Valve Says Steam Machine Isn’t a Console—but It Is
It is configured to offer two internal storage capacities, with 512 GB or 2 TB SSDs, with further expandable storage via microSD. Valve appears to be approaching the external storage format like a glorified game cartridge, as players will be able to move a single card between Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Deck. This also indicates that current generation SDXC format cards will be usable, rather than requiring the newer, faster microSD Express format on the Switch 2 to run games.
It also has 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a multitude of input/output options: DisplayPort 1.4. HDMI 2.0. A USB-C port and four USB-A ports, and even its power supply in “a cube of approximately 6 inches”. It’s about the size of Nintendo’s classic GameCube, or half the size of an Xbox Series X. It’s cute! If you want to make it cuter, you can swap out the faceplate (kind of like the PS5 cosmetic case line, hmm…).
All this is a far cry from the original steam engines, which stood out for not having a specific form factor. The 2015 Valve instead set a minimum specification that any manufacturer could meet to label a device as a steam engine, a degree of confusion that undoubtedly hurt its wider adoption. The next generation is a 100% Valve product.
The only commonality is that both generations were designed around using SteamOS to navigate your game library (it’s configured to run KDE Plasma for its desktop environment). Valve adds that it is expanding its “Deck Verified” program, which certifies that games are compatible with the portable Steam Deck, “to include Steam Machine reviews, so customers can understand how their games will perform.”
SO. A gaming PC that appears to offer only minimal hardware customization options, in a fixed form factor, produced by a single manufacturer, with games designed to run on it. Do you know what that looks like a lot? A console. And that should be celebrated.
Convenience wins
It’s easy to see why Valve might not want to adopt the “console” label for Steam Machine. As the biggest driving force in PC gaming, this would practically destroy its own credibility.
However, consoles remain popular precisely because of their comparative limitations: for many gamers, being able to plug a box into their TV and enjoy games on a couch is just a more enjoyable way to play. It’s also more sociable, especially for local cooperative games. Even connecting my gaming laptop to a TV to play PC games with friends is more problematic than turning on a console. Plus, given the extraordinary volume of games released on Steam – over 18,500 in 2024 – why wouldn’t you want to make them more comfortable and accessible?
