Were we too nice to the Steam Machine?

Summary of Were we too nice to the Steam Machine?

by The Verge

26m•July 15, 2026
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Overview of VergeCast — “Were we too nice to the Steam Machine?”

This episode is a follow-up Q&A on The Verge’s Steam Machine review, with host David Pierce and reviewer Sean Hollister responding to listener criticism about the device’s price, value, performance, and whether Valve’s reputation made the review too generous. The discussion lands on a nuanced conclusion: the Steam Machine is expensive and imperfect, but its quiet, compact design, SteamOS experience, and Valve’s support history make it more compelling than a simple spec-sheet comparison suggests—though it still has real shortcomings, especially around reliability, upgradability, and streaming-app support.

Quick news roundup from the episode

Google Play Store shake-up

  • Google may soon have to allow rival app stores inside the US Google Play Store.
  • The change stems from Google’s loss to Epic in 2023.
  • Rival stores could begin appearing as soon as July 22, depending on who acts on the ruling.

OpenAI and Apple hardware drama

  • OpenAI appears to be preparing a smart-speaker-style hardware product with a battery.
  • The company also pushed back on Apple’s lawsuit over alleged hardware-secret theft.
  • The segment suggests the legal fight is still evolving and unclear.

Home Depot’s talking skeleton

  • Home Depot’s giant 12-foot skeleton now has a talking feature via an app.
  • It’s presented as absurd, expensive, and very on-brand for viral seasonal retail culture.

The Steam Machine debate

Is it overpriced?

  • A major listener complaint was that the Steam Machine feels like a bad deal compared with building your own PC or buying a console.
  • Sean’s response: if you already have a gaming desktop, this is probably not for you.
  • But if you want a small, cool, quiet, living-room-friendly gaming box, the value proposition changes.

Why not just build one yourself?

  • You can build a PC for similar money, but not necessarily one that is:
    • as compact
    • as quiet
    • as cool-running
    • as polished in the living room
  • The machine’s physical design is a big part of the appeal, not just its raw specs.

Why the review score was a 6

  • Sean reiterates that the Steam Machine is good, but flawed.
  • He says the score would be higher if:
    • sleep/resume worked reliably
    • the box were more polished out of the gate
  • The current issues keep it from being a 7 or 8.

Valve, SteamOS, and the “Steam Machine of it all”

SteamOS is the real differentiator

  • The strongest argument for the Steam Machine is not the hardware alone, but SteamOS.
  • For people who just want to boot into a gaming-first environment, SteamOS is more console-like than Windows.
  • Windows still has advantages for general-purpose PC work, legacy software, and creative apps.

Valve’s reputation matters

  • The hosts emphasize that Valve has a strong track record of supporting old hardware:
    • Steam Controller
    • Steam Link
    • Steam Deck
  • Even discontinued Valve hardware tends to keep getting updates and staying functional.
  • That makes buyers more willing to trust the Steam Machine despite its rough edges.

A possible long-term play for Linux gaming

  • The Steam Machine may be as much about advancing Linux gaming as selling a single box.
  • If SteamOS becomes widely adopted, it could help standardize the minimum target for game developers.
  • That might slow some of the hardware arms race by encouraging developers to aim at a broader, lower common denominator.

Main concerns and limitations

Longevity and upgradability

  • The biggest hardware criticism is that the Steam Machine is not very modular.
  • Storage is replaceable, and memory can be accessed with effort, but the core design is tightly integrated.
  • That makes it less future-proof than a typical desktop PC.

Underpowered for the price?

  • Critics point out the device uses only 8GB of VRAM, which may age poorly.
  • Sean agrees the machine likely should have been either:
    • cheaper, or
    • better equipped
  • He worries about how well it will hold up in 1, 2, 5, or 8 years.

Not a great set-top box

  • The Steam Machine is not a strong Roku/TV-streaming replacement.
  • It lacks built-in support for major streaming apps.
  • DRM and Linux compatibility make 4K/HDR/Atmos streaming difficult or unreliable compared with dedicated streaming devices.

Bottom line

  • The Steam Machine is best understood as a living-room gaming PC with console ambitions, not a traditional desktop replacement.
  • Its strengths are:
    • compact design
    • quiet operation
    • SteamOS
    • Valve’s long-term support history
  • Its weaknesses are:
    • high price
    • limited upgradability
    • imperfect launch polish
    • weak streaming-app support
  • The episode’s core conclusion: the machine is not a slam dunk, but it’s not a disaster either. It’s a promising product with enough trade-offs that the debate over whether The Verge was “too nice” is fair—but Valve’s track record gives it more credibility than most hardware makers would get.