The Steam Machine’s best feature is changing my gaming life

I’ve been living with the Steam Machine long enough now that the initial novelty has settled and I have a better sense of what it’s like to live with it. Everything I said in my initial review still stands: It’s a great casual plug-and-play machine, but the hardware doesn’t match the price. I’m still using it regularly with the obvious downsides, though, and that’s largely thanks to a mundane feature I didn’t expect to change my gaming habits: Steam Cloud saves.

That’s not a new feature that came with the Steam Machine. I’ve always had the ability to take my save data between my devices. I’m more conscious of how much of a lifesaver that feature is, though, now that I have a central Steam device that’s tied to my TV. The price may not be worth it, but I’m starting to embrace a Steam hardware ecosystem that gives me a level of flexibility my other consoles lack.

Steam Cloud is one of those features that’s easy to ignore if you only play your PC games in one place. It’s a digital backup system that syncs your saves to the cloud and lets you access them on other devices. If I play a game on my desktop, but decide I want to continue on a handheld device (I prefer the Steam Deck), I can do that seamlessly, so long as the game supports that feature. The process is so smooth and invisible that it barely even registers to me as a perk.

The Steam Machine supports Steam Cloud like any other PC or SteamOS-enabled handheld, and it has already come in handy plenty of times in my household. When I started playing the offbeat web sim Desktop Explorer on my Steam Machine recently, I was able to take my save with me on vacation via Steam Deck. On the flip side, I played a good half hour of Kaz, the roguelike of the summer, on my Steam Deck before deciding that its fast pace would be a better fit for a keyboard. I closed it on Steam Deck, opened it on Steam Machine, and picked up exactly where I left off. And on at least one occasion while playing on the Steam Machine, I was able to trade the TV screen over to my girlfriend by continuing to play on handheld.

In a weird way, my current gaming setup is paying off Nintendo’s odd (at the time) pitch for the Wii U. The whole selling point of the two-screen console was that you could play a game on TV, but move to the Gamepad if someone else wanted the screen. The Nintendo Switch and its successor brought that idea to a more practical conclusion with its dock, but Valve takes the philosophy a little further every time it releases a new piece of hardware. If you really invest in the Steam ecosystem, you get the ability to take your save files to any device that can access the Steam client, including your TV via Steam Machine. You aren’t locked to one single device with set specs that won’t change for eight years.

It’s easy to take for granted, but I feel the benefits of it more and more with the Steam Machine. Anytime I download a game on Xbox Series X or PS5, I’m suddenly more aware of the fact that I am tethered to my TV. The cloud-streaming PlayStation Portal is only an unreliable stopgap solution, as is Xbox’s limited cloud streaming support. With a Steam Machine and Steam Deck combination, I have something that matches the convenience of the Nintendo Switch.

Image: Polygon

It’s something I only started to grapple with in my mixed review of the Steam Machine: how much is convenience worth? It’s easy to put a price on specs, but not so much on lifestyle. The added flexibility that I get with the Steam Machine in my console rotation means that I’m using my PS5 and Xbox Series X considerably less these days. I’d much rather try a new game on Steam Machine knowing that I can take it to Steam Deck when I’m on the go, or move to a proper PC if it doesn’t run well on either device. It’s a disruptive change in my gaming habits that takes me back to 2017 and the dawn of the Switch revolution.

The Steam ecosystem doesn’t feel like the final evolution of this trend. The Switch 2 remains unbeaten as a near-perfect video game system built for flexible play. It’s way pricier to shell out for a Steam Machine and Steam Deck to get the same effect. A handheld PC that’s on par with a desktop still feels like the ultimate endgame for Valve, however long that takes. Until we reach that promised land, my habits tell me that I’m going to primarily play in the ecosystem that lets me access my games on the most devices possible. Valve holds the lead — as long as it keeps my saves safe.