Valve's Steam Machine: Tiny, Smooth, But a Configuration Nightmare

Valve's Steam Machine is here, and it's a mixed bag. The Verge's Sean Hollister found the console significantly smaller than a PS5 and surprisingly smooth in operation. It works with any modern gamepad right out of the box. Sounds great on paper.

The reality? Hollister's first day was a disaster. Instead of a plug-and-play console experience, he spent hours troubleshooting issues that felt more like wrestling with a finicky PC. Manual configuration is essentially required to get things running properly.

Then there's the price. Valve's hardware comes in at a premium that's hard to justify against established consoles. The Steam Machine wants to be a living room console but can't shake its PC DNA. That's either a feature or a dealbreaker depending on your patience for tinkering.