Valve is about to win the console generation
Today was a big day for gamers as Valve just introduced three products: the Steam Controller, the Steam Machine, and the Steam Frame. When you add this alongside the Steam Deck, I think it's safe to say that Valve is about to win the next console generation.
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Premature celebration much? They haven't even announced pricing. Steam Machine could be $1200 and DOA for all we know.
I might be way off the mark, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it priced like the OLED Steam Deck. At least at launch.
With a later price increase due to RAM and SSD shortages.
Edit: watching more videos, could be north of 600.
It's smart of them to give it a consumer friendly price and it would track with what they did with the steam deck.
Just like the other big names, steam can sell it at a very low margin since they make their money with the store. I wouldn't be surprised if they even sell it at a lost to quickly gain market share.
Loss-leading with new hardware has been a de facto standard for about as long as consoles have existed, so I'd be shocked if a company as consumer-attuned as Valve somehow missed this and priced themselves out of the market.
If it's more expensive than a entry-level gaming laptop, then I doubt the average user would buy a Steam Machine, when a laptop is far more flexible.
It has to be cheaper and more convenient than what's currently available.
"Flexible" doesn't sell as much as "Easy"
I don't doubt that.
I think familiarity is also important, maybe more so than ease of use.
A lot of people know Windows and how to use it (at least for the basics.)
Steam OS is still extremely niche.
That's why I think the Steam Machine has to have price on its side to push people to consider buying a gaming-focused PC rather than a more general purpose gaming laptop. Particularly when everyone is struggling with rising costs.
A lot of gamers will be buying it just for playing games and nothing else, and use it like a console
I think you're kind of missing the point. This thing is meant to take a bite out of the much larger console market. It doesn't need to compete with a gaming laptop's pricing if the people it's targeting weren't going to buy a gaming laptop.
True, I agree.
In my head, unless it's in the 400-600 range, a gaming laptop makes more sense. I suspect generally other prospective buyers would too.
Steam OS whilst great, still doesn't run as many games as Windows. Particularly certain popular multiplayer ones with kernel-level anti-cheat.
At the moment all we have is Valve's theory that if the Steam Machine becomes really popular, Devs might update their games to work on Steam OS/linux. But equally they might not.
In a world where everything is getting more expensive (apart from TVs), I'm not sure the average person has the spare income to buy another single-purpose machine (yes, Steam OS can do more, but it's designed to be used for gaming). A Windows laptop is more flexible.
I can see this hardware appealing to a lot of people, regardless of price though. Kid's first PC for example.
I really want this machine to be a success. I would love to ditch Windows completely, as soon as possible.
Yeah $400-600 is about the price point I was thinking. But it's Valve, so who the hell knows?
Especially because they are literally known for creating things that sell at a loss and learning profound lessons from the thing they sell.
Also, they're the most progressive group to not engage in Patent warfare since Volvo made the 3-point seatbelt.
Valve knows how to help an ecosystem grow and pays attention to it's user base.
Nobody was talking shit and you still had to come in here and bootlick.
Steam is the exact same as every other big platform, they grab their 30% like everyone else. Gaben literally has a billion dollars worth of boats. Stop defending billionaires and their money sucking contraptions.
I forgot that Gaben is literally all of Valve.
I'm not here to lick Gabe's boots, I'm here to point out that sometimes, companies do good things. There are a lot of people making money and doing development at Valve, almost none of them are Gabe, but I guess fuck the laborers because their CEO consolidates money and fucks around on the Stock Market.
Yes, Gabe is included in Eat the Rich, but the people that work at Valve shouldn't be held accountable to to his faults. Conflating the Labor with the Owner is a take though.
Sure pricing hasn't been announced, but people can start speculating about the BOM.
So they can start making inaccurate guesses about something only tangentially related to the price. Cool.
A lot of people are talking about loss-leading, but I think what the Steam Machine needs is a dual purpose.
The best the article seems to mention is using it as a desktop. I don't think that's quite on par with the PS3's blu-ray player and use in scientific workloads.
A lot of people are talking about loss-leading
I don't think it could be a loss-leader for Valve. If the price/performance is good enough, what's stopping companies from buying a lot to use as work stations? No company is going to buy Steam Decks for office software, but they might buy a Steam Machine.
If that happens and every Steam Machine is actually sold at a loss then it'd be a big problem for Valve
If it runs SteamOS by default, I don't think it would be used as an office device unless there's a distro designed for office use on the Steam Machine, which itself would only happen if it gets wide adoption as an office machine. In essence a catch 22.
unless there's a distro designed for office use on the Steam Machine
It's a PC. You can just put any Linux distro or even Windows on it. Some people even did that with the Steam Deck when it released
It's not about what's technically feasible, it's about what the tech guys can convince the CEO of.
Valve told LTT that it's not going to be sold as a loss leader.
I got a ps5 as early as i could mainly for 4k blurays so i could watch blade runner 2049 and spiderverse with atmos
It's not the latest and greatest PC hardware, which should drive down the price a ton. I bet they looked at the latest consoles and said "We don't have to innovate at all, we just just have to not be assholes"
Premature celebration much?
Yes, OP is doing this... To begin with, I can go out to my local Walmart and buy an Xbox, a PS5 or a Switch any day... The Steam Deck can't even be shipped to Mexico even to this day lol (and we are quite close to the USA).
Lol, "quite close"
What's the matter? English is not my native language, but I think it is clear what I meant.
It was just amusing since we are neighbors. Quite close as in the distance is 0 😁
Nothing wrong with the English, just an amusing phrasing.
Well yes, we are neighbors, but the Valve still does not ship here :(
That is very dumb. There's got to be a black market of this stuff but honestly you can probably get a comparable mini computer for a similar price off AliExpramazon. Might have to return it a few times but a lot of folks seem to have success with them. Pop Linux* on there and you're basically at parity.
*Edit: not pop_os Linux although that's fine too, I just meant install
It is about as powerful as Minisforum HX100G, except GPU is RDNA3 and CPU is underclocked I guess. Minisforum Neptune series are (were, case try to fucking find a unit now) sold around 800euro. Considering tiny market for miniPCs, price is okay. Valve, on the other hand, will have much bigger market due to brand recognition. And price probably going to be lower since hardware is not exactly fresh new and it going to be mass produced.
My guess, 600euro for 512GB SSD, 650 for 1TB.
Edit: 512, not 256
versions will be 512GB and 2TB
Oh. True! Thanks! Fixed it!