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Steam Machine

store.steampowered.com

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Re: Steam Machine

#781

Post by justin66 »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #777
lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.

Don't sugarcoat it. Valve has to make sure this is advertised as a PC to keep the licensing good on the games you've bought and that they are allowed to sell. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have closed ecosystems with their consoles. Well, Microsoft seems to be throwing in the towel on consoles.

> keep the licensing good

That’s an imaginary issue.

Re: Steam Machine

#782

Post by surajrmal »

DiskoHexyl wrote: post #769

SteamOS has way more appeal to gamers in 2025 than it could have had in, say, 2004. On the surface the lack of popular multiplayer titles that require a kernel-level anti-cheat is a heavy downside, but gaming is extremely fragmented these days. In 2004 everyone, save for the casual players, at least tried DOOM3 and Half-Life 2. In 2025 Fortnight has an all-time peak of 12M players, but at the same time there are many…

I was a heavy gamer in 2004 and never played HL2 or DOOM3. I know many such people. I think games like Mario party, smash, and Mario kart were far more ubiquitous.

Re: Steam Machine

#783

Post by bakies »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #669
hoppp wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Sounds like its just a PC and not a locked down platform. Its easy for them and convenient for everyone.

Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans. I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC, but then, you also need the name and reputation for it. Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console. Which is mostly a PC, but you need xbox g…

they've done a ton of engineering to make this happen. they implemented the necessary interfaces in steam, _they developed proton_ to avoid windows, worked with hardware to get console features like wake from controller connect, and custom hardware we see here.

Re: Steam Machine

#784

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #774
DiskoHexyl wrote: post #769

SteamOS has way more appeal to gamers in 2025 than it could have had in, say, 2004. On the surface the lack of popular multiplayer titles that require a kernel-level anti-cheat is a heavy downside, but gaming is extremely fragmented these days. In 2004 everyone, save for the casual players, at least tried DOOM3 and Half-Life 2. In 2025 Fortnight has an all-time peak of 12M players, but at the same time there are many…

What made you go with comparing things to 2004? Seems random, there is so much that is different in the Linux ecosystem generally, Valve just put the situation on a rocket and shot it into space. Point taken, it really is marvelous! When I was running Gentoo Linux, and Windows 2000 back then I never thought things would be so portable and simple!

> What made you go with comparing things to 2004?

I guess HL2 release?

Steam launch was late 2003 and first non-valve Steam games appeared in 2005, so "thereabouts" can be a reason as well for "Valve era"

Re: Steam Machine

#785

Post by black_knight »

haunter wrote: post #69

"Steam Machine’s pricing is comparable to a PC with similar specs" [0] It has to be no more than 800€ then if it also wants to compete against the console market. Even 800€ is too much imo because looking at the specs it's already not a "future proof" build, more like a previous gen gaming laptop 0, https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-han...

I might be the minority, but I frankly would buy it at 1000€ easily if it meant that the hardware was really good.

Re: Steam Machine

#786

Post by Zambyte »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #669
hoppp wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Sounds like its just a PC and not a locked down platform. Its easy for them and convenient for everyone.

Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans. I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC, but then, you also need the name and reputation for it. Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console. Which is mostly a PC, but you need xbox g…

> I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC

Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Atari, Sega...

They intentionally choose to brand their personal computers poorly to coerce their customers into giving up control of their computers. That doesn't make their computers any less personal, unless they are using it to serve other people.

Re: Steam Machine

#787

Post by jmkni »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #777
lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.

Don't sugarcoat it. Valve has to make sure this is advertised as a PC to keep the licensing good on the games you've bought and that they are allowed to sell. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have closed ecosystems with their consoles. Well, Microsoft seems to be throwing in the towel on consoles.

> Well, Microsoft seems to be throwing in the towel on consoles.

Can you expand on this? I'm not a massive gamer, I thought xbox was doing well?

Re: Steam Machine

#788

Post by haritha-j »

vkazanov wrote: post #717
haritha-j wrote: post #662

I know everyone says such good things about the steam deck, but my personal experience hasn't been great. Steam games are the best case scenario, but even those often require hunting down the best version of proton and doesnt work out of the box. why cant steam auto default to the version that works with the game? Getting discord running properly often involves switching to desktop mode, and then its hard to play han…

Well, you have quite an advanced use case. Remember that the majority of users doesn't use anything other than the default steam store ui. This case works like charm. I use with my tv, or standalone, my 10 year old uses, and we love it. I just make sure to play games announced as supported. With custom things, desktop mode, non-steam software installation it's a typical customization story. It is amazing that you can…

That's fair. Perhaps I was a bit too spoilt by windows.

Re: Steam Machine

#789

Post by shawn-butler »

surajrmal wrote: post #782
DiskoHexyl wrote: post #769

SteamOS has way more appeal to gamers in 2025 than it could have had in, say, 2004. On the surface the lack of popular multiplayer titles that require a kernel-level anti-cheat is a heavy downside, but gaming is extremely fragmented these days. In 2004 everyone, save for the casual players, at least tried DOOM3 and Half-Life 2. In 2025 Fortnight has an all-time peak of 12M players, but at the same time there are many…

I was a heavy gamer in 2004 and never played HL2 or DOOM3. I know many such people. I think games like Mario party, smash, and Mario kart were far more ubiquitous.

Your definition of heavy gamer I think differs from the norm if your main plays were Mario kart, et al.

Re: Steam Machine

#790

Post by marricks »

lazyfanatic42 wrote: post #775
Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe wrote: post #621

> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer? I'm so happy to read this

Valve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.

Because they're not owned by private equity/publicly traded. If that ever happens the "let's squeeze this for every dime it's worth" will happen.

That's really the saddest thing about capitalism, if everything around us wasn't getting enshittified in the exact same way at least the future would be more alluring.

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