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Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

arstechnica.com

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Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#2

Post by fwsgonzo »

That's very interesting to hear. Not least because Steam hosts your multiplayer sessions for any game now, so it could potentially be very seamless. There is so much potential here! I hope they work hard on their voice chat feature too, and get everything right from the start. And finally, Linux, using Vulcan I assume!

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#3

Post by libertine »

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line.

Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life.

So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price.

These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among other things) - though they shared the same kind of price strategy between each other: sell almost as cost (or at loss in case of the PS3), to make up later with game sales.

Nintendo blurred that line into one device with the Switch, but they still check the box of the device being affordable.

With that said, there were already some approaches to Nintendo Switch like hardware for the PC market, some with waaaay better performance then the switch (with both intel or AMD socs), yet they are failing in what I believe is crucial for these devices: price.

They are expensive.

I'm not saying they aren't wonderful pieces of engineering, but clearly they aren't meant to even compete on the same level. They can't sell at cost/loss, because they can't make it up with licensing or their own IP, so they have to make money on the hardware itself.

Therefore I always assume these devices are for a very particular small set of gaming enthusiasts who are found of the idea of playing PC games on the go (even with limited battery life), and are willing to pay more then a full fledged console for this experience.

I'm curious to see how Valve will tackle this, or if they are fine with that (which they seemed to be in other hardware releases).

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#4

Post by txdv »

libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

Slap steam on it and take the Steam cut?

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#5

Post by viraptor »

libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

They could still do the "game sales will offset hardware" idea, right? They could offer a platform locked down to Steam. Sure, it will be hacked at some point, but it's not a comfortable general-use device, so they can expect most people to actually buy games to play on it.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#6

Post by jsnell »

libertine wrote: post #3

I wonder who will be the target for these devices, because a great part of portable consoles strategy was: to be a gateway for kids to buy into the "big-boy" consoles down the line. Basically win their hearts and trust early, so they can become loyal throughout their life. So these devices had to check some boxes, one of the main factors being the price. These devices had to be cheaper then regular consoles (among ot…

The way I'd see this working is if it's not for playing games locally at all. Just boot straight into Big Picture, and allow for streaming games either from your local network via Steam Link or from a Steam cloud streaming service that gets announced together with this.

I think you could hit a really attractive price point for a a device like that, and it seems like a compelling device for Steam's existing user base. At least for me, I think it'd mean tossing the Switch into the junk drawer.

Targeting it for playing games locally just makes no sense. It's either going to be too expensive to have any real market, or too slow to run the stuff modern PC gamers want to run. Either way, it'll be a niche device that Valve shouldn't waste their time with (PC manufacturers will do it anyway). But nobody is making a dedicated portable streaming device as far as I know, and it seems like something that'd fit really well with a streaming service.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#8

Post by me_me_me »

fwsgonzo wrote: post #2

That's very interesting to hear. Not least because Steam hosts your multiplayer sessions for any game now, so it could potentially be very seamless. There is so much potential here! I hope they work hard on their voice chat feature too, and get everything right from the start. And finally, Linux, using Vulcan I assume!

This is very complicated and interconnected market segment.

You cant just play games on this device out of the box (some games yes) you need some game devs to adopt it and have releases on this yet another platform.

Valve would have to have a dedicated support team and long term strategy for it to become a switch rival.

And with Valve track record it will be an abandonware from the get go.

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