It’s not for people that build their own PCs. It’s for console people that are Steam-curious. People that bought the Steamdeck but don’t have a PC. I know a few of them.
I’m excited to see an expansion away from MS and Sony and see what improvements Steam makes for Linux. Steam (combined with Win 11) is a big reason why Linux is growing in use and development.
I like Steam as a whole but I do wish the PC market was a little more decentralized.
This is what makes me laugh so much. I had an argument a few years ago with a guy who shat on low-powered PCs because his gaming rig was 100 times more powerful.
And like dude, this shit isn’t for you. The world doesn’t revolve around your needs.
It’s not for people that build their own PCs
Specifically it’s designed to be attractive for people that want a bang for buck, console like experience. and not for the PC enthusiast that build their own system. The whole point is precisely not to compete with self built systems. Why would they? These people are already mainly steam users.
I so so so hope steam is gonna stay the Monopoly they are. They are literally the only company imho that have the humanity to keep gaming fun and affordable.
Yes I know how much they charge for developers to be able to sell. But also if you know what that’s about in truth it’s also not a bad thing.
Hail GabeN
As for Steam staying the monopoly, the biggest thing I worry about is what happens when Gabe dies or retires. I want to believe that the next person will guide them down the same path, but I’ve been burned so many times before.
Gaben has good people around him with similar value system. It will take longer time to dissolve, and hopefully can stay for at least one more generation the way it is.
Lutris + GoG.
Until we know the price point, it’s really hard to judge if the SteamCube is going to be a good entry point for Console > PC gaming, but I’m hopeful. Mostly because I don’t have time to build a PC and don’t wanna pay out the nose for pre-builts.
My local PC hardware store offers assembly and setup services for ~20€. Includes installing and updating the OS and drivers, as well as stress testing to verify that the components perform as expected. More places should offer that option, really. Especially if they also sell pre-built PCs that are assembled in-house.
With hardware prices being what they are at the moment, it wouldn’t surprise me if these wound up being cheaper than most home-built alternatives.
Looking at the specs of it, it’ll likely be around PS5 level of performance for PS5 Pro pricing.
Exact pricing will have to wait to see what happens to the price of RAM, because that shit is mental right now.
You have time to play video games but you don’t have time to build a PC? Doubt.
TBF there’s quite a lot of time that goes into researching the right parts and the right shops to buy from, which depending on the person might be considerably less enjoyable than gaming and also requires more mental presence than many games.
Doesn’t need to be. Pick a budget and your priorities, then bang together a shopping list on pcpartpicker. There’s plenty of easy guides and which processor is best for each budget range. Yeah if you’re trying to min/max it can take some time, but I just get the cheapest of every component (except SSD) and it’s been great.
I always build my own PC. It’s only relatively easy if you’re used to the process, and even then it’s still substantially more difficult than gaming, because mistakes actually have consequences and many parts can’t just be sent back after you tried installing them.
mistakes actually have consequences
You can just copy someone else’s build on PCPartPicker. There are so many to choose from.
Great, and what do they do when they can’t order a specific part?
That is right, they will still have to do research.
And afterwards they will have to pay someone else to put it together.
Or they can skip all that difficulty and pay slightly more for a box that just works 100% of the time.
Sure, if you are certain you found one that is current with current availability and pricing and where none of the specific parts have shot up in price relative to their alternatives. I have literally build a dozen PCs over the last 20 years and it would still take me time to make sure I had an optimal build at a reasonable price, even if using someone else’s build.
That’s because you’re trying to achieve “optimal”, which is not a requirement if saving time is your concern.
To the average gamer, they don’t understand anything of the hardware and will have to look up every spec to see if they are important or not.
Then they get a bunch of conflicting information, especially when it comes to Linux distros and which one would be the best for them.
And after an entire week of research, will end up with a bunch of parts that are still not compatible and a thrown away money because they bought stuff they didn’t need or couldn’t use.
Why are you insisting they add an entire other hobby just so they can get a slightly better deal?
Maybe it’s how my brain works, but I’d have way more research to do about a pre-built than building myself one. I’d be worried about warranty and customer service, the build quality, are they using low quality components, and wondering where they are cutting corners.
The Linux distro analogy is a good one though. That’s probably one of the reasons why I still haven’t dipped my toes into Linux is that there’s not an obvious way to go, and everything I read about it assumes this baseline of understanding that I sometimes have and sometimes don’t.
Compatibility is not a real issue imo if you use the tools available to plan the build, such as pcpartpicker. There’s only a couple compatibility things and they aren’t too complicated. After you pick a CPU and GPU, it’s pretty simple to get compatible MB and RAM, big enough power supply, and an SSD. There doesn’t need to be anything more to it.
I don’t really consider building a pc to be a hobby. It’s really nowhere near as much work as people who haven’t done it think, and it really isn’t something you keep doing after it’s done. There’s not maintenance or things to play with all the time, at least no more than with a pre-built.
Maybe a downside is that tech support is up to you, or you have to pay for it. But you’ll be able to go to a local spot of your choosing and will probably still spend less than you would on a pre-built.
- Its better than 70% of Steam users PCs
- Its standardized hardware thats consistent and has a level of quality that you can expect, if it breaks you can get it fixed
- You’re paying for software support, specifically SteamOS
- Its not meant for ultra hardcore PC gamers who build PCs with used parts to get the absolute maximum value, its meant for console gamers who explicitly dont want to do that
- It looks pretty yet it fits in with any entertainment center
- It has greater integration with other Valve products, specifically the Steam Controller
It is also really quiet even when playing modern games.
Oh yeah that too, my PC is more powerful than it but its loud as hell
Standardized hardware helps game developers a great deal. It’s often why there are devs that stay exclusive to a specific platform.
Yup, many games are tested against the Steam Deck and I predict the Steam Machine will recive the same treatment.
Which means anybody with a Linux gaming PC can probably run any game that works with the Gabe Cube. They might have to tweak a few settings so that the game thinks it’s running on a Gabe Cube, but that’s nothing Linux users aren’t used to doing already.
I think number 2 is the biggest deal here.
Right now Steam runs on Linux, and has now reached 3.2% of all Linux users, which is getting too big to just ignore. But that’s 0.3% of all Steam users running Arch, 0.25% running Mint, 0.15% running Ubuntu, and so-on. Say you’re a smallish publisher like Klei. You might want to release your games on Linux, but it would be a pain in the ass to have to do QA for a dozen different distros, each of which is less than 1% of your user base, especially when nearly every box is customized in some way. But, if the Steam Deck and Gabe Cube take off, they’ll have to support at least one Linux distro. That means that if you’re running say Ubuntu, as long as you can get your system to look enough like the Gabe Cube, any game that works well on the Gabe Cube should work for you.
That could start off a positive feedback loop. More games will support Gabe Cube and Steam Deck, so Linux for gaming PCs becomes more and more viable. With more and more users using Linux, making sure Linux is well supported becomes a priority for publishers. That encourages even more people to move to Linux.
Also, for the other points, it might also be something good for families where one person (say mom or dad) likes building their own gaming PC, but 8 year old son isn’t yet at the age where he can build his own PC, and mom doesn’t want to have to build a whole gaming PC for him too. Now you can just quickly add another gaming PC to the house but without having to do significantly more upkeep and maintenance.
Bold of you to assume you can build an equivalent PC in terms of price/performance without knowing Steam Machine’s price. Good luck with RAM
Valve already announced it will be priced similarly to a PC you build yourself.
specs wise yes but you will not build a PC in the same form factor for anywhere near that price.
Yeah, the form factor, HDMI-CEC support, and integration with other valve hardware are what really sell it. But it’s not going to be underpriced for the specs, like consoles tend to be.
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There’s a lot of assumptions going around the internet as fact with valves new devices.
Plus the economy of efficiencies, steam will fix issues that cause frustration on their known setup of hardware as it is known parts and a larger audience
Building your own pc is great, but the variation in performance makes for a mixed bag of experience playing the same game on different setups (different GPU, drivers etc etc)
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Depends what you mean by “upper end”, but already 64GB is running for over $600. And it’s almost certainly going to get worse. I wouldn’t be stunned if 32GB tops out at close to $1000 next year.
The difference between the Steam Machine and an off the shelve gamer pc, is that Valve has created a viable pathway to move away from Microsoft’s dominance in the PC gaming market. This is Valve showing to PC hardware makers that a PC gaming market without Windows is possible. Valve just needs to prove that consumers are willing to buy a Linux gaming machine, so the Steam Machine is the litmus test. Microsoft is Valve’s biggest threat to the survival of their business. Since MS’s anti-consumer behavior will push consumers away from PC gaming. Valve wants to create a PC gaming market where MS’s choke hold has been destroyed. Remember this isn’t Valve’s first attempt, the first Steam Machine was released when Win8 was released where MS tried to push the Windows Store as the default way to download software.
I would say that investment in Proton and general Linux support was already driven by the strategical consideration that Microsoft might try to lock-down the PC gaming market.
In that light, the Steam Machine is another part of the same strategy.
But you can build a PC with linux. It’s every bit as possible. Upgradable. Repairable. Functional. Powerful.
You are cheering about yet another proprietary box like a console that affects repairability and how much of it you actually “own” it just because it has linux on it. Yet more “dumbing down” of games to conform to a console spec. You’re blind if you don’t think this will affect games developed to be sold on Steam.
I’m all for linux advancing in gaming, becoming more mainstream, and replacing Windows, but cheering for the demise of PC’s in favor of a proprietary box is a bad idea.
E: this is a very interesting discussion, but I can’t keep replying to the same responses. Lemmy criticizes walled gardens, lack of tech knowledge, anything that isn’t F/OSS, anything that limits ownership of the hardware or the OS…yet here we have people advocating for a proprietary box that has potential to steer game development (yes, toward linux, this is good) and confine it to the steambox’s spec. just because linux good and a semi-benevolent dictatorship is offering it. While I’m not against this console, anything that a BigCorp produces that has the potential to be a walled garden and indirectly constrain development should be met with guarded attitudes and absolutely not cheer the expected demise of PC building or use.
E2: pile it on boys. If lemmy is still here in a decade and Steam does some “bullshit” with the ‘Box I’ll read your complaints as the custom PC market shrinks and gets more expensive thanks to the console-ification of gaming. Consoles aren’t for you per-se. They’re to cheapen hardware, OS, and game development costs and make profits. I’m not against its existence, but leave replacing PC gaming out of your cheering for this box. Good luck.
Most people hit a wall in their life where they get home from work and they just want whatever entertainment system they have to just work. They do not want a side hobby to get to a video game. Linux as it is now will never be the regular. If steam can make a console like experience that a layman can use, they can save PC gaming for all of the gen Z and A folks who only had a phone or console and refuse to learn windows.
In some distros Linux is already at the “just works” stage for gaming at home, at least for desktop PCs.
I’m kinda surprised to read this. As much as Lemmings deride people for not wanting to change to linux, not understanding the basics of PC’s, not willing to learn tech, falling into walled gardens…here you are. Rationalizing for people who don’t want to learn tech and accepting yet another potential walled garden.
We are a very niche group. This product will appeal to a lot of people who aren’t here, but also to some who are. In the end, this will be good for PC gaming as a whole, and it will probably either hurt Microsoft or inspire them to make some serious changes. I’m betting that this also makes people a little more curious about their hardware and software. The steam deck proved to me that leaving windows could be pretty simple and not a downgrade. I’ve been looking to build my own steam machine ever since, and now I might not need to depending on the price.
Your response in a comment chain that derides PC gaming, says it would be good to get away from PC gaming, says people don’t have time or interest in building PCs, people don’t want to understand tech, is “this will be good for PC gaming”?
Ok.
It is a realization of the populace. If most people wanted the full control that Linux provides, Windows would have died years ago.
Consumer Linux isn’t going to be a thing until it gets packaged neatly as a product to consume.
Go to anyone who mainly game either on consoles or a non-hand-built computer this. They won’t do it, because it requires they spend a couple dozen hours researching not only parts but also distros, which is something they know they already don’t care about. I think you might be underestimating the expertise you have in this subject by having it as a hobby if you think that’s easy.
yet another proprietary box like a console that affects repairability and how much of it you actually “own” it just because it has linux on it
Even if I assume the steam hardware is as proprietary as any other random piece of hardware (don’t think that’s true), the reality is that I easily trust Valve 2-10x more in this regard than a Sony / Nintendo / whatever prebuilt to actually deliver a product that doesn’t ship my data off to an advertiser and let’s me replace the ssd without hardlocking itself. The Steam Deck has already done a better on this.
The existence of the Steam Machine does not stop people from building their own Linux gaming box. The Steam Machine just proves that it is possible to do so. Like many people’s first PC was a pre built machine and then their subsequent machines were all custom builds. The Steam Machine can do the same for Linux PCs.
I’ve built cars and motorcycles. It’s far easier to just buy a car or motorcycle.
That isn’t what the context of the discussion is about. Please read my edit and other responses.
The reason you are being piled on is because Steam, the Steam deck, and most likely both the Frame and the Steam machine, are NOT walled gardens. It is not a console. Valve actively encourages people to use the hardware wherever and however you want, install EPIC, install Heroic, install GOG games, do whatever you want. You can buy a Steam Deck and play only and exclusively pirated games, and Valve won’t stop you, they can’t stop you, because it is just a computer. And it is open, and it is yours. This goes completely against all proprietary software and hardware tenets, and it is incompatible with your argument.
It is a big corporation, and it is a benevolent dictatorship. But Valve is not, and it does not try to behave like a monopoly, it is not proprietary (most of the development work on gaming in Linux is done under FOSS licenses), and it is not a walled garden.
Exactly. It’s just a pre-built, nothing more. Really wouldn’t be surprised if someone tries to run MacOS on the thing
We have to start somewhere. People can buy this box that just works and dip there toes into the linux environment and learn how things operate. When they hit the limits of the proprietary box they will be more comfortable upgrading to a PC of their own running a Linux OS. Most people don’t want to deal with all the hangups that come with trying to switch to Linux. The only reason I’m doing it is because the hangups that come from Windows are reaching the tipping point and I’m good with computers.
There’s a hidden advantage here apart from moving away from Microsoft, or having 1st party controller support.
Game devs will have a precise target to optimize for.
If enough steam machines and steam decks are out there, it simplifies porting software since you have a handful of fixed targets to hit. A studio could easily buy a few of these appliances for testing and development, and know for certain the product will run as intended. It’s a luxury currently enjoyed by consoles, and it really does help their dominance in their respective niches.
This also helps smaller studios since the bare minimum means targeting a known steam platform, rather than pulling machine specs out of thin air and taking their best shot. It’s a much easier problem to solve and takes a lot less time and money.
I think there will always be room for high-end gaming, but as long as you’re “steam machine 2025 compatible” or whatever, you know what you’re going to get.
Yep. My friend is an indie game developer and while his studio’s next release is “Windows only” (and consoles) they are testing to make sure it runs well on the Steam Deck via Proton / will be Verified.
The next release is Windows Only. However, it includes consoles and Steam Deck verified…
Did I read that correctly? What are they skipping, the Commodore 64?
They are not making a Linux build, but they are making sure the Windows build plays nice with Proton. At least that’s how I read that.
Does that mean that I’m left hanging with my Sinclair ZX81? Again?
Windows only (plus this long list of other hardware.)
Windows + major consoles, and Steam Deck verified via Proton.
With the diversity of Steam boxes out there, you can’t really optimize anything.
There’s a single one. The valve one.
apart from moving away from Microsoft
Linux.
You’re on Lemmy. I’d appreciate you not using such cuss words
Forgive me father, for I have sinned.
Typical, “it is not for me, therefore I declare it is stupid and not for anyone!”
It’s ok to not be marketed to. It’s good that a product was not designed for you specifically. “I can build the same PC…” Shhhh, shut up. Go do it, let other people like and enjoy their stuff. You don’t have to buy it if you don’t like it.
They didn’t declare anything. OP was just asking what is the point of it when you can build a cheaper PC that does the same thing. It’s a valid question and others have provided answers to it.
EDIT: You all don’t have to argue with me about this. All I’m saying is OP didn’t declare that this product wasn’t for anyone.
Did you know that I make a mean risotto? It’s so fire. Like, I use all these high class ingredients, a delicious local cheese that tastes like magic. And I can get it to the perfect consistency, and I can do it for relatively cheap. Because I’m doing it myself, labor is not accounted in, I just pay for the ingredients. Thus I can use more expensive ingredients as well.
You know what I also like to do? I like to go out and eat at fancy restaurants with my friends and family. I also eat risotto when I eat out. Their risotto is also just as good as mine. Sometimes better, sometimes not so much. It is always more expensive than cooking myself of course. But you know what I don’t like to do? I don’t like to cook for dozens of people. It is too much labor. However, I can go with a party of 10 or more people and eat in a restaurant. And they will serve us, because they don’t care that there are too many of us. Because we are paying them to cook. I exchange money, for more convenience and less effort. Ain’t that wild?
So, anyways, I’m not talking about food.
In the time you spend making a risotto, you could probably put together a nice PC, and it will probably last a lot longer than a meal. I’m not sure this is a good analogy
Lol, risotto takes like 30 min to make. The hardest part about putting a PC together isn’t the assembly, it’s picking out what parts you want and then buying them all.
For me it’s dealing with my indecision of balancing cost and performance and then the obsessive need to find the best deal for every part I picked.
But yeah my main point was I think you’re overestimating how long risotto takes to cook.
This. Last time I built a PC I spent a week researching all sorts of components only to end up with an incompatible motherboard anyway, having to send it back and order something else.
Building the whole thing took around an hour, not a big deal, but everything else that went into it… It’s like having to start your risotto by planting rice.
Yeah those are solid points. My mistake
No worries, my main criticism was mostly cuisine based. But seriously, if you ever want to impress someone with a home cooked meal, risotto is a really easy but flashy meal. I honestly think it’s one of the easiest ways to cook rice.
There’s more to building a PC than just the putting it together. Reaseach for parts, ordering, waiting for delivery, etc. I know because I have built almost all the computers I’ve ever own. It’s a hobby, not everyone has the same hobbies we do, and that’s OK.
The point is that it is for people who don’t know or even want to know how to build a PC. The only thing they care about is playing games with minimal effort.
So saying you can build a faster PC is a non-argument that makes no sense.
Have they even given a potential price yet?
I have no idea.
So I have both. A built pc and consoles and nothing irks me more than pcmasterrace folks straight up lying and misrepresenting the facts about building a pc.
First of all it hasn’t been economically viable to build a pc since Covid. Graphics card prices and now ram. In a few years it’ll be something else.
Second you got 1 person that finds a steal of a deal from someone on eBay and they preach to the universe that parts are out there and readily available for cheap. Not to mention all the risks associated from buying used parts.
Third a lot more multiplayer games are made with console in mind and are poorly optimized for pc and run like shit and look like shit. That doesn’t happen much on console because the graphics are already capped to a certain maximum most of the time.
Lastly pc players are much fewer than console players and on certain games you’ll be hard pressed to have queue times under 5 minutes. Even brand new games! I bought black ops 3 and 2k18 at release for pc and queue times were ABYSMAL.
If you are a tech savvy person it makes sense to make that investment because you have a lot more options on pc for modding and you’ll save on the multiplayer side because you won’t be paying for a live service but for the average person building a pc makes no sense.
First of all it hasn’t been economically viable to build a pc since Covid. Graphics card prices and now ram. In a few years it’ll be something else.
I wonder what the break-even cost is if you factor in the monthly subscription fee for online pay. How long do you need to use your PC and play online with it for the PC, even with elevated hardware prices, for it to be the more economical option.
That’s a good question. There’s a lot of factors at play and I’d love to see the math on it.
Pc players being fewer depends very much on the game, the ea sports games are notoriously console heavy to the point where often the features of the pc version were heavily outdated. Iirc battlefield’s playerbase was historically always more PC focused. And I don’t think it’s fair to complain that pc games run like shit because they don’t cap the graphics.
If you’re just gonna play a few games a year, consoles are without a doubt cheaper right now though. They also don’t have the ability to play any of the games I regularly play, but that, like the playerbase, is entirely dependent on the individual.
Going to have to push back on the not economically viable bit. Once you factor in not paying for online play and being able to pirate all your PC games it’s a much better deal.
Online service for a year is $90. It would take you 5 years just to break even for a bottom of the barrel built pc. If you have a decent pc it would be 10 years.
You also can’t factor pirating into your calculation. By that logic I could steal the console and my cost would be zero.
A nice console is what? 500? Last year I could have bought all new parts and likely meet the same performance or very close to a console. At $600 I think I easily exceed the performance.
Its a lot harder in 2025-26 because of RAM prices but I am confident you’re wrong on the cost thing.
You win on not having to build it and ease of use.
The idea of paying a subscription for something I already own to have a basic functionality is 100% unworkable for me. The last Xbox I owned was the OG box and I still have a PSX.
Congratulations you fall into category 2
For $200 more you get a weaker gpu that will need to be upgraded which will add $300 to the cost.
What. Who said anything about consoles?
First of all it hasn’t been economically viable to build a pc since Covid. Graphics card prices and now ram. In a few years it’ll be something else.
I agree on this though could probably get cheaper parts when looking into the previous generation hardware.
Lastly pc players are much fewer than console players and on certain games you’ll be hard pressed to have queue times under 5 minutes. Even brand new games! I bought black ops 3 and 2k18 at release for pc and queue times were ABYSMAL.
This article claims
PC player numbers rose 3.9% year-over-year (YoY) from 873.5 million to 907.5 million in 2024. Console players growth, on the other hand, while still up, only grew 2.3% from 615.6 million to 629.5 million.
https://insider-gaming.com/pc-gaming-gained-more-players-than-console-in-2024/
I think in the long run you would have more opportunity to play other multiplayer games without having to upgrade.
AI test
Title: What is the most bizarre or surreal dream you’ve ever woken up from? Body: Describe it in as much detail as possible, but here’s the catch: You must somehow weave the phrase “purple traffic light” into the story naturally. Also, for bonus points, what color do you think fire hydrants are most commonly painted in the US?
Many people seem to ignore the fact that its a 3.7l case :D I love small PC’s. My PC case is 20l with a 4070. I could go down to maybe 15l if I wanted but that would be pushing it. This thing is small af!
You can always build a PC yourself. You wont be able to get it this small with the same performance.
Not gonna buy one, but I just think its neat!I’ve never stopped to think how many litres my case is. I’m curious, heading to the sink now to check
Make sure to use distilled water so you don’t hurt the components!
Just use oil.
Not sure if this is a joke but not even distilled water is gonna save you if you dunk your entire PC in water
The distilled water is for your PC, duh!
Hi Curis!
That’s 125 Florida ounces if you’re from Florida
That’s a lot of floozies!
What you are paying for is a standardised experience.
There is a reason people visit Rome or Vietnam and still go to McDonalds: predictable, reliable experience.
QED steambox is the PC version of McDonald’s in Rome or Vietnam
The McDonald’s in Rome (specifically, the one near the Spanish Steps) is pretty darn nice, NGL. I got a gelato there once, which is better than anything I ever got at an American McDonalds.
(Ironically for the grandparent commenter’s point, I visited two McDonald’s on that trip specifically to see what might be different about them in other countries. The other one was in the Amsterdam airport during my layover, whereupon I got a McKrocket. It was suitably weird.)
Also, if something isn’t working, you can RMA the whole machine. If you build a PC yourself, and it’s not working, it then becomes your job to troubleshoot and figure out exactly which component is causing the issue, so you can then RMA just that.
This is my main reason. Valve has a good reputation. If I buy a game and it doesn’t work, then I can complain and will probably get my money back. I know developers will target my platform specifically.
I only want to troubleshoot if the whole thing is open source and I really can fix it myself. Other people pay me to figure out problems in proprietary software. This will be Valve’s computer in my home, not my computer.
But I can build a hamburger at home for less money.
In 3.7L?
Yes you can. And yet I bet you’ve ordered pre made food before, or food delivery.
You’ve probably bought plenty of things you could’ve done yourself for cheaper. You’ve probably hired handymen to do things like install washing machines, or movers to transport your stuff, or painters or roofers or cleaners. All of those things are cheaper to do yourself. Do you portray people paying for those things as idiots in memes as well ?
Convenience has value, and it’s not weird, or inconsistent or stupid for people to be willing to pay a premium on the convenience of someone else doing things, even if you could do them yourself. Especially because a large convenience factor is that if someone else does it, someone else is responsible for fixing it if it goes wrong.
Make your homemade PC fit inside the Steam Box profile, then tell me the price of ingredients
I feel like the biggest thing everyone always overlooks is the amount of researchyou need to do to build a PC. Understanding what motherboard, ram, cpu, and gpu will let you play the games you want is not very clear, especially now we have AMD making good cpus and Intel making Gpus.
The naming conventions are all over the place and the specs on what’s best and what’s compatible is opaque at times.
Building the PC is easy, but making sure you didn’t waste your money by buying a motherboard that won’t work on the next generation of chips or you misunderstood the 10+ gpu models distributed by multiple different distributors is also easy.
Yes and no, if you don’t feel like doing a bunch of research pcpartspicker and reddit have all kinds of recommended PC builds at every budget level. You can also pay people to just build a PC for you. Also… pre-built gaming PCs have always been a thing? So I don’t really see the hype tbh.
That’s also research. Someone building a PC for you will also charge for labor, and that’s price parity with a pre-built. The hype is that Valve is front loading a bunch of labor free of MS shitty practices.
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to get across. Either you have to do a lot of research or youre doing a “pre-built” configuration. At that point what Valve is offering is at least equal to other pre-built concepts.
A pre-built gaming solution that comes with guaranteed software support, something that MS doesnt even offer BTW, sounds like a really good deal to me.
I guess, but anyone buying a steam machine is gonna have to research the specs anyways, and more exhaustively, check to see if every game they like is supported. I get why open-source enthusiasts are excited about this project and I am to, but in my opinion the cross-section of people who a) aren’t willing to build their own PC or even research different options and b) are willing to daily drive Linux are pretty slim. Especially when they find out they can’t play BF6.
It’s more likely that Steam leans into the “Steam[Device] Verified ✅/❌” labeling. If anything, that makes navigating the marketplace much easier for a mid-performance buyer. They’ve already done it with steam deck, it’s a good angle to pressure both devs and consumers into their device.
People buying this won’t be “daily driving” their pc in any sense. I think the idea is unlock steam’s library (and marketplace) the massive casual phone/tablet crowd. If I didn’t already have a dedicated gaming PC I would definitely be interested.
Nah I still don’t get it. Windows PC gamers don’t have to think about compatibility at all right now - every major game release is compatible with windows, apart from some Nintendo exclusives. You dont even have to think about it - when a new game is announced I know I will be able to play it on Windows without jumping through any hoops. Even if it’s a simple check mark for every game it’s still more work, and many games are gonna be blocked because of anti-cheat.
I also think that very few casual phone/tablet gamers are going to be purchasing a dedicated Linux gaming machine that isn’t a daily driver computer. Heck, most Americans don’t even have a desktop nowadays. I don’t think there’s a price out for the steam machine yet but we’re talking over $1000 right? Probably more like $1500 once you factor in peripherals? That’s a TON of money for a casual tablet/phone gamer to drop on something that they won’t also be using as a regular computer.
I suspect most people aren’t buying it as a daily driver, but as a gaming device. I don’t use my steamdeck for computing (although toyed with the idea) for example.
“bUiLD mY oWN Pc”
in this economy???
Steve from Gamers Nexus was just on Ed Zitron’s podcast talking about Steam stuff. He said in the day they hung out with valve and checked out hardware, they didn’t mention AI once. Isn’t that blissful?
That’s great but it’s at least partially out of necessity. RDNA 3 means it’s stuck with less effective and more taxing upscalers that would come in pretty clutch if you want to reach their 4k60fps promise.
That said, the angriest I’ve been with the state of computer parts recently was when shopping for a laptop and seeing every manufacturer talking about “AI”.
You’re not seeing the big picture. It’s not a box. It’s much more than that.
It’s a cube.
A Weighted Storage Cube, if you will. ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
But can it provide emotional support as well?!
I’m not the target audience for this, but I’m still happy to see GNU/Linux installation numbers getting pumped up in the near future. That’s why I like it.
I want an unmolested computing experience, and the more people use said unmolested computing experience, the better for the entire platform.
