By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Valve New Hardware Launching Early 2026 - Steam Machine, Steam Frame, Steam Controller

TheRealSamusAran on 17 November 2025
Kyuu said:
Otter said:

To be expected honestly, I mean you don't reach 150m+ steam users through tech enthusiasts who spend $1000 every 6 years on new hardware

Most gamers on any platform are casual users who play a few experiences a year, they're probably not on forums and are likely more interested in generational leaps versus incremental quality settings that most hardware upgrades achieve.

Yeah, but I think typically the majority of active PC gamers will upgrade to hardware better than an old console by its 4th year. The transition has been slower this generation on both PC and consoles (where tens of millions of PS4 players refuse to upgrade).

I'm a PC gamer myself (dropped PS4 after Sekiro) with a build much weaker than a PS5, but still decent-ish for most games that I care about.

Steam is extremely popular in 3rd world countries.



Around the Network
IcaroRibeiro on 17 November 2025
BraLoD said:
IcaroRibeiro said:

Steam is to Playstation and Microsoft what Netflix is to cable TV, and streaming services are to digital stores like iTunes

Consoles were something that made sense when technology advanced fast enough to justify regular hardware purchases, and the hardware needed to be friendly enough for people with low digital literacy to plug and play (for an affordable price)

You dont need to think much to see realize how most of those points are slowly ceasing to exist. Soon there will only reason to purchase a console instead of using Steam: Habit and familiarity (either with the technology or with the games)

You cannot really compete against someone whose business model, on its core, is simply much more efficient. When consoles compete directly against Steam where their standing grounding is similar (read: Developing markets) consoles always lose  

What prevents consoles form collapsing is the fact human beings past young adult years hate to change how they do things. Consoles are generation after generation unable to create new markets, they are currently in the red ocean that's why no console can grown past 160 million range (and if we are tlaking about active playbase, they dont even get to 120 million range), while Steam user count will be well past 200 million somewhere in future 

Right now Sony seems focused in keeping the userbase they already cultivated for as long they are willing to keep buying Playstation. They know they cannot capture Steam users, releasing their games on Steam is simply to farm extra money from an userbase who will never buy a Playstation in first place 

You don't own any games you have bought on Steam.

For that fact alone some people like me, even as it's the vast minority, yes, doesn't even consider Steam as a my primary gaming platform.

The day this happens to future consoles it really becomes mostly a question of already having a library elsewhere or just habit as you mentioned.

I agree, Steam is not ideal. Digital should be DRM free 

What I imply about their bussines model being better is because Steam dont need to release a new marketplace every few years. Don't need to invest in R&D. Don't need to convince people to spend 500 USD in need hardware to keep playing. Don't need to fund exclusive games

Essentially they can keep going for decades with only few updates in their store and they are good to go

Lastly you don't actually own your digital Nintendo, Playstation or Xbox games, and even so the digital adoption is increasing. I very much prefer physical because I like to lend, resell and simply collect my games, but ownership is not something many people cares about

The fact Steam is *just* a store is what prevent it to abuse from the fact you don't own your games. Being only a store it means it's easily interchangeable with other stores (Epic, GOG, etc). The only source of money Steam has is new games purchases. Aside from the ligation nightmare of they mass revoked access to games, if they fuck up there are many other stores who can quickly and easily absorb Steam placement in the market. No wonder why Steam really walk in tinny Ice when it comes to not piss of its userbase

Console makers have an advantage they can always release new products if they fuck up, their bussines is not completely dependent of a single console. In other hand, if Steam makes a huge mistake then Valve is pretty much done 



SvennoJ on 17 November 2025
IcaroRibeiro said:

They certainly do, since consoles are very practical. Even more so because of the couch co-op, you can play It Takes two or Mario Kart with a single console and two controllers. Perfect setup for families

But once they get into their teenager years and start playing multi-player games with their friends all the convenience of PCs. PC is full of Free to Play games, and with diminish returns and games taking forever to make, it's very common for even a 10 year old PC to last long enough to keep playing games 

The fact Steam has more users than any other consoles platform with close to zero marketing, very few advertising and almost no retail presence speaks for itself. Steam get new players mostly due to word of mouth. Kids are more likely to be bombarded with advertising, hence why they ask their parents about consoles 

I have 2 teenagers, one swears by PS5 as that's the common thing his friends have. Mostly playing Rust and similar games. Otherwise he's all into Apple, iPhone, MacBook, doesn't want to touch Windows, doesn't care about Steam.

The other has a gaming PC which he mostly used to play Roblox on with his friends. When one of his friends come over they play Roblox together on 2 tvs with Series X and PS5 as that's just more convenient than moving his gaming PC from his bedroom and the guest bringing his laptop or PC. When he plays with his nephew together at the grandparents they do so on Laptops. He has no interest in the Steam Machine since he already has a 3060 and is looking to upgrade. (cause Minecraft runs slow, big builder)

The big expansion of Steam users also comes in part from laptops which get more and more capable at running modern games. And also from XBox throwing in the towel.

Kids nowadays get bombarded with streamers, social media, that's where the advertising is. And most kids nowadays have a phone with free to play games. All the growth is in mobile while gaming revenue on consoles is declining, stagnating on PC. Even though Steam is getting more accounts, the software revenue is not reflecting that. 

Social media and smart phones are killing core gaming!

Anyway is the new Steam box going to provide hassle free couch co-op, split-screen gaming? Or will you still be better of with a Switch.

GTA6 is coming to consoles first, R* hasn't gotten the memo yet ;) Or rather knows that the most money is to be made there, plus store presence / advertising is still important. 




Bofferbrauer2 on 17 November 2025
Zippy6 said:
Kyuu said:

Yeah, but I think typically the majority of active PC gamers will upgrade to hardware better than an old console by its 4th year. The transition has been slower this generation on both PC and consoles (where tens of millions of PS4 players refuse to upgrade).

I'm a PC gamer myself (dropped PS4 after Sekiro) with a build much weaker than a PS5, but still decent-ish for most games that I care about.

Looked at steam hardware survey for October 2018 Vs 2025 to compare.

I'd say that in 2018 roughly 43% of steam users had a better GPU than the PS4, and in 2025 about 37% have one better than the PS5. So definitely a decline in how fast the average Steam user catches up to console spec, though not a massive one.

Probably down to A. The apocalyptic GPU prices we had for a year during COVID, and B. The consoles this generation were much more competitive to current pc tech.

The PS4 was most similar to a Radeon 7850. A $250 GPU that was released over 1.5 years before the PS4.

Whereas PS5 got RDNA2 just before  the first PC card launched, and it's closest pc equivalent launched almost a year later at $380.

I would add C. Hardware also holds up for longer than in the past. If you got a high end PC in 2018, chances are you can still play most games reasonably well on that one. A high end PC from 2011 would have seriously struggled to even run some games from 2018, and other games would be more like slideshows.

For comparison, the GTX 480 gets soundly beaten by a 1050, while the 1080Ti sits between the 5050 and 5060 plus comes with more VRAM



The Nintendo eShop rating Thread: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=237454 List as Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aW2hXQT1TheElVS7z-F3pP-7nbqdrDqWNTxl6JoJWBY/edit?usp=sharing

The Steam/GOG key gifting thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/242024/the-steamgog-key-gifting-thread/1/ 

Free Pc Games thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248138/free-pc-games/1/

Darc Requiem on 18 November 2025

So the "GabeCube" boot sequence is already a thing.

Last edited by Darc Requiem - on 19 November 2025