I got a place on the 512GB with Controller list, and got an email a few days after they started. I ordered it on Friday the 3rd and got it today on Thursday the 9th. The tracking codes were all over the place and gave different estimates depending which branch of each company I used. Steam claimed it was shipped when the courier said they hadn’t got it so I was worried for a few days. But this morning Royal Mail (UK customer) sent me an email saying it would arrive today, while GLS said it would arrive tomorrow.
Safe to say I’m happy to have it now and be playing games!
I think you’re just not seeing outside the bubble of the use cases that make sense to you. I already have great daily driver PCs currently running a mix of Bazzite and CachyOS (and Windows, ew), and I have built a couple SFF PCs before, so I’m no stranger to all of that. I can’t speak for anyone else here, but part of why I find the Steam Machine compelling is it covering the opposite end of that spectrum to a degree other SFF options haven’t reached.
If you already have a gaming pc then this makes even less sense. Just stream the games to your tv using a laptop. Or even better, a steam deck. See that is a device that justifies its compromises by offering an actually unique form factor that lets you game on the go. The “form factor” of the steam machine is “itx but smaller, impossible to repair and just as expensive”. Yeah, no thanks.
Well, I never claimed it filled a necessary niche. It’s a luxury good by definition. I just don’t mind having multiple options, redundancy, and overlap in hardware roles even if that means some of it gets underutilized. That said, I’m not planning to keep the thing under the TV indefinitely. It’s going to justify its standalone performance at least occasionally.