Alright gotta rant here for a bit
The Steam Machine Is
DEAD
E
A
D
ON ARRIVAL
As others have pointed out, this is just the same shit that Valve tried years ago with the first lineup of Steam "Machines". It will fail for the same reason as those did. It might not fail quite as poorly, but it will still be a commercial failure that Valve will take the hit for. Valve wanted to enter the console market to steal Sony and Microsoft's lunch, but they are doing it in the entirely wrong way. The simplest way I can sum it up is never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake .
Sony and Microsoft are making mistakes. They have zero first party support, zero real reasons to buy their consoles, assuming they're even continuing to take part in the market. Their consoles are overpriced and digital-only, require online subscriptions, and are all-around just useless. Why would Valve want to enter the console market? It's already on its way out. Valve could have won this shit simply by doing nothing but improving the Steam Deck and their VR tech (though I personally believe the VR fad came and went, especially after Alyx turned out to be a disappointment). Is the moment that Microsoft and Sony fails right now? No, unfortunately it is still not due to collapse entirely for another few years at this rate. But the idea is that it will collapse. Right now, no big time Sony or Microsoft fans are going to buy a Steam Machine. What benefits does PC gaming have for the normalfag consumer? Being an all-in-one. You can play games, do work, chat with friends (discord, teamspeak, et al) and browse the internet. You're not gonna be able to do that on a Steam Machine. Your only use for it is maybe so that people in the house can play games on there while someone is using the computer - but these aren't the days of one computer per household and having to wait while mom's on the landline phone for the dial-up internet to come back. Every bedroom is going to have a computer in it, chances are. If some nigger says they want to play a game that's available on Steam/PC, they're going to get a pre-made PC assuming they don't already have one that wasn't stolen and you know what 50% of that experience for that normalnigger is going to be? Getting on discord and chatting while playing a game. Is the Steam Machine going to have discord interoperability? No, it'll be that shitty Steam clone that Valve tried pushing to replace discord. Discord is too locked-in to the PC 'experience' for users to switch to something that has less functionality and less users - whatever the fuck Valve built as a replacement.
The Steam Deck was a good compromise, an evolutionary turn. In all but sales, the Steam Deck ate Nintendo's lunch. Mobility is key PLUS it had the option to deck it up anyways and play it like a typical console. Why is Valve going backwards? Is it to make a more affordable console? A more powerful one? We've seen the stats, it doesn't appear to be that stellar. The only possible way Valve is going to sell anything to cut EVEN with this piece of shit cube is by making it outrageously cheap on release, and I mean it has to be cheaper than a new LCD Steam Deck. $300 at most. Any amount greater than that, and this'll be the OUYA 2 Electric Boogaloo (also shaped like a cube, funnily enough). Even with a good price, it still isn't going to convince most console-primary normalfags. Valve's only market here are diehard Valve fans who probably already own a Steam Deck, a gaming PC, and probably the VR headset. As of writing this, Valve does not have a launch title to convince people to buy the console with. They released Half Life: Alyx to convince people to buy the VR headset, now Valve is pretty much forced to do something like that as their spoonful of sugar to help make the unnecessary console go down.
Sony and Microsoft fans who already own an Xbox or PS5 are not going to sell their consoles for this otherwise. That's why I said that what Valve SHOULD have done is wait just a few short years because PC doesn't have to do ANYTHING to win the console war eventually. There is no upper limit to PC gaming in the same way that there is for console gaming. Good on valve for continuing to develop SteamOS which is a good product and should be advanced, but not like this. This machine is just a fuckin' waste.