Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "VALVE'S STEAM MACHINE STARTS AT $1,049 WITH NO CONTROLLER"

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠⁠Join The Normandy For Ad-Free NME, Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠⁠ In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz delivers a concise breakdown of Valve’s newly revealed Steam Machine — a compact gaming PC/console hybrid running SteamOS that has sparked major backlash over its high price and performance.Valve priced the Steam Machine between $1,049 and $1,428, significantly more expensive than a PS5 despite offering comparable performance. Analytic Dreamz breaks down the full pricing tiers, the reasons behind the steep costs including surging RAM and component prices, hardware specs, and real-world benchmarks.From its compact 6x6-inch design and quiet operation to SteamOS strengths and limitations, this segment covers reviewer reactions, upgradeability issues, Linux compatibility problems, and why many see it as a niche product rather than a mainstream console killer.Tune in for the complete data-driven analysis on Valve’s controversial Steam Machine launch. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Shepard promise me you'll tell them to subscribe for free content now I was just thinking to myself where should we even start and I was like oh I found the the perfect place you guys as Valve as a company you know they're very profitable and as far as them being driven by Steam's 30% commissions on games like the entire gaming industry mind you. They are on Steam. They get 30% cut from that. So as far as estimates, 2.2 billion in 2021. Up 15% year over here. Hmm. Scaling to 13 billion total as far as 10 billion from Steam in 2022. But hold up now. That's not even it. 2025 projections show that 17 billion dollars. Yes, billion ladies and gentlemen will be coming from steam alone with valve taking a four billion dollar

cut and of course i'll probably think it to yourself well what about the overhead well i'm glad you asked as valve has three 350 employees they generate massive per head profits 50 million revenue slash employee in recent estimates. So then you look at the hardware. As far as the decks slash steam machine, we're about to get into for this specific segment. But overall, you look at the lower margin segment, but of course, the overall ecosystem,

Valve is making way more money than in prior years, with high margins, grossing 75% and operating at 508%. percent historically, easily covering the overhead. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? No, I know you're already saying. You guys. What is he saying all these random analytics for it?

Well, first, you know, it's not random. Over here, notorious mass. You know we get into the gaming and music IPs that notoriously affect the masses. It's safe to say. Valve saw a particular market and they tried to capitalize off of it. as far as the PC console hybrid. But then you realize that the actual price for the Steam machine that we're getting into for this specific segment, it just very much missed the mark.

As the Steam machine, which is a compact gaming PC slash console hybrid, running Steam OS, will be $1,000. And no, not only $1,000. 11, no, 1128 for the 512 gigabyte version plus the steam controller. For some reason, they decide to make a version without the controller. How are you going to play it? I don't know, figure it out. Use your mind, you know what I'm saying?

All right, my fault. Y'all about to see a Spider-Man movie. Hey, telekines to Gene Gray, about to show you how to do it. So anyways, they're releasing the steam machine without a controller. and that will run you about $1,000 and $49. See, you thought it was going to be under $1,000. No, Valve wanted money. All right, so anyways, then you have the 2-terabyte version

without the controller being $1,349. And then you have the 2-terabyte version plus the steam controller being $1,400 and $1,428. So you come to realize that Valve's sentiment when it comes so their hardware prices have not changed. They been told y'all how they felt about subsidizing. As Valve came out and said, quote, it does not subsidize like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

They aim for near cost or small margin pricing to avoid locking down the open PC ecosystem. Early decks were sometimes painful, but meaning, near or slight loss on some skews, but higher models ran margins. They absorb via steam profits without deep subsides. So that makes me come to the ultimate point. You know what I'm saying?

Just look at the state of gaming. Well, looking at it. What is going on? The gaming industry is getting to a point where it's just outpricing the average consumer. And that's just a shame, man. It's just a shame. Because over here at notorious mass effect with me being able to do this full time, you know what i mean thank to y'all's support you know thanks to y'all support you know thanks to y'all

so i just i just gave them praise bro give them some praise all so thank y'all for the tremendous support to make this like a full-time thing so obviously when it comes to the steam machine you're probably thinking to yourself well are you gonna get it of course not you want the world of course not this is my job i'm still not getting the steam machine because me i'm thinking like you know what i do have one PC. I know content creators they usually have two, you know, to like help out with the load as far as one doing multitasking as far as OPS, things of that nature and the other actually running the game. But then you come to realize the steam is about $1,000, not about it is. It's $1,000 and it doesn't even come up to certain specs of consoles that's way cheaper. You look at the Steam deck as far as the actual specs. And it's, weaker than a PS5 slash Xbox Series X and it performs like a lower mid PS4 and is a performs exactly like a PS4 pro so you probably think so what does that mean

well it's going to get a little bit more nerdy because now we have to get into the actual specs as when you look at the Steam Deck specs as a custom AMD APU and when you look at that as far as in totality of the lower mid PS4 you have 1.6 Tflops 16 gigabytes of well you need you have one terabyte SSD and then you have 15 lots of TDP I don't know what TDP means but then you look at PS4 Pro where they both run games around the 30 to 60 frames per second with tweaks right and that is ultimately weaker than a PS5 slash Xbox Series X that runs at 10 to 12 terraflops. So I think Steam Deck being horrendously underpowered and being overtly priced is just

an unfortunate scenario in the gaming community. It was like, come on, Val, look at the state of-of-you-just-room for you. You know, the next Xbox console is reportedly a PC console hybrid. Now, I believe Xbox does a phenomenal job on putting out very powerful hardware, which makes me realize that it's probably going to be way more than a thousand now because they're looking at the steam machine like, hey, hold on now. Y'all came with that and you priced it at what? So this is going to continue into consoles now being way more than a thousand because they're going to be way more powerful than the steam machine. And the steam machine's main purpose is to be a PC console hybrid. If it was a PC, it would be way more powerful. But they was trying to make a cost-effective PC console hybrid for people who just wanted a,

there's like a name for it, for people who wanted a small form factor type of PC build with the Steam system as far as, what was it called again? The Steam OS system into it, which is very intuitive. and user-friendly. But now you come to realize the power of that specific machine is so underperform underperformative

as far as compared to the current consoles, not even like the future consoles. It's underperforming when it comes to the current PS5s and Xbox Series X and S's of the world. So we can only imagine how much the PS6 and the next Xbox is going to cost.

As I think as of right now, with the steam machine the only way it could counteract this horrendous PR because when I first saw the prices I was like nah

I ain't no way I know that ain't no way I was like nah bro that's steam that's Valve they got money for days there's no way they would try to squeeze

money out of the consumer like this it's almost like they try to copy Nintendo's format because if you don't know the reason why a lot of Nintendo first party titles have their certain graphics

that they have is to make the ultimate cost of development lower. And of course, when it comes to the hardware, they sell it at a specific price point to where they basically rec. BetMGM is an official sports betting partner

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-260-0 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Cool. So whenever vowed through Nintendo's name in there as far as not being a company who's going to subside or whatever, it's like, but Nintendo doesn't do that. So you obviously saw a marketing strategy that you wanted to align yourself with instead of aligning yourself with other companies that put out actual powerful hardware at a justifiable price. So anyways, this is a horrendous L for Valve. I think when it comes to the steam machine, if you don't know, once again, it is running the Steam OS. It's going to have eight gigabytes of V-RAM.

has 16 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM and of course when it comes to the compact six by six inch design that's the best thing it has going for it as far as it being small um as far as i'm advertising 4k 60 fps reviewers literally got their hands on it um analytic dreams video on spotify to see the video along with audio because i currently have a video not this video but the next one i guess i could play that now the next video i have with somebody having uh well not somebody a t a prime having hands on time with a specific valve machine as you can see right now so once again analytic dreams video on spotify to see the video along with the audio because i'm currently showing the hands-on breakdown of the steam machine specs so anyways valve advertised 4k fpses

ladies and gentlemen it doesn't run at all at all you know what i'm saying i'm like hold up now you guys did they just lie to us did they just lie straight to our face anyways So now that you come to realize that actual reviewers with hands on time are saying that it barely performs like a PS4 Pro, not even powerful like the PS5 or the Xbox Series X&S, you come to realize that the price increase doesn't make sense. You could say as market factors, but it's a very underperforming type of hardware.

And now, I think with your multi-core performance, and the lack of history you have of putting out consoles, it could be over before it even starts. And the reason why I say that is because the steam machine, not my fault, the Steam Deck, which is the handheld valve product, the Steam Deck is a phenomenal piece of hardware until you realize they raised the prices exponentially on that piece of hardware too. As when they launched in 2022 as far as the Steam Deck,

It was $39 for the 256 gigabyte version. And then it was, well, let me see if I can find this right quick. Okay, so February 22, for the LCD models, it was $39 for the 64 gigabyte, $529 for the 256 gigabyte, and $649 for the $512 gigabyte. Now, it increased in price, November 2023. With the OLED refresh me, $549 as far as $512 gigabyte, 649 for the one terabyte version which basically the OLED had improved screen battery Wi-Fi LCD phased um yeah basically LCD phased out by late 2025 so now when you look at the

old that's all we have right now as far as the upgraded steam deck valve took it upon themselves three years later to have a humongous price hike no not a little hundred two well it was two oh not a little hundred dollar or 150 dollar price increase but a whopping 240 increase for the OLED 512 gigabyte version and a whopping $300 increase for the one terabyte version. Had me thinking to myself, man.

This is crazy. Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? It's almost like that old phrase of you see yourself and you live long enough to become the villain because it's like Valve has such consumer friendly practices. I mean, free internet

as far as being able to play internet games without having a subscription. Because PS Plus, and Xbox subscriptions they exist as far as having to play online. Steam doesn't have that. So they have that going for it for them, which is very pro-consumer. Hopefully they don't change that amidst these price hikes. And then, of course, when it comes to the actual Steam website,

you can find so many popular games on sale through like just wish listing a game and they will actually notify you on when a game goes on sale. So Valve has like all these different sales that Nintendo never puts their like top performing games on sale. Imagine seeing a Pokemon game on sale. Boy, you would have caught a shiny yourself. You know what I'm saying? All right, my fault. I was trying to make a Pokemon puny.

But anyways, and then you have PlayStation and Xbox, and they rarely drop their prices, even when they do, it's not as much as steam. So, Steam, you could fill up your library really quick. So those are some of the pro-consumer tactics that Valve, well, that Steam has. And so you would think with Valve, they would try to align themselves more

with these pro-consumer-type strategies instead of raising the prices. But hey, here we are. And I've already got into like why RAM has increased because, yeah, January 30th of this year, I talked about how RAM prices are skyrocketing and reaching new high, suggesting that there may be no end in sight. So I already talked about that in that specific segment if you want to look it up on whatever podcast platform you listen to podcasts on. So basically, to make it short, AI and AI. That's it.

AI is really driving prices through the roof. Who told every single company to make all these humongous data centers, drinking up all the clean water, firing all the humans? Like who told them to make all these adjustments when it came to AI? Nobody. But guess what? Now that they did it, deciding economic reasons for why their prices are increasing, like they didn't create their problem in the first place.

You know what I'm saying? See, that's the problem. So now that we're in this state of game. gaming that is very much, it was already an expensive hobby and it's not a necessity. Food, water, shelter. That's a necessity. Gaming is not. Gaming is a hobby that you do if you can afford it.

It was already like that. Now it's getting to the point where even the middle class is going to start being like, I don't know. That may be too rich for my blood. So for me, in a totality of gaming, I don't think I've ever seen a time where so many different companies are just raising prices without any consideration for the average hardworking man or woman. They are basically like, to you know what with it, we're just going to focus on the high middle class to the top class. But basically, I don't think it's going to revert anytime soon, especially with the current landscape that we're in. Of course, it's not political podcast.

But if you was wanting a solution, because, you know, I don't try to get problems without solutions. So if you was wanting a solution, I dare look up certain things as far as you could, if you was actually wanting a small form factor type of PC build that's not underpowered like the steam machine. Basically, you could buy many PCs or small form factor. PC's at, let me see, yeah, B-Link slash, and this is not an ad, I'm just trying to help you all out if you use one of small form factor PC, if you just want another PC to go along with your main PC, because even I'm looking at this, because I've been wanting to upgrade to a two-PC setup.

I thought the steam machine is going to be it. Guess not. So anyways, B-link slash mini-forms, rising minis. apparently the $350 to $600 with stronger IGPUs for 1080p slash 1440p and then you have some small form factor steam OS bills under $250 to $400 and basically what you should look for is the AMD Risen 5 slash 7 plus the 16 to 32 gigabytes of RAM so that means it you know you can thank me later you know I mean just trying to help you all out you know give you a little solution throughout this very uh you know It's saddening news because we thought Valve was definitely going to shake up the industry with the steam machine, but it seems like it may be dead on arrival, honestly, because Xbox is reportedly making a console PC hybrid just like this, and we don't know what the price is going to be,

but we can already assume that's going to be way more powerful because Xbox is usually good at keeping up with the times as far as having impressive hardware. So let me say. I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. Yeah, the steam machine, man, not only did y'all let Nause down, but y'all let the gaming community down as well. Shepard. Saddened history. I mean, goodness. What is going on?

So, with that being said, click my link, sure in my bio to follow me on my social media. And of course, if you're on Spotify, comment down below, what is something Valve could do besides lowering the prices? Because that's obvious. But what's something besides lowering the prices, Steam could do or Valve could do to make you even think of getting a Steam machine. soon.