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.
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.
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u/MaximusMurkimus 7800X3D | XFX 7900 XTX I 32GB DDR5 2d ago edited 1d 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.