4w ago

If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director

www.rockpapershotgun.com If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director

The Steam Machine doesn't need to be console-beating if you already own a desktop, it's made to satisfy a different niche.

If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director

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Relevant part of the article.
Larian Studio's Publishing Director Michael Douse took to Twitter to argue Valve aren't looking to make a device that exceeds the power of the consoles, they're making a baseline. "They're probably betting on the fact that anyone who wants more demanding PC hardware on their TV is part of the audience who know how to turn any PC into a Steam Machine," Douse argues.
[…] Douse says, Valve are setting a baseline. "If Valve can once again normalise and thus create that entry point there is potential for big growth in that new market". Once Gabe and his kin establish a baseline, other companies, such as ASUS and Lenovo, can roll in with their more powerful machines.
- I think he's absolutely right, and I hope Valve has considered this (and they probably have). This needs to be a door-opener, not a powerhouse.
  
  Most definitely.
  Valve's main success here will be establishing SteamOS as a de facto replacement for some 60-70% of PCs. Hell, I've built a gaming PC a little over a year ago, and am still running Windows on it, but only for one reason: no first party support from SteamOS.
  Once that's sorted... My need for Windows will disappear basically, aside from the very occasional ancient Windows utility I might need to use (old Rockchip flashing tools come to mind), but those usually run quite well enough in a VM.
  Make a baseline Steam Machine, let people adapt their PCs to it easily, and you won over the gaming market. Expand that with support for third party launcher integration and you've literally got every single fanboy, gamer, etc., on your platform.
  
  Of course they have considered it. It is literally their model for handheld form factor gaming laptops (aka "Steam Deck"). And it is what they tried with round 1 of Steam Machines.
  The real problem is going to be... all the problems that those of us with a Linux HTPC have. Streaming of media won't be a thing since most services have DRM that relies on HDCP handshakes these days. Also people are going to learn the fun way why that AMD setup only supports "HDMI 2.0" (although there are workarounds to get most 2.1 functionality out of a display port adapter). Let alone just general weirdness that tends to not come up when everything is one integrated device.
  Consoles have gone a LONG way towards ruining "it just works". But I spent an hour or so yesterday finally flashing my display port dongle and it involved a second device to SSH into my HTPC and, in the process, I ended up needing to re-pair my xbox controller afterwards. I am used to that kind of bullshit and think it is fun. The first time that happens to someone you can expect all of social media to start caring that GabeN is a weird rich lunatic and insisting that Kojima-san and Sony will fix everything with the PS6 or whatever bullshit.
- Larian proving again and again, that they get it.
- Except we've already seen that, despite the success of the Steam Deck, those companies aren't interested. Of the seemingly hundred handheld devices, there's only a single one sold with SteamOS, and the subsequent one excluded it as well. In fact, ASUS doubled down on Windows with their latest handheld.

I think the goal is providing an alternate path for people migrating from windows 10 as much as it is a living room pc.
- Ehh
  I feel like most people that really care about their operating system are more than likely going to build a PC
  Most people buying a pre-built device are like Apple users "It just works"
  I have an expensive PC I built but I'm a console gamer
  I enjoy a comfy couch, big TV, and controller.
  It's the ease of just hitting a couple buttons and getting to play a game.
  Could I hook my PC to my TV? Yes, but that would require me to move my PC from my desk.
  Also things like controllers. If I hooked my PC to my TV to play something like Overwatch I'd have to play with m/kb people which I would be at a severe disadvantage if I played with a controller.
  Like if Xbox overwatch allowed m/kb (yeah I know people cheat) I'd probably stop playing it.
  It's the PC gamers that always want consoles to support m/kb. Console gamers do not want to play on m/kb.
  In my mind lack of m/kb is why consoles exist
  People aren't buying PS/Xbox for a living room PC. They want a console gaming experience
  
  Most people locked out of upgrading from W10 to W11 have never built a computer and will never build a computer. They are liable to throw away their existing computer and purchase a new one. W10 is EOL and W11 has a restrictive list of prerequisites.
  
  Does Overwatch not have crossplay?

Emudeck person is working on this
https://shop.playnix.io/products/playnix-console
RX 9060xt and Ryzen 5600
Don't need it. At least it's RDNA4. Good bump up in performance compared to the Steam Machine and still fairly compact
- Id bet this will end up like the steam deck competitors. More powerful, but DOA because the price point is wrong and ultimately misses the reason why it's a product in the first place.
  Valve isn't targeting the PC market with this. They are trying to persuade console users to make the switch.
  Based on the limited specs we have, the steam machine is a more powerful PS5

With SSD, memory prices, and GPU prices still going up, releasing console-beating Steam Machines still seems way over the horizon to plan for. Once the AI bubble "pops", maybe .. but with so much going on in the world in terms of geopolitics also threatening to affect markets, I wouldn't dare to look into the future.
- They're coming, they'll just be third party and expensive.
  
  Might as well just build your own mini-ITX PC and install SteamOS if it gets to that point

Valve has amazing hardware engineering skills and I have no idea, why companies like ASUS struggle to compete. They struggled with the Steam Deck, they will struggle with the Steam Machine.
- Because valve does not need to profit,since they get money from people buying games.
  
  They don't need to worry about shareholders demanding maximum profit. They are still going to be looking to profit but they can do things for purposes beyond just extracting as much as possible in the short term.

I‘d like to think that Asus and Lenovo would build „console-beating“ Steam Machines, but they‘ve also tried building more powerful Steam Deck alternatives and those were meh at best and terrible at worst.
Steam Machines are probably easier to design, as they‘re just PCs. But seeing how much thought and care Valve puts into their hardware designs and how little of both Lenovo and Asus have put into theirs in the past, I‘m not going to expect great products from them.
I’d be very happy to be wrong, though.
- The reason why Valve has a chance whereas Asus and Lenovo do not is that the latter two have to make a profit off of the hardware, whereas Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony can sell at a loss/cost because they earn it back and more through game sales. Valve is in the same position so can price competitively against the big 3.

Ive wanted to get into PC gaming for awhile but I just don't have the room or the care to set something up its why I use consoles. Every time I mention this ill get a billion messages about ways to make it work. I'm a simple person I want to plug it in and turn it on which is why I use consoles. I dont play enough games to justify a full set up. I plan to plug my PS5 controller into this (I think its able?) And enjoy.
- I plan to plug my PS5 controller into this (I think its able?)
  Yes, because everything runs through Steam, which support the DS5.
- Unless you are going for console exclusives, a PC is upgradable and can be just about as plug and play, specially now with SteamOS. The SteamDeck has really helped normalized control schemes into their gamepad.
- It's able ! However my experience on Linux tells me to warn you that having the PS4 controller work only requires plug and play, having the PS5 controller work requires a few (moderate) tweaks
  
  What tweaks did you require? I just start ps5 controller and it works.
  
  On Steam Deck it just works, but that's because it's running through Steam.
- Whats a full setup in this context? A mouse and keyboard? You could always hook a pc up to a tv so thats not a factor.. dont get me wrong if this is what it takes to get you to embrace pc gaming thats great, it just feels like before now if there were any barriers to it they largely existed only in your head. Hooking a pc up to a tv and using a $20 air remote from amazon and a ps4 controller(or even just the touchpad on the ps4 controller) to control the mouse was always possible.

If this thing is $499, I will buy it, as I’ve wanted to get into PC gaming for a while and I will probably spend more in games. If it is more than $499, I will buy a used PS5 and continue to think about building a cool gaming PC and getting into PC gaming.
- I think $700-$800 is a more realistic range unfortunately. It depends on how thin margins Valve is willing to accept, but I don’t think they want to sell at a loss like the typical console manufacturer.
  
  I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider selling at a loss if it means bringing a massive user base over to their gaming ecosystem where they take a 30% cut of game sales. 700-800 is probably a good price point for what you get. I’m just not a big enough gamer to justify dropping that kind of money on a setup to try out PC gaming.
- Probably slightly more than that, but it's worth considering the long-term costs. Steam does not have a monthly subscription (minimum $160/yr with PS), they often have massive price cuts in their seasonal sales, and even many games can be had completely for free. Epic gives them away every week. GOG gives them away on occasion. And if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, that includes several games a week as well.
- The steam deck is likely the target machine at that price.
  
  It also is very serviceable as a TV connected console. That's how I play on my deck most.

If other hardware vendors are going to follow, they have to be using SteamOS or something similar out of the box. Handhelds can somewhat get away with using Windows because of the touch screen, but a "console" experience that occasionally requires plugging in a keyboard and mouse to get past some controller-unfriendly menu or pop-up is just going to annoy users.
- Any other Distribution and even Windows would work fine, as long as you set up passwordless autologon as a default user and then put Steam in Big Picture Mode as autostart.
  
  Respectfully, I'm going to have to disagree about stock Windows working fine. There are multiple places where it necessitates having a keyboard and/or mouse connected.
  Interacting with UAC prompts and other elevated-permission windows that block synthetic input events.
  When a popup hijacks focus away from the game window.
  When Steam (or other controller to mouse software) is not open, such as during the logoff screen where you sometimes have to click "Close Anyways".
  After a BIOS update, when the TPM refuses to unlock and you need to enter the BitLocker recovery key within the pre-boot environment.

I'm waiting for the price then checking the specs of the nearest comparable mini pc. I'll lean valve over beelink/minisforim and then over everyone else. But I think that's the closest comparison.

Talk to me when it’s $250
- Can you even buy a current gen console for that? Genuinely asking, I don't own any console systems but thought they were in the $5-600 range now (excluding the Switch)?
  
  They are and it’s a shame. But it’s ok, wait and buy used.
  
  This isn't as powerful as a PS5 or as portable as a Switch (and doesn't have the benefits of a console). So it should be cheaper. Looking at the prices right now, PS5 with Fifa is 450 from MediaMarkt and Series S is 380. But the PS5 is already heavily criticised for being too expensive. I believe Series S can be 300 if you look around and wait for a sale.

Have we forgotten the Nintendo Wii already? Sure its not a pc, but it was in nearly everyone's living room.

Also, I will never purchase a gaming console for my kids to get addicted to it. Get the kids an "IPad"? I learned my lesson. Horrified by the results. Good luck out there! Don't complaint if you don't get into that graduate program that your parents dreamed of for you. Also can't get a girl pregnant if you don't know what that other joystick is for, so maybe this is not too bad. I'm conflicted by no, no "entry point" into my house or my pocket thanks.

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