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The Steam Machine fits my TV, my desk, and my life
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The Steam Machine fits my TV, my desk, and my life
The Steam Machine is just right — for me.
The Steam Machine is just right — for me.
by Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Senior Reporter
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Follow See All by Jay Peters
Jul 8, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC
Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Follow See All by Jay Peters
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
For the last couple weeks, I’ve been in an extremely lucky position: I’ve been spending a lot of time playing games on Valve’s Steam Machine.
We gave the Steam Machine a 6, and I don’t disagree with my colleague Sean Hollister’s review. But even though I already own a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, and even though I’ve experienced the Steam Machine’s drawbacks for myself, I would spend the $1,049 to buy one right now.
My PS5 and Xbox Series X can’t play the hundreds of games in my growing Steam library, don’t support Steam’s cloud saves that let me seamlessly carry progress between my Steam Deck and Steam Machine, don’t support my beloved Steam Controller, and don’t let me use mods to tweak my games exactly the way I like. (Those consoles are also just plain gargantuan compared to Valve’s diminutive box.) Compared to the Steam Deck, games look better, they play more smoothly, and I don’t hear a fan blowing all the way from my couch.
The Xbox towers over Valve’s box.
Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge
Since getting a Steam Deck a few years ago, I’ve shifted most of my gaming to Valve’s handheld, where I often play hooked up to my TV. So I figured Valve-made hardware specifically for playing games on my TV would be right up my alley, but I was a little worried after I read Sean’s review. The Steam Machine’s drawbacks are many: It’s really expensive, it competes with six-year-old console hardware, and you can’t upgrade its GPU to make games look better down the line.
And yet, I’m obsessed with how easily Valve’s tiny 6-inch cube fits into my TV console, my desk, and my life.
The Steam Machine is basically silent: I can’t think of a single time I’ve heard the Steam Machine while playing games.
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