Steam Machine Faces Its Own Version of the ‘Red Ring of Death’

History may not repeat itself, but it certainly has a way of echoing. Recently, Valve started shipping the much-anticipated Steam Machine, but it came with a hefty price tag. Gamers were eager to dive into this new PC-console hybrid, but many found themselves facing the dreaded “red line of death” after just a short play session.

“The Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes that it worked,” shared a Reddit user. “I got five minutes into No Man’s Sky, then I installed the available update and it bricked itself. If you’re still waiting for yours, at least they’ll likely fix these issues.”

The user’s Steam Machine displayed a glaring red line on the bottom right, where blue should have been. Unfortunately, this indicates a GPU failure, as outlined in Steam’s guide for its HAL 9000-style LED displays. Initially, it seemed the console was completely bricked, but after leaving it unplugged for a day and following some user advice about “BIOS stuff,” the Steam Machine miraculously came back to life.

This situation inevitably brings to mind the infamous “red ring of death” from the Xbox 360, which signaled serious hardware failures and led to costly replacements, costing Microsoft over a billion dollars during the console’s lifespan. Thankfully, this Steam Machine issue appears to be much less common, though it’s amusing that Valve would risk a similar fate.

Reactions to the Steam Machine are decidedly mixed. Some gamers commend the device for pushing the Steam Deck’s mission to merge accessible console gaming with the complexities of Linux. Others, like former Sony Interactive president Shuhei Yoshida, enjoyed the concept but felt the performance was lacking. The price hike, driven by the AI-related hardware crunch, has left many dissatisfied.

“I was tired and irritable after a long day of work,” the Reddit user continued, “and an ominous GPU error code wasn’t exactly the seamless plug-and-play experience I was hoping for. But if anyone runs into the same issue, don’t panic like I did; just let it sit for a few hours, and it might sort itself out. Anyway, sorry for the false alarm, and thanks to everyone who offered solutions. Now I’m off to spend the weekend playing Crusader Kings until my eyes hurt.”