Recently, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier presented a large article dedicated to Steam Machine. He spoke with a Valve engineer who talked about the company's achievements.
Valve managed to sell all devices released to date. The basic version of Steam Machine with 512 GB of memory costs $1049, and the most expensive 2 TB version with a gamepad included cost $1428.
The company did not disclose specific figures, but its representatives admitted that fewer Steam Machines were produced than originally planned.
However, Valve's success with Steam Machine is not related to the number of devices sold. Engineer Yazan Aldehayyat explained that for the company, this device is a way to solve problems with "open PC gaming in the living room":
We believe that Steam Machine is a very good way to solve a real problem that people face. If this turns out to be true, then from our point of view, it is a success.
He also added that over time, prices will normalize: either they will decrease, or such a price level will become "normal" if the memory crisis does not end.
Valve has been working on solving this problem for many years. The first attempt with Steam Machine was made back in 2015, when devices were produced by various partner companies. However, at that time, the operating system did not support many games, and Valve did not have a basic model that could clearly demonstrate the advantages of Steam Machine.
Valve learned from its mistakes: Proton was created and is actively developing — a "layer" for running Windows games on Linux (SteamOS). When Steam Deck was released in 2022, the company realized that it was time to move on and try to launch Steam Machine again as its own "hardware", and not in cooperation with partners:
Yazan Aldehayyat said: "I think Steam Deck proved that Proton and SteamOS are finally ready to provide a good living room gaming experience. Once we realized that, we accelerated the development of Steam Machine."
Valve is not going to make exclusive games for Steam Machine. Engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais explained the approach:
Restricting where people can play a game is, at least for us, not the most successful model. We are more interested in having the entire catalog of PC games act as our "launch exclusive."
Valve does not subsidize Steam Machine, as it does not want to alienate other manufacturers who may be interested in creating similar devices.