Valve says the Steam Machine isn’t a console, but it is

It is scheduled to provide two internal storage capacities, with 512GB or 2TB SSD drives, with the ability to expand storage via a microSD card. Valve appears to be approaching the external storage format as a glorified game cartridge, where players will be able to move a single card between Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Deck. This also indicates that current-gen SDXC format cards will be usable, rather than needing the newer, faster microSD Express format that the Switch 2 does to play games.

It also features 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 8GB of GDDR6 video memory, and a host of input/output options—DisplayPort 1.4. HDMI 2.0. One USB-C and four USB-A ports — and it crams even its power supply into a “roughly 6-inch cube.” That’s about the size of a classic Nintendo GameCube game, or half an Xbox Series If you want to make it attractive, you can swap out the front face plate (not unlike a set of cosmetic PS5 skins, well…).

This is a far cry from the original Steam Machines that stood out no Having a specific form factor. Instead, 2015’s Valve set the minimum specifications any manufacturer could meet to classify a device as a vaporizer, a degree of confusion that undoubtedly hurt its wider adoption. The new generation is 100 percent a Valve product.

About the only common denominator is that both generations were designed around using SteamOS to navigate your game library (it’s set to run KDE Plasma for its desktop environment). Valve adds that it is expanding its “Deck Verified” program, which certifies games’ compatibility with the portable Steam Deck, “to include Steam Machine ratings, so customers can understand how their games run.”

So. A gaming PC that appears to offer only minimal hardware customization options, in a fixed form factor, made by one manufacturer, with games designed to run on it. Do you know how that sounds like a lot? A Console. This should be celebrated.

Comfort wins

It’s easy to understand why Valve wouldn’t want to embrace the Steam Machine’s “console” tag. As the biggest driving force in PC gaming, it would practically shred its street cred to do so.

However, consoles remain popular precisely because of their relative limitations — for many gamers, being able to connect a box to their TV and enjoy games on the couch is just a better way to play. It’s more social too, especially for local co-op games. Even connecting your gaming laptop to your TV to play PC games with friends is more hassle 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 it more convenient and accessible?