u/Kaijurassic

I will throw one wrench into the conversation: Steam Deck hardware is older, bespoke hardware that is produced in small quantities. The chips are old and not used for virtually anything else being produced right now. So, production costs are high. Steam Machine is technically newer hardware (well, newer hardware orders) with less custom hardware. I wouldn’t expect this to be as much of a factor in the pricing as many here would think. Having said that, no, it won’t be cheap. It just won’t be a ton more expensive. These are also different devices with different purposes. Example: Machine doesn’t have to sell you an OLED screen, which is much more expensive than it used to be and this screen is mostly only used by the Deck. Deck has to incorporate that into the price. It’s not like their prices are competing. Steam Deck is sold for portability versus Machine being sold for the living room. Looking at the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and other handheld manufacturers (excluding Ambernic and Asus for now), the pricing for handhelds is significantly higher than projections for the price of a small form factor PC. Like I said, might not be as gloomy as it looks.

[supprimé]

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/05/20/state-of-play-returns-tuesday-june-2/

PlayStation announced another State of Play for June 2nd. This wasn’t a surprise, since today is the PS Plus price increase and an announcement was expected to come out to coincide, since Sony usually makes an announcement around the time of a PS Plus price increase. Additionally, June 2nd is well within the former E3 window when Sony always has a State of Play/game announcements.

What IS a surprise is that Sony is partnering with Alamo Drafthouse to livestream the State of Play to select theaters. That is extremely out of the ordinary and definitely goes back to a traditional E3-style event. That makes me wonder whether this is actually going to be a really big State of Play. Otherwise, why stream it to theaters?

https://www.boxofficepro.com/alamo-drafthouse-and-sony-interactive-entertainment-bring-playstations-state-of-play-broadcast-to-theaters/

We have a meme flair for a reason. Please start using it. That is all.

Since Yarros has said before that dragons can lie about their names, it made me wonder what else the dragons might lie about. And that leads me to Tairn. He’s very open about a lot of things (unless Sgaeyl swears him to secrecy). Even things about the Empyrean, which dragons are not supposed to discuss, he will normally share with Violet. So, why then does he insist that he will not discuss his previous riders? We know he bonds closely with them, but that seems like an odd distinction to make. It also makes me wonder if not all of his previous riders died while bonded to him. Perhaps he willingly broke a bond, as we know dragons can do? If either part of this is true, maybe what we know about Violet’s abilities might not be completely true, as well? Maybe she gets more from Tairn than we think?

As we all wait patiently for an announcement that shipping records keep hinting are coming, I think we really need to have a serious conversation about some of the most common questions we’ve been seeing on the sub: Is it worth it? How long will this “aging” hardware be good for?

First, let’s acknowledge there’s three main buckets people fall into:

1. Console gamers looking to branch out into PC gaming. You want something approaching, something that can be a desk/small space machine or something that will go under the TV. Something largely plug-and-play that will be the best of both worlds when coming from consoles. You don’t want to spend a lot of time building/troubleshooting and you want to get as close to an easy experience with more features/slightly better performance. For you, the Steam Machine is worth it. It’s what you’re looking for and will most likely perform closer to slightly above a base PS5. You’ll have more features and SteamOS optimizations/FSR 4.1 will make the machine punch above its weight class. However, don’t expect a miracle. You won’t magically get 5090-level performance and triple digit frames at 4K. That’s not what this machine is for. Your value proposition is a PC is Console clothing. Here’s the most controversial part: you won’t notice the hardware is “aging”. Why? Most developers change target console generation every 7-10 years (with the argument there that that has changed from PS4 to PS5 and eventually to PS6, plus memory shortage shenanigans probably extending that window). Even if taken at bare minimum and you tie the lifespan to a base PS5, you will not have the hardware go obsolete within the next 5 years, minimum. The main thing though, is that PC hardware does not become entirely obsolete the same way console hardware does. While developers will drop support for a previous gen, they don’t change minimum spec requirements for PC’s nearly as often. The average build and the minimum requirement to run a game will illustrate that. Not to mention that AMD is still planning to bring FSR 4.1 to even older GPU’s than previous gen (which kinda shows what they think about common hardware specs and what people will have over the next few years; I also assume performance is not going to jump a ton next iteration and the next batch of cards won’t be as widely adopted due to price and memory shortages; consumer specs will most likely stay stagnant for a bit longer this time). That means, as long as you don’t expect miracles, you will still have a machine that will work on new games for at least 5 years. If that’s what you’re looking for, the Steam Machine is for you. Otherwise, console gen will change within the next couple of years. You can make that jump instead and get new features/performance at that time.

2. PC gamers with older hardware/not chasing top specs. The same thing as above largely applies to you. You get a prebuilt in a small form factor with specs that are mostly likely more capable than what you have. I don’t think you’ll lose anything by making the jump and you gain a few bells and whistles, plus versatility. I think it’s most worth it for you, as you know largely what you’re getting into.

3. PC enthusiasts. You want the best of the best of the best. With honors. You want the performance. Undoubtedly, you already have specs that exceed this machine. So, unless you really want something for under a TV/small form factor or has features you’re eyeing (direct support for SteamOS, HDMI CEC, native Steam Controller compatibility, will work well with the Steam Frame), you’re most likely not the target audience for the Machine. And that’s okay. It’s aimed mostly at the first two groups. If you’re curious, you’ll get it. But, I don’t see you keeping it over 1-2 years as a machine that gets use just because newer hardware will come along and you will undoubtedly jump to something with better specs that comes out when this category opens up more. Or you’ll look at Project Helix, which is fine too (as long as Windows isn’t an issue). You know how specs work and what you’re getting into. Ultimately, that will decide whether it’s worth it for you or not. If you want it, you’ll get it. If not, that investment will go toward new hardware.

Hope this helps someone who’s on the fence. If you have your own opinion, that’s great. You’re welcome to share. Let’s just all keep it civil. Thank you.

Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read any of the interviews/conversation Yarros had over the past years…

Yarros once hinted that there are dragons that might not be giving their true name and they may have reasons behind that (such as possibly bonding riders that were related to one of their previous riders). But, that made me wonder: Signets are based on the rider and their individuality. But, to an extent, it’s also based on the dragon they bond (since it is described as the being from the unique bond between dragon and rider and not just “from the rider”). Thinking that made me wonder: what if there are riders that are lying about what their signets are? We already have one specific example (which I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t read far enough to already see the reference), but it might line up that a rider may be lying about their signet. Specifically, we know Inntinnsic’s are banned, yet there are already signets mentioned that seem to overlap with that territory and yet seem to be fine. Food for thought.

There have been a lot of posts regarding “can it play X game?” or hit X target. But, I don’t think people really understand what they have exactly. Yes, Valve says 4K60 is the target for most games, even the latest AAA. That’s undoubtedly with FSR3 and certain features of FSR4 being backported. Let’s not get crazy, FSR4 is not coming as a whole. However, we do know that Valve is working on bringing certain optimizations made to FSR4 to Linux as a whole, which will undoubtedly be used for SteamOS.

Here is the big point though: 1080P is the maximum most people will use and won’t notice that it’s not 4K, even without FSR. Why? Because most people using aiming for the Steam Machine already have a recent-ish setup for their living room and use it for movies/console gaming. Why does that matter? Most TV’s in the last 5 years have algorithm-based upscaling to 4K at the processor level. While there are noticeable differences between manufacturers (Sony VS LG VS Samsung), it’s still happening and it’s still intended to take a lower resolution signal fed to the TV and upscale it to near-4K. It may not be as good as dedicated upscaling tech for gaming (which focuses on particle effects and gameplay) and it won’t kick in if you’re using upscaling on the device feeding the TV (since that’s considered a 4K signal; ex. Steam Machine using FSR to hit 4K is pushing 4K to your TV, so your TV doesn’t do upscaling). But, anyone who has hooked up a DVD player or standard Blu-Ray player to their TV and played something less than 4K can tell you how it looks cleaner than on their old TV. Upscaling at the TV processor level is why. So, don’t get fixated on a resolution target for games on the Steam Machine when you might have TV hardware ready to help.