So... the steam console is real

Gaming
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And once again, there comes steam advertising linux again!
The ones from 2017 were a failure, but steamOS got better, linux for gaming is getting more popular, consoles are getting more restrictive and jumping into only-digital...

I'm sure this will convince at least a few more people to switch to linux (even if just for gaming)

But the most interesting thing is not the steam machine, but one specific quote in the steam frame (vr set announced at the same time)...

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So... this implies gaming on an ARM CPU without streaming will be natively* supported by steam (*natively as in they bring the tools ready like they do with proton, so you don't have to set up anything)

Most linux computers use x86 anyway, but this could be a huge thing for raspberry pis and android phones/tablets (android is getting graphical linux support soon)

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Honestly I'm cautiously optimistic. Mainly because everything looks good and seems like they know they're targeting specific crowds. But they didn't include any pricing as of now, and that worries me. At the right price, these things are going to be great. But if they're even like 100-200 over what they might need to be to compare to other consoles... that would be a major deal breaker for a lot of people.

My ideal world would be the Steam Machine being essentially the price of the Xbox Series S... but given how they state in the marketing many times that it's a PC, not just a console... usually that means a higher base price.

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Steam also had a SteamOS in 2013. I, too, am cautiously optimistic. I think Steam has done a lot for linux gaming and improving every year.

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The original Steambox was a complete flop. It was so bad, they had to invent the Steam Deck, to get back on top, as well as their Steam Index. I have 0 interest in their box, where most of the space, is taken up with the fan and cooler. And I bet that new Steam Frame VR, is gonna be another 1200 dollars, cause Gabe Newel is like the new Apple over there.

Frankly, I wish Valve would get back to making games, their nothing but a hardware manufacturer now. Its really quite annoying, especially since they dumped all over the Half Life fans, when they never even finished the HL2 episodes, let alone came out with a HL3 game!

The only reason Valve made Half Life Alyx, was for big money, to sell their overpriced Index VR headset, it had nothing to do with doing something nice for the fans, Gabe Newel does not care about us. If he actually cared about us, he would have made HLA for flatscreen gaming as well, just as other flatscreen games have, with a VR mechanic as well.

I'm guessing that new Steambox is gonna go for 800 dollars, cause thats the trend for consoles these days, and I bet that Frame is gonna be another 1200 dollars, cause Gabe only cares about rich gamers. The more he keeps pushing overpriced hardware, the more I avoid! When Gabe starts carrying about the poor people, thats when I'll start carrying about his company.

He turned his back on the Half Life fans, which made up the majority of his game sales back in the day. If it wasn't for people like us, his company would not have any meaning or worth whatsoever. He's learning the hardway, screw with us, don't make any money off us. The only people he fools, are GenZ or GenA, who don't know any better.

Gabe is emperor Palpatene to me, thats how I see him!

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According to the LTT video about the steam machine, they say valve told them the price will try to be competitive... as a pc, not as a console.

That doesnt sound like it's gonna be affordable. Oh well. Hopefully they were referring to mid-tier 500€ PCs and not over 1000€ gaming PCs. We'll have to wait to know

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Yeah that's basically my worry with it. And something like this here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1owm6nj/thegamebusiness_over_90_of_steam_deck_owners_are/
At first glance you think, well no kidding over 90% of users are already steam users prior, you need it to purchase them (outside of a few rare cases where third party sellers exist). But the thing about the steam deck is, most people wouldn't have had a portable gaming pc. Very few companies were doing them at the time. Then Valve sells a fairly affordable one, and people say you know what, I would like to play some of my games on the go, sounds good.

But a steam machine? All those people will most likely already have a pc, or some device that is good enough to play a game at least, since you need to have made a purchase before being even offered a chance at buying a steam deck. So the vast majority of Steam users will already have a dedicated gaming machine of some description, making this a "non-essential" buy.

If I'm valve, and we have in-depth knowledge of what people have as hardware, and what they're buying, you can either take an approach of selling to the average user a pc that's slightly better, at a decent price ... but in that case, most people will be versed in PCs, and can either find a deal on another pc, or their pc is good enough for the games they're going to play.

OR you decide screw it, we make it pricey, decent priced, and the fans of us will buy it regardless of what we set that price to. Because unless they actually start selling through big box stores / online retailers that also sell consoles, this disrupts almost nothing. You'd have to already know to even want to buy it, and if you already know, you most likely already have the pc you need to do the gaming you need.

I can see the VR headset being a better option, simply because VR seems to always be targeted at more well off users, but a console-like PC that you could essentially create by using steam in big picture mode when you first boot up a standard PC? (no not exactly, but it's very similar) I just don't see them doing super hot on it unless they AGGRESSIVELY price it and sell through 3rd party resellers to get "normie" crowd eyes on them.

Oh and finally; Why didn't they call it the Steam Box (in relation to the orange box)? Now we have the Steam Machine from before and Steam Machine from now. Unnecessarily renaming a device the same thing is Apple's realm, I'd rather we have different names for different devices.

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Exactly! :100:% True!

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A lot of indie games are lightweight enough to run almost everywhere. Someone might have bought some of those and through that saw that they can get more demanding games from there too, without having the hardware to play them.

Or maybe it could be people with a ps4 or xbox one who want to upgrade, but have doubts about the ps5 and series x

Far from the worst name i've heard on a console, honestly. "Xbox One" is not the first xbox. While "DSi" is a mid-gen refresh of the DS, "Wii U" is a new-gen console and not a mid-gen refresh of the Wii. "Xbox Series X" and "Xbox One X" are different consoles. Playstation is the only one safe from the bad names, but thats just becuse they keep doing +1 to the name of the console each time

A possible name for the steam machine i've seen a lot online that I find quite funny is the GabeCube, since the size and shape is the same as Nintendo's GameCube

While having the same name as the old model is confusing... the amount of people i've seen who didnt even know there was a steam machine before this one is the vast majority, and the old steam machine isnt actively sold since a while ago so... The problem I see is with the controller also being named the same; that could easily cause more confusion