As PlayStation continues to make headlines due to the fallout from its physical media controversy, a former PlayStation boss, Shuhei Yoshida, has weighed in on the non-physical media playing on the Steam Machine.
As the world continues to talk about PlayStation’s physical media controversy, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has gotten his hands on Valve’s new Steam Machine and has taken it for a spin. Yoshida is a former gaming executive who helped shape many of PlayStation’s first-party games between 2008 and 2019. Towards the latter half of his career (since 2019), he turned to indie developer relations before officially retiring from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) in January 2025, so it’s safe to say he knows video games and consoles.
This former executive tried the Valve Steam Machine and walked away impressed by some aspects and disappointed by others, much like most of the reviews of the device that have appeared online since launch. It turns out the consensus is that most users have issues with the device’s performance relative to the unit’s price. Polygon’s review of the Steam Machine says, “The Steam Machine’s hefty price tag doesn’t make financial sense, any way you slice it,” and many other forum comments and reports agree. The Steam Machine starts at $1,049 USD.
Shuhei Yoshida appears to agree with the consensus after a few hours using the Steam Machine. In a social media post, he says the device takes a long time to load (and asks “what is it doing?” during these load times). He also says the analogs on the new Steam Controller feel a “bit looser” than he prefers, and he bashes the Machine’s default graphical performance, which sits at 1080p. He even suggests he’s returning to the PS4 days due to this graphical decision.
Ultimately, Yoshida says, “It allows me to play Steam games on my living room TV, which is a reason enough to keep it.” But Yoshida says that for everyone else not using the device for research, “the price was very unfriendly,” and the overall consensus is that it’s a device “Hard to recommend to people” due to the high price point. The Steam Machine started shipping its first batch of units on June 29, so more consumer and user reports are sure to follow as it matures in the wild from release.
