Valve’s Steam Machine continues to be one of those devices that I really want to be excited about, but the more people talk about it, the harder that gets. Now, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has managed to get his hands on one, and after spending some time with it, he shared his thoughts on social media.
Thoughts after a few hours of playing with Steam Machine.
– 3D performance is just…meh.
– The system recommends to default to 1080p – am I going back to PS4 days?
– Some games take a looooooong time to boot, what is it doing?
– System UI is easy to use.
– Being able to boot up… pic.twitter.com/qQL93AALpZ— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) July 2, 2026
Judging from what he said, Yoshida does not sound completely sold on the Steam Machine. His biggest issues seem to be the performance and the price, which are two of the biggest concerns people have had since Valve revealed more about the device. And honestly, I get it. This is supposed to be Valve’s big living room Steam box, but if the performance is already raising questions and the price is making people pause, that is a problem.
That said, Yoshida did not hate everything about it. He praised the UI, which makes sense because SteamOS is still one of the best things Valve has done in years. It works great on the Steam Deck, and it is one of the main reasons why I keep going back to that device. He also liked the random boot-up videos, along with being able to power on the Steam Machine from the controller.
He also mentioned that he hopes developers will optimize their games for the Steam Machine, similar to what we have seen with the Steam Deck. That is probably the biggest thing this device needs. The Steam Deck works as well as it does because Valve and developers have spent years making games work better on it. The Steam Machine is going to need that same level of support if Valve expects people to treat this like a console replacement for the living room.
So, basically, Yoshida is repeating what we have been hearing from a lot of people who have actually been able to use the Steam Machine. SteamOS is great. The controller features are cool. The idea of having a small Steam-powered box in the living room still makes sense. But once you get to the price and the performance, that excitement starts taking a hit.
To be fair, the pricing situation is not completely on Valve. The company has already said that the original pricing for the Steam Machine was supposed to be much lower, but memory and storage prices have continued to climb. There are also lawsuits out there alleging price fixing and supply manipulation from major RAM manufacturers (Samsung, Micron, SK Hynix), though whether anything comes from that is another story.
Still, it is good to see more people talking about the Steam Machine in a real way instead of just hyping it up because Valve made it. I want this device to be good. I want it to be the living room PC box that Steam users have wanted for years. But between the price, the performance concerns, and the limited access, the Steam Machine has a lot to prove.
