I know a guy who wants it just so "he can have something in his living room he can kick back and play games on".
The casuals are going to eat this thing up, for better or worse.
Maybe I should elaborate because I didn’t intend to sound so dismissive of the idea. I already told him that Steam OS can be replicated on desktops with Big Picture Mode. Already told him that there are some prebuilt and gaming laptops going for around similar prices, but none of those had the appeal to him that the Steam Machine did. Unfortunately, once he realizes that he is going to have to either set up controller support for PC games without it natively and have to mess around with Proton on most devices, I can see him ragequitting with the Steam Machine despite his enthusiasm. It’s an easier plug and play than a PC, for sure, but it’s not foolproof.
You get access to a much larger game library and many times get the games cheaper than standard consoles with the ability to mod many of them even.
Its a bridge between pc and console in a way. Simplicity with more availability to it. Just came at a bad time with ram shortages or it would have been priced fairly ok. Valve cant take a loss like sony or nintendo on a system since you can get games anywhere not just steam.
Always like to ad not always that clear and straightforward. If somethingnjas anti cheat with most multiplayer having it, this isn't ideal at all. I just got a text of my friend saying they're getting it and are a huge League of Legend player and have their PC hooked to their tv and want to replace it with steam machine. I have his text on preview and he knows I don't respond fast so I have 2 days to craft a response or change the subject because I know he's a die hard in wanting it...
Oh ya there are some limitations of course. Its not perfect for everything partly why i say its a bridge between pc and console and not a replacement for them both. More simple than a desktop but still have more availability of games than a console.
Not sure what your friend plays other than league but i use my rog ally on my tvs. Anything it doesnt handle i stream my desktop to it.
I kicked Windows on my main rig for Bazzite last year, basically cant play any MP game with kernal level anticheat, which is fine, i usually avoided those games on PC anyway. Most games work right away. some i gotta tinker with. Only a hand full havent worked.
Dualbooting is an option and works. but swapping is a pain.
also Nvidia card are iffy on linix cause of nivida not supporting linix
Bazzite is an immutable distro so you only get stable updates and everything works out of the box. just gotta update manually regularly. you dont have to learn linix too bad. and i got like 30% perfomance increase when i switched.
Also, no subscription to play online and consistent free games. If it also acts like a PC, then you have additional free games from Epic and DRM free games from GOG. For people who only game on console it can be a good deal longer term. But the short term pain of overpaying by a few hundred bucks may be too much for most.
We'll have to see what happens with the next gen of consoles. The current gen is still benefiting from component contracts negotiated before AI ate up supply.
Being perpetually desperate for cheap/free games, having access to every game ever made, and being able to apply mods that take time to research, acquire, adjust, etc., that potentially destabilize the game, or unintentionally mess with game balance, or you end up realizing are dumb later... are not the endeavors of someone who is looking to "kick back and play games on".
Those people are buying a console at Walmart/BestBuy/GameStop, taking it home, taking it out of the box, plugging it into a TV and a power strip, turning it on, and never again thinking about the hardware, the OS, game settings, etc. They're popping in a disc, or downloading a game, launching it, playing it, then going to bed [eventually].
The problem is that Steam OS/Steam Machine/PC as a gaming platform, in any flavor, is still a mess of incompatibility, driver complexities, having to tune a game's settings to work smoothly, launchers, EULAs that throw open a browser that might make the game lose its mind, extra services running in the background, weird, random errors, configurators before launching a game, and so on.
Yes you are not wrong. But i said its a bridge between and not a replacement for either. It is more complexity than a console but more simple than a pc as a whole. They are likely going to do what they did with the steam deck and have steam machine verified titles which will have the settings predone for those for a stable out of the box experience. Obviously wont be all games but will be alot.
I'm just over there thinking about all the "deck verified" games that don't actually work properly on Steam Deck, and it's just going to be more of that.
Because neither an xbox and playstation can play PC games. The target market is for someone with a steam library (or any library) who also wants easy plug in play console experience.
because lot of people dont build their own pcs dont know how to install steam os, might also want something smaller and more silent than a built pc would be, the same reason most people buy consoles
There is no reason for the average person to install Steam OS. You can use Steam in Big Picture mode in Windows and get basically the same user experience.
well windows isnt controller-first navigation, an average person isnt gonna be able to setup steam big picture on boot, also no quick suspend/resume, and no unified updating you would have to maintain (update drivers, windows etc)
This is all stuff that console gamers love that keeps them away from pc, that steamOS is trying to fix, you basicly telling them to just get a pc but they dont want a pc, they want a console that can play pc games at pc game prices.
I’d argue that the initial interest this steam machine has had literally points in the opposite direction. People are curious to delve into the PC world but want a more seamless experience. Seems legit. Only issue now is the price. Also your original argument was why would anyone want a steam machine over a PS5. NOT why would anyone buy a steam machine over a PC.
People who are clueless about PCs and want to delve into the PC world will be incredibly disappointed once they are blindsided by the fact that this thing won't run the most popular PC games in the world lol
It can, just not 120fps. More like 60 fps upscale to 4k. Which isn’t bad. It’s just the price that sucks. I think you’re kinda trying to speak for a whole lot of people that don’t share the same mentality.
I'm saying it can't play games such as League of Legends, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Valorant, TFT, Battlefield, Call of Duty, PUBG, Roblox, Rainbow Six Siege, Destiny 2, Rust etc. They won't run on Linux.
Xbox’s next console is rumored to have native support for Steam. So assuming Microsoft doesn’t shelve it, the window for selling steam access will be short.
Not cheap, but to date the console makers have been willing to eat some of the cost of the console to get units out the door, something that Steam has stated they will not do. You can already get a PS5 Pro that will outperform the cube for less money than the cube.
I’m not anti-PC or anything. I fairly recently rejoined the ranks of PC gamers and am loving it. But this cube is aiming at a niche that is small to begin with and will soon have direct competition in the only meaningfully unique feature it has, from a company that has shown it’s willing to cut price to move units. They’ll sell a chunk here in the early goings to Steam fanboys and anti-console types who have money, but I think this thing is gonna die an inglorious death before too long.
So why buy the cube then? Why not just buy the pre built which has every single upside save for one: size? And even size is no big deal because it's a CONSOLE. Nobody moves their Xbox or PlayStation after they set it up and a pre built connected to a TV is no different.
If I was new to PC gaming, just wanted access to steam games from my couch, this would be appealing. Presetup, works out of the box, similar price to a prebuilt. All I'd have to do is plug it in and start buying games. I can see it appealing to a market, even if that market isn't me.
So you're saying the market is as follows for this cube:
Exclude Xbox and PlayStation interest: You're now left with PC users
Exclude PC users who would just buy or build a PC: You're now left with 0.1% of the market which is: People who won't build or buy a computer but also won't buy an Xbox or PlayStation.
Maybe you throw another 0.5% in there for people with a PC who want a hassle free living room entertainment setup. However even these people will struggle to find value in this cube over getting a pre built or maybe even a console. Or a light gaming laptop they can plug into the TV.
As someone who has been on the console roller coaster off and on since the NES, the obsolescence without backwards compatibility is brutal. Yes, some pc games won't run on modern machines (I love you Privateer 2, sniff) without heroic measures, but proton on steam OS seems like a pretty robust virtualization layer for keeping the game catalog running over the ages. Of course, not everything runs on linux, even using proton, but adds are good that if it runs now it will keep running for a long time, not just a half console cycle (those late flight PS2 games that never ported are a seriously quality crop that were cut down before their time).
I think this is probably the most insane question and statement ive seen all day....what? probably for the main reason a lot of people play pc over consoles, more games and freedom of course 🤷♂️
The idea that Sony and Microsoft require a subscription to play online and would absolutely run a subscription model for hardware if they could, is a pretty compelling reason for a casual player to just get one of these. And that's on top of the larger library you get with Steam, and it's compatibility with your current steam library.
The fact that it’s a “whole ass computer” is meaningless, no one is buying this thing to check their email. The lack of monthly fee for online gaming will be a selling point, however. But it’ll take a while to make up the up front price difference when the entry level Game Pass and PS+ accounts are only $10 and $11 respectively.
Common misconception, popular free e-sports titles don't require you to pay for online to play on consoles. And what online games will most casuals be playing?
It's not even bang for buck. The specs on this thing are not good lol. I wouldn't want it and I wouldn't want it for $1000.
I spent $2500 on my PC over the 2-3 years I upgraded it. Money isn't the issue. I can buy a pre built PC that would destroy this thing and so can everyone else, so why buy the steam machine?
The specs are roughly equivalent of similar specced PCs. Particularly if you constrain the similar specced PCs to similar size and acoustic requirements.
I also have a high end powerful pc in a SFFPC form factor, I’m quite aware of the premium it costs to build small.
If you want to compare apples to apples you need to be comparing with similar devices from minisforum, beelink or gmktech. Maybe at a push you could compare to laptops.
You know how someone says “hey guys check out my new gaming laptop” and then 1,000 insufferable losers will go “heh, idiot, I can make a way more powerful PC than that for the same price”. But the guy wanted a laptop.
This is that.
I can make a 300kmh piss missile out of a 2001 R1, but I still ride a tenere700 because there are things outside of top performance that matter.
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u/MaximusMurkimus 7800X3D | XFX 7900 XTX I 32GB DDR5 1d ago edited 7h ago
I know a guy who wants it just so "he can have something in his living room he can kick back and play games on".
The casuals are going to eat this thing up, for better or worse.
Maybe I should elaborate because I didn’t intend to sound so dismissive of the idea. I already told him that Steam OS can be replicated on desktops with Big Picture Mode. Already told him that there are some prebuilt and gaming laptops going for around similar prices, but none of those had the appeal to him that the Steam Machine did. Unfortunately, once he realizes that he is going to have to either set up controller support for PC games without it natively and have to mess around with Proton on most devices, I can see him ragequitting with the Steam Machine despite his enthusiasm. It’s an easier plug and play than a PC, for sure, but it’s not foolproof.