Destructoid Checkpoint: Sorry, Valve, it’s a bad time for the Steam Machine

Valve, the multi-billion-dollar corporation that most of the internet seems to have decided is just lovely, is taking another run at the Steam Machine concept. The “PC that is not a PC and also not a console” was first launched in 2015, a somewhat collaborative effort between Valve and assorted hardware partners.

It had a few attractions for people with niche interests. If you disliked Microsoft, you could enjoy Steam OS, if you disliked well-designed controllers, you could enjoy the Steam Controller, and if you just disliked the idea of owning a console, you could have a tiny little box that let you play all your Steam games, but it was in your living room attached to your TV. 

Round 1

To understand the Steam Machine and why it failed the first time, it’s important to understand the problem it was trying to solve. Valve had a software problem. Valve was having operating system issues, as both Apple and Microsoft attempted to become even more closed off than we typically consider them to be. One of the better aspects of Valve’s business model has been a pretty strong support of openness, and Gabe Newell, Valve’s CEO, felt Linux offered the solution.

Valve also understood what all Linux users understand: you can’t just convince the mainstream market to go with it. Linux home system penetration is a mere 4% or so, while on servers it’s closer to 100%, and for supercomputers it’s pretty much everything, ever. The Android operating system is based on Linux. 

What I am getting at here is the second thing that all Linux users know. Linux is more than capable of doing absolutely everything that folks want it to do; there simply needs to be support for it and a desire for it. 

Understanding both points, Valve put their money where their mouth was and got the Steam Machine rolling to try and backdoor Linux into the lives of unsuspecting gamers. Legitimate Linux users would always be somewhat interested in Valve’s exploration of Linux with Steam OS. It’s the common folk you need to reach.

The hardware partners built a range of systems with prices as low as $499, or up to $6000 for whales, because everything needs some whale-bait. 

Consumer response was tepid.

Less than half a million units were sold within the first seven months, and most of the hardware partners had discontinued their efforts by the end of 2016. 

The reality was that the Steam Machine was an attempt to solve problems that Valve had, but not really ones that consumers had. Microsoft’s Windows, while a pain in the ass in many ways, is a fine solution for the average user. You can play games, browse the web, and run a multitude of different programs on it. If you want to really specialize in something like digital art, photography, music production, or video editing, then you might go with Apple.

If you wanted comparatively cheap and easy gaming, at least a decade ago, consoles were there for you. Budget-bound people could pick up older generations, often quite cheaply, and second-hand stores and trade-in bins could be happily raided on your lunch break from school. 

People who really wanted Steam on their living room TV could even purchase a Steam Link for considerably less than a Steam Machine and just piggyback off their main system. You could also play all your games there; the original Steam Machine suffered from limited games you could actually play on it.

Round 2

Valve is back, with a new version of the Steam Machine, but why try again? Well, one of the main reasons is the magic of Proton. Proton basically allows Windows games to run on Linux and Steam OS. It’s one of the most interesting developments in gaming in some time, allowing Linux users to enjoy far more games on their preferred OS than previously. Now, not everything works; there are still issues with an assortment of games, but it’s much better than it was.

This gives Valve’s new hardware an honest chance, but there is a new issue occurring that might be a major problem, and is leading to huge questions for potential users.

Price.

This is one of the worst markets to be releasing hardware in. Pricing is turning into a real squeeze. Consoles are seeing price hikes, GPUs have been making gamers bleed for years, and now RAM is facing a huge squeeze due to the demands of the AI market. 

We have just seen the announcement that Crucial, Micron’s consumer-focused brand, will no longer offer RAM for consumer-level PCs from the start of next year. Why? Because the AI rat-race is more fruitful and profitable. It is also worth pointing out that American gamers should be especially annoyed at this, as the company has recently secured substantial funding via the U.S. government (to the tune of 6 billion dollars). That money comes from your tax dollars and was just used to deny you the very products that it was used to support. (When the AI bubble pops, and Micron comes crawling back to the consumer market, feel free to absolutely batter them, btw.)

RAM prices in general have gone absolutely crazy, with NVIDIA taking the step to no longer include video memory with its GPUs, leaving that up to their board partners. While that is a slightly different conversation for a different time, it’s a strong indicator of just how disruptive current RAM pricing is at a consumer level, even when you enjoy the industry connections and economies of scale of NVIDIA.

All this makes hardware launch and pricing a sticky issue for Valve, and is the likely reason why they haven’t announced any pricing yet. I’m willing to bet that those hoping to find prices lower than current consoles will be left disappointed, as nothing in the current markets implies that this will be possible, especially as Valve is not subsidising the price of the hardware in any way. 

While I am delighted to see Valve continuing to support the Linux dream and take this swing at the Steam Machine Vol. 2, that is really down to the fact that company is sitting on more money that Scrooge McDuck, and I’d rather it be spent on something that might benefit consumers, even if I feel that chance of broad market success for that offering is slim. 

The last time Valve tried the Steam Machine, it died because of software; this time, it will be because of hardware. Not because that hardware is bad, but because there is really no way to price it in an attractive fashion to a consumer base that is being constantly battered by increased costs in their day-to-day living.

Valve is still trying to solve that software problem, or at least the one that they perceive, where Windows and Apple become ever more closed off. The problem now is that this is not the issue consumers face, and likely never will. Hardware is being made prohibitively expensive in order to make cloud computing, AI datacenters, and all the other garbage that tech bros want to push a reality. 

The idea of home computing is being killed off in favor of by-the-minute renting of computational power. You won’t need a computer, privacy, and control—you will just need a subscription to the never-ending array of services offered by a rogue’s gallery of corporations. 

Valve can’t save you from that.