Comments on: Valve’s second announcement is Steam Machines

By: ernicegilbert

ernicegilbert — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 01:58:00 +0000

Nice, healthy discussion, guys. I’m late to the party, but I’m interested in seeing what these steam boxes offer, how the controller works, the games for it and features to compliment, like PS4′s sharing, PSN, etc.

Not convinced, but definitely interested.

By: Vincent Stimpson

Vincent Stimpson — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 23:27:00 +0000

I agree. It seems like a very small target audience. These steam boxes will never hold a candle to a custom PC rig running Steam OS. I imagine a large portion of Steam’s current users have a decent PC rig, but Valve knows their customers better. I’m sure they have crunched the numbers – know what their average users’ computer costs, and how well those machines run games. I’m no analyst, but I bet that Valve has convincing evidence that a large number of gamers would buy a moderately powered and priced PC which is capable of playing next gen games. An inexpensive upgrade for the average users’ rig to play games on and still functions more like a PC.

Steam has this deal pretty good. They don’t have to worry about the overall successes of these machines because it will be third party companies which invest the money, in the hardware. Steam will always succeed thanks to the devotion of PC gamers. Their platform for digital distribution is sound. This whole Steam OS, Steam Machine thing seems like a low risk experiment. If they succeed, they have the potential to gain a lot of market share. If they fail then, eh, no biggie. Keep selling games to PC gamers.

By: Wolf1888

Wolf1888 — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 21:54:00 +0000

I wonder what this THIRD announcement will be. Probably has to do with halves or something.

By: Crash Ōkami

Crash Ōkami — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 21:15:00 +0000

Indeed, but personally, I think it’s a niche line of “PConsole” (I will copyright this term!) boxes which I guess is pitched more to console-only players rather than PC+Console players. For example, I know lots of people that have one or (maximum) two consoles to play on, and no gaming PC, and they know nothing of PC architecture. Should they want a cheap, good gaming PC, with Valve’s seal of approval, they will turn to this. I just can’t quite say if it will find success yet.

By: rpatricky

rpatricky — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 20:04:00 +0000

Still not convinced that building my own pc an adding steam OS wouldn’t be better. Just don’t see a point.

By: Crash Ōkami

Crash Ōkami — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 20:02:00 +0000

This. They will be specifically made for gaming, and supercharged for it, as SteamOS is a gaming OS that squeezes all the juice out of your machine for games. Plus, it’s customizable — it’s pretty much a fancy PC. The fact that it uses Valve’s own OS will drop the cost very much, I expect boxes starting from $100 and going all the way to $500-$600. If this is the case, I might even get another one for the living room, since my powerful gaming PC is big, bulky and docked in my room.

By: Vincent Stimpson

Vincent Stimpson — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:38:00 +0000

Form factor. These boxes will probably be pretty dang small compared to a PC tower; not to say these wont be powerful. Cost will probably be low as well, comparable to consoles. But it will be up to the producers of these boxes to make them appealing. I imagine some people who are ditching their PCs for tablets might consider buying one of these boxes. For one reason or another. Hopefully Steam OS will gain support from game publishers. Otherwise, Steam OS will fail. The way of the Ouya.

By: rpatricky

rpatricky — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:26:00 +0000

Guess I don’t see the real difference between this and a PC then?