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I don’t need a Steam Machine

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Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#21

Post by TheRoque »

mariopt wrote: post #12

Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox. A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless. I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC. Don’t let the “low specs”…

Exactly, I sold my Switch because I just happened to play most of my games on PC and steam. Worst case scenario, it can be a desktop computer (I don't have one, only a laptop)

Whereas a playstation or a switch, once I don't game anymore, it's just an expensive paperweight

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#22

Post by shantara »

It ultimately comes down to the price. If it’s low enough, I’ll get Steam machine as a living room indie box and for streaming from my main desktop. I would feel bad for overpaying for 8 gigs of VRAM in 2026.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#23

Post by hollowturtle »

> In two years, you’ll upgrade your M1 to an M4+: there’s the power upgrade.

Only to play almost nothing or very badly if not supported natively. And no devs won't support mac games there is no incentive. Emulation is subpar compared to Proton on Linux, Apple people should really start stop thinking macbooks can do modern gaming, excepts for a couple of Capcom portings that were paid by apple to have them and some retro gaming

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#24

Post by yoz-y »

Back during Covid I bought a PC tower just to play PC games. Later I also bought a PlayStation because the couch experience is better. If the steam machine was available I’d definitely opt for that instead of both.

If steam continues the way it is, it will be hard for me to justify having a gaming PC and a console instead of just one machine.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#25

Post by dangus »

0x073 wrote: post #17
mariopt wrote: post #12

Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox. A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless. I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC. Don’t let the “low specs”…

Then sony produce ps only exclusive s. No pc ports anymore.

I don’t think that’s true. The whole reason they’re producing PC ports is to sell the most profitable part (software) to those who to haven’t been giving them money.

Sony makes zero dollars off of the consoles, and while they do enjoy taking their PS Store royalties rather than giving it up to Steam, they also have a huge collection of first party studios that might even be a more important business.

And it’s not like Sony is giving their big console releases PC ports on day one, if you want to own them right away you have to buy a PlayStation.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#26

Post by TheRoque »

0x073 wrote: post #17
mariopt wrote: post #12

Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox. A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless. I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC. Don’t let the “low specs”…

Then sony produce ps only exclusive s. No pc ports anymore.

Not going to happen. In fact, they seem to go the opposite direction because there's more money to be made.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#27

Post by torginus »

When I first saw the Arduino I didn't see the point - after all there were boards that cost less, did more, and the Arduino IDE seemed very barebones compared to what you could do with GCC and a custom toolchain.

Then eventually I saw how much community support, ready made hardware emerged around it, to the point that after a while, not going the Arduino route was a decision you needed to justify heavily.

Same thing with the Raspberry Pi - there are commercial devices now running or more or less stock Pi hardware with some accomodations - the power of the community is just too large - you can either spend an insane amount of time getting things working on your custom SBC, or get something well-supported for free.

I hope that the same thing will happen with the Steam Machine - the pull of the community will result in a well-supported 'default' device where people (and Valve) will put in the effort to create a comparable desktop experience to the commercial OSes.

Valve already helped immensely with Wayland - it's crazy to think that the project was stared cca. 2008, and today there's still arguments to be made it's not mature yet - by investing the necessary energy to make sure games run well, the drivers are optimized, and there's a high-quality end-user library (wlroots) for writing compositors has been the push that Wayland needed.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#28

Post by b112 »

mrec wrote: post #14

I don't understand the "You can’t buy this without buying the Steam Controller." bit. If you want one, great, if not, it's no more necessary than with any other PC. I've been gaming for ~40 years without ever touching a controller, why would I start now?

Early PC gaming, such as the mid 80s (40 years ago) was dominated by the need for a joystick, which is the parent to modern controllers.

Regardless, some games are far better with a joystick, some with mouse. If we care for gaming experiences, it should be whatever is best.

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#29

Post by TheRoque »

yoz-y wrote: post #24

Back during Covid I bought a PC tower just to play PC games. Later I also bought a PlayStation because the couch experience is better. If the steam machine was available I’d definitely opt for that instead of both. If steam continues the way it is, it will be hard for me to justify having a gaming PC and a console instead of just one machine.

Yeah I think what they'll miss is a small tool to stream your games to your TV (well maybe it's already possible ?) because the drawback of having just 1 machine as PC and console is that it can't be both at your desk and in next to your TV

Re: I don’t need a Steam Machine

#30

Post by shantara »

0x073 wrote: post #17
mariopt wrote: post #12

Steam Machines can become an existencial crisis for PlayStation and Xbox. A “console” that I can use as a PC? I am in 100%. You’ll get the world biggest game library at a discount, this is why I sold my PlayStation after spending 200 euros and watching it becoming useless. I also suspect a lot of game devs will optimize for steam machine and finally we’ll get a console like experience on PC. Don’t let the “low specs”…

Then sony produce ps only exclusive s. No pc ports anymore.

Sony’s current tactics is to publish all their releases on PC 6-12 months later. Doing this expands the potential player base and even makes some players to double dip and buy the game twice
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