To buy a Steam Machine, you first must join a waitlist.
I signed up on a lark. I wasn't actually going to buy one. I had already resigned myself to playing PC games on my TV via my docked Steam Deck. That is, when I wasn’t playing my PS5, Xbox Series X, or Switch 2. The last thing I needed was another gaming device attached, through a tangle of cables, to the back of my TV.
Despite all this, I joined the Steam Machine waitlist (for the 512GB model with a Steam Controller) – and then quickly forgot all about it.
So I was surprised when my purchase email arrived roughly 10 weeks later. Once your email arrives, you have three days to place your order, or you lose your chance to buy.
Upon reading the email, I was sure I wasn’t going to buy it. Between the Steam Machine’s high price and my ability to play nearly any game I want on my other consoles, it would be a pricy and unnecessary addition to my gaming life.
Even though I wasn’t going to buy a Steam Machine, I kept thinking about it over my three-day purchase window. I watched and read reviews, mentally noting the pros and cons, trying to determine if, actually, maybe I should buy one?
Ever since I bought Valve's handheld Steam Deck in 2022, it's been my platform of choice. I’ve managed to accrue a large library of Steam games over the years, and it annoyed me that more power-hungry games don't run well or look good when played on a TV via the docked Steam Deck.
But I loved the PC platform, which offers endless backward compatibility and the ease of emulating older consoles. SteamOS is a marvelous thing that combines the convenience of a console with the versatility of a PC.
Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft haven’t exactly been endearing themselves to gamers of this generation. Killer first-party games have been few and far between. Both companies have been laying off employees and closing or offloading studios. Both still charge a monthly fee for online play. And Sony’s decision to cease production of discs in January 2028 has riled fans against the company in a way I can’t remember ever seeing before.
None of this makes me eager to hop onboard with whatever these companies are cooking up for next-gen. Valve, on the other hand – while not perfect – has been much more consumer-friendly.
In the end, just a few hours before my purchase window lapsed, I ordered a Steam Machine. And I love the thing.
While I had some initial problems trying to play older games that don’t support Steam cloud saves (and thus couldn’t pick up the progress I’d made on Steam Deck), I downloaded a handful of newer games (The Witcher 3 Remastered, The Order of the Sinking Star, ARC Raiders) and have been playing happily across devices.
It's no more powerful than my other consoles, but it has my main library of games on it, and it runs them beautifully on my 4K TV. The Steam Controller immediately became my favorite game controller, supplanting the Xbox controller I had always preferred before.
As it stands now, hardware-wise, I might be done with Sony and Microsoft going forward. I'll play the majority of games on my Steam Machine/Deck combo. I'll play Nintendo's first-party gems on my Switch 2. And when the PS6 arrives, whenever that may be and however much it may cost, it almost certainly won't be a day-one purchase for me.
Is the Steam Machine is pricy for what it offers? Yes. Is it right for everyone? Absolutely not. But it's right for IGN's tech editor Jackie Thomas. And as someone who’s been buying 99% of my games on PC and Switch over the past few years, it's right for me.