Valve said this machine is just an "entry level gaming PC", it will probably be priced fairly decently for the specs.

This machine is not interesting for people who build their own rigs and want to use high-end.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Omega:

Valve said this machine is just an "entry level gaming PC", it will probably be priced fairly decently for the specs.

This machine is not interesting for people who build their own rigs and want to use high-end.

It will be interesting to see what entry level pricing / priced fairly will mean when it comes out in 2026.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Omega:

Valve said this machine is just an "entry level gaming PC", it will probably be priced fairly decently for the specs.

This machine is not interesting for people who build their own rigs and want to use high-end.

It is still interesting to people who build their own rigs and have a fairly large Steam library simply to use as a console in the living room for their Steam games.

If this is anything like the Steam Deck, nothing keeps you from installing DRM-free games on it or even install Windows.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Worldzworstgamer2025:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Omega:

Valve said this machine is just an "entry level gaming PC", it will probably be priced fairly decently for the specs.

This machine is not interesting for people who build their own rigs and want to use high-end.

It will be interesting to see what entry level pricing / priced fairly will mean when it comes out in 2026.

My guess is 600$ with recent trends, not including anything extra.

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Seraph of Tomorrow:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Worldzworstgamer2025:

It will be interesting to see what entry level pricing / priced fairly will mean when it comes out in 2026.

My guess is 600$ with recent trends, not including anything extra.

I think 700.

I think you should be looking at the good side of things first.
1- If the price is lower than paying for a full gaming rig of similar proportions: It's great.
2- A console without mandatory subscription for online gaming bleeding you everymonth.
3- Not having to pay for games twice (for console and for PC like most consoles do) and I'mg guessing it will have shared saves.
4- They didn't mention it, but we might be able to use mods in it.. We all know mods add a lot to a lot of games. Skyrim is a great example.
5- If it can run PS5/Xbox Series level games with ease it's a great score, as most games are being released both on console and PC nowadays.

Still, I do think they could have put in a bit of better hardware on it, since 16GB is mandatory nowadays and starting to fall short since too many AAA developers are supporting they FPS and poor optimization on hardware more and more nowadays.
More and more games are focusing on more on outstanding graphics that shine for as long as your PC's integrity can hold before burning up and crashing. I even heard some games are even putting DLSS/FSR as requirement.

who knows? maybe with a unified ecosystem both on PC and console we will start having better optimized games.

If it costs around the same as a PS5 I will be most likely buying it. I just hope they put some kind of limiter to the ammount of buys per account. And place a requirement of having been at least playing on steam for a few years. I remember just a while ago news of people using bots for to get the new RTX 5000s. Some bots falling in traps and buying "pictures" of the GPU for the full price of the GPU.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nando234:

4- They didn't mention it, but we might be able to use mods in it.. We all know mods add a lot to a lot of games. Skyrim is a great example.

As long as the mods are not crazy-dependent on some Windows shenanigan (that would be unusually rare), they will definitely work as they do already on the Steam Deck.

If it's a mod on the Workshop, you can download it just fine through the Game mode interface. If you have something from another repository and there isn't some mod manager application you can add to the Game mode interface as a non-Steam game or the game doesn't have an integrated repo manager for mods, you need to switch to desktop mode to download and install mods manually, like on a normal PC.
Even though manually installing is a bit more work than downloading through the Workshop, switching between Game mode and Desktop mode is pretty much seamless on Steam OS 3 and the trackpads + virtual keyboard make browsing a cakewalk (once you get used to the trackpads).

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nando234:

who knows? maybe with a unified ecosystem both on PC and console we will start having better optimized games.

Didn't UWP promise that?

Oprindeligt skrevet af Worldzworstgamer2025:

Sorry Steam but I'd rather a GOG machine instead.

Get Steam Machine (or other small form factor PC), install Minigalaxy[flathub.org] Boom, instant GOG machine.

Don't forget that your experience with 16GB RAM is based on MsWindows. Console with Arch based OS and KDE will literally use only couple of GB itself. The rest will be for games.
Looks like a very nice addition to home gaming.

Oprindeligt skrevet af kilésengati:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nando234:

4- They didn't mention it, but we might be able to use mods in it.. We all know mods add a lot to a lot of games. Skyrim is a great example.

As long as the mods are not crazy-dependent on some Windows shenanigan (that would be unusually rare), they will definitely work as they do already on the Steam Deck.

If it's a mod on the Workshop, you can download it just fine through the Game mode interface. If you have something from another repository and there isn't some mod manager application you can add to the Game mode interface as a non-Steam game or the game doesn't have an integrated repo manager for mods, you need to switch to desktop mode to download and install mods manually, like on a normal PC.
Even though manually installing is a bit more work than downloading through the Workshop, switching between Game mode and Desktop mode is pretty much seamless on Steam OS 3 and the trackpads + virtual keyboard make browsing a cakewalk (once you get used to the trackpads).

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nando234:

who knows? maybe with a unified ecosystem both on PC and console we will start having better optimized games.

Didn't UWP promise that?

Never heard of UWP until now. Just searched it and now I know what it is.
It was just an idea of mine, since some companies do whatever they want and pin it on "difficulties with X thing or that", like blizzard with Diablo IV and not having local CO-OP on PC like it has on console.
Maybe Valve can pull it off since it's more dedicated to gaming than microsoft.

Those specs are fine for a low end machine which was going to be obvious either way based on the small size and design, it also only sports a 200W power supply so it's not like it's built to be a high octane rig.

SteamOS also doesn't use much RAM because it's based on Arch Linux, which can easily use less than 2GB for just the system with KDE.