Sony veteran Yushei Yoshida weighs in on the Steam Machine: “am I going back to PS4 days?”
Yoshida praised the UI but questioned the system’s technical value.
The first Steam Machines are arriving this week for users who have managed to dig deep enough into their pockets to treat themselves to one. Among the first public reactions is a very special one: that of Shuhei Yoshida, former president of SIE Worldwide Studios, who always has a strong opinion on what’s happening in the video game industry, drawing on his years of experience.
Through his X account (formerly Twitter), Yoshida commented on both the pros and cons of Valve’s new attempt to bring a console-like PC to market, as well as its controller. Among the console’s downsides, the executive expressed disappointment with the technical aspects, noting that “3D performance is just… meh,” “The system recommends defaulting to 1080p”—comparing this to the PlayStation 4 era—as well as “Some games take a looooooong time to boot,” and wow, that’s a lot of “o”s.
However, it wasn’t all criticism, as there were some features he did like, such as “the system UI is easy to use” and “the random boot-up videos are a nice touch.” What won Yoshida over was that “it allows me to play Steam games on my living room TV, which is reason enough to keep it.”
As for the Steam Controller, the criticism wasn’t that harsh, noting that “Having a touchpad is nice, but it’s very ‘touchy’ and hard to use,” as well as that “The sticks on the Steam Controller are a bit looser than I’d like.”
The Steam Machine’s biggest flaw: The price
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Yoshida’s assessment isn’t entirely negative, and his industry experience has enabled him to articulate his ideas concisely. However, despite all this, there’s one detail that has been the main source of criticism for the console: the price. Yoshida concludes his tweet by noting that “But the price was very unfriendly. Hard to recommend to people unless for research.” And although Valve raised the price to account for the increase in the cost of certain components, the reality is that this makes the Steam Machine feel more expensive than it actually is—but perhaps that is our future.
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