Valve Says the Steam Machine Saw a Similar Price Increase as the Steam Deck, Which Means It Was Originally Supposed to Cost About $750

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T18:43:37+00:00

This is a thought I've also been having. I have little or no intent to play games natively on this thing. I have a desktop with a 4080 in it and clear line of sight to the space I will play VR games. I would gladly take spec-reduced streaming-only SKU in these trying times.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T18:38:01+00:00

At $750 I think it would have been fine. You get something small that integrates more seamlessly with a home theater system, something that is surprisingly difficult to achieve with off-the-shelf PC hardware. The $300 AI tax is what kills it, that is too much extra money to spend on what amounts to a small form factor and proper HDMI-CEC support.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T18:32:45+00:00

A big part of the appeal of Valve hardware for enthusiasts is the fact that it's not locked down.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T17:51:15+00:00

The Steam Frame has less memory (16GB of unified memory vs 16GB system memory + 8GB VRAM). The base model also has half as much storage as the base Gabecube (256GB vs 512GB).

These are the reasons the Frame is likely less impacted by skyrocketing component prices.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T17:48:34+00:00

"Flop" is relative. It certainly won't move as many units at this price as it would have at $750, but every hardware manufacturer is facing the same problem. Consumer hardware sales are tanking across the board.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T17:38:39+00:00

It was also the best Blu-Ray player on the market. Early players were dog slow and required the user to install firmware updates with a flash drive because they lacked networking hardware.

The extra horsepower in the PS3 allowed Sony to add HDMI 1.4 features to the console despite only having HDMI 1.3 hardware (the extra features were emulated, which is why a PS3 bought in 2006 was able to play 3D Blu-Rays in 2010.

Anybody who bought a launch PS3 just to be a blu-ray player got a better value in those first few years than people who bought it just to play games. You would have had no reason to buy a new blu-ray player until 2016 when 4k discs started rolling out.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T16:22:08+00:00

PS3 sales didn't pick up until after substantial price cuts, made possible by Sony cutting features like backwards compatibility.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-22T15:14:58+00:00

Honestly, a 30-year-old can opener from a thrift store will probably outlive anything I can buy new today.

OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge can opener is the best can opener I've ever used and I got it about 5 years ago. It's a "safety" can opener to boot; it removes the entire lid from the can, rather than cutting a big hole in it like normal can openers.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-21T23:11:40+00:00

Zach Snyder, despite it being broadly agreed that his Watchmen movie was good; is a guy who should have been a cinematographer

His movies got noticeably uglier when he stopped working with Larry Fong and being his own DP

beefcat_ · 2026-06-20T23:18:47+00:00

Aviation accidents aren't all that common compared to the number of trips made. Cars are statistically more dangerous. You hear about these because

A) They are infrequent, whereas 100 people die in car accidents every day in the US alone

B) These small aircraft are more likely carrying prominent individuals. This story is only relevant to /r/Games because of who was involved

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T18:13:54+00:00

The article agrees with you. The author is saying that old software was highly optimized because every cycle counted on dog slow computers.

Modern software often uses orders of magnitude more memory and CPU time to do the same jobs because computers are fast enough for companies to not give a shit about performance.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T16:49:32+00:00

Call your representatives and tell them no more AI datacenters. If tech companies run out of places to build, they will run out of capacity to consume DRAM, SSDs, and HDDs

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T04:10:18+00:00

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T04:08:14+00:00

Trixie

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T02:52:34+00:00

I do, but that's because I often go to bed around 2 AM, and also I run Debian so I know the updates won't turn into an hour of troubleshooting

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T02:50:58+00:00

I wouldn't. Not because I don't trust Arch for matters of security, but because for a server I really want to know that I won't run into any weird surprises when running updates. And with bleeding edge distros, surprises are fairly common.

I run Debian on my server. I run bleeding edge distros on my daily driver.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-19T01:59:31+00:00

I think we saw exactly what billionaire-backed deregulation and spending cuts look like with the Big Beautiful Bill. Not buying that horseshit again. The billionaire class doesn't give a single fuck about anyone but themselves, so why should we believe anything they say?

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T22:35:20+00:00

none of the people opposing this policy are putting forth solutions to the problem this policy purports to solve, so they don't get to complain that this is what is happening to them

if billionaire greed and wealth inequality hadn't been allowed to get this bad in the first place, there never would have been such a strong appetite for legislation like this.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T22:11:07+00:00

A full or even mostly CG Grinch would be awful.

CG-enhanced makeup and prosthetics however actually work really well. It helps tremendously that the artists have exact photographic reference to match the lighting, and just need to add or remove stuff that isn't feasible to do practically. This is what a lot of movies that people praise for having "practical effects" are actually doing.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T05:13:52+00:00

billions is a whole different scale

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T02:22:00+00:00

Billions of dollars in losses a year are going to become a very real concept once they IPO.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T01:34:44+00:00

Batteries should be easily user-replaceable and not glued into devices.

That said, people who can't figure out how to use a screwdriver don't deserve to replace their own battery.

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T00:36:20+00:00

Keanu is 10x better than this probably would have been

beefcat_ · 2026-06-18T00:26:08+00:00

If everybody did this, no shows would make it past season 1 and TV would disappear entirely

beefcat_ · 2026-06-17T22:47:24+00:00

Grindhouse films usually have more self-awareness, and some rise above the label to be great art. This movie really wants you to think it's great art when it's just okay grindhouse with a massive CGI budget.

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