. The Steam Machine is expensive, its performance compares with aging console hardware, and its graphics processor cannot be upgraded later to improve game performance.
Availability is also a problem for buyers who want one now. Peters said he signed up for a reservation but was not selected, leaving him on Valve’s waitlist without a timeline for when he might be able to purchase the device.
That uncertainty led him to consider building a PC instead. Peters said a friend offered him an RTX 3070 Ti graphics card and a 1TB SSD, which could let him assemble a more powerful and more upgradable system without paying for two costly parts.
Even so, he noted that a custom PC would bring compromises. Peters said compact cases such as the Fractal Ridge and Velka 7 may be tight fits for his TV console, and he doubted a home-built machine would be as quiet as Valve’s box.
Software could also complicate the PC route. Peters wrote that SteamOS is not available for Nvidia GPUs yet, meaning he would likely need Steam Big Picture mode on Windows or a Linux-based alternative such as Bazzite rather than the SteamOS setup he prefers.
Peters said he may also keep using his existing Steam Deck setup with an 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller. After returning to that arrangement, he found it worked better than he remembered and offered much of the Steam Machine experience plus portability.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.