Steam Machines - PC for the lounge

nicked on 10/12/2012 at 18:41

You can't really compare "owning a smartphone" to "having the technical knowhow and motivation to learn how to replace hardware components."

You're also jumping to a lot of conclusions. Who says "people will be able to build above the bar"? It sounds like the opposite by "controlled environment" and "turnkey solution." Who says you'd be able to run their Steam OS on any other PC?

This looks like a pretty savvy marketing technique to cash in on a niche, not some glorious glowing renaissance for PC gaming.

Briareos H on 10/12/2012 at 18:56

It makes no economic sense for them to lock their OS to a specific hardware configuration.
The only restriction that makes sense is for Valve to sell "SteamOS-approved" certifications to hardware vendors.

EvaUnit02 on 10/12/2012 at 21:23

I wouldn't be surprised if you're totally able to erase Valve's custom Lunix distro that this small form factor PC will LIKELY be using and just install Windows/Ubuntu/whatever.

CCCToad on 11/12/2012 at 04:28

Quote Posted by Fafhrd

He's got direct, essentially free, marketing to over 30 million people ((http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10/18/thirty-million-steam-accounts/) it was 30 million two years ago, I can't find this year's numbers). (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/06/xbox-by-the-numbers-20m-xbox-live-users-10m-nongaming-39m-xbo/) Xbox LIVE only had 20 million accounts that same year, and is significantly more limited in it's year on year growth potential than Steam is, due to the cost barrier to entry.

Both companies can reach an even larger audience with TV ads.

Having an existing service isn't quite the same thing as marketing. What you're saying is like "This insurance company already has so many subscribers, so that's a huge audience they can reach"......when as illustrated by GEICO and Progressive, the ad blitz is more important than having that "direct marketing".

Production quality and branding matter more.

Yakoob on 11/12/2012 at 05:47

Quote Posted by Subjective Effect

So they'll set a standard that will of course go out of date - this will be the lowest common denominator. Two things - 1. Setting a Valve Machine v2.0 standard will be easy and easier to build than a console if it just uses bespoke hardware. 2. If they set a bar people will be able to build above the bar.

Cue in games/mods requiring "Level 3 SteamBox" or "SteamBox with MegRAM (v300-x) Addon" etc. which would end up segmenting the market horribly. Didn't N64 had an extra memory upgrade that failed horribly?

Quote:

For the moment this is true. But in developed nations more and more people will be tech savvy because we live in a tech world. I'm not saying its going to happen right away but in time we're going to get all Deus Ex aren't we? Think of it this way - who do you know who doesn't have a smartphone? Take yourself back a few years and ask yourself the same.

Nicked said it, but you really are confusing tech-adaptation and tech-savviness. 99% of people dont use an iPhone because they wanna open up the case and start swapping out the CPUs; they use iPhones because they are easy to use.

By your analogy, we should have everyone easily replacing their aging car parts, or building their own log cabins. Yet I don't see that happening very often.

Quote Posted by CCCToad

Both companies can reach an even larger audience with TV ads.

I'll take 30mil people with subscribed accounts already storing their CC info and making the "barrier-to-purchase" just one click away over 300mil where 95% of those are couch potatoes casually browsing TV on saturday afternoon to whom a PC is "a fancy box that checks email."

It's not about audience numbers, it's about your conversion rate and ROI. And an online store functions very different from an insurance company so I dont think your analogy stands.

SubJeff on 7/1/2014 at 14:56

Well a bunch of these, with specs and prices have been revealed.

(http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/gallery-the-13-steam-machines-and-all-of-their-glorious-variety/)

I'm just not so sure about these. They need to push it with the marketing big time if they hope to compete with Sony and MS, which I think they do. It's a really nice idea of course, but...

Muzman on 7/1/2014 at 17:18

Maybe. But I think we know Gabe is a wait and see and build kind of guy, rather than marketing blitz.
I mean there'll be some, sure, but I doubt they'll go all out for victory at this point. It'd be silly to burn yourself out against those behemoths anyway. They've already slipped a little this generation (I think). Steam will just sidle on in as the alternative option.

PigLick on 7/1/2014 at 17:34

cmon Im gonna play the everyman role here, hell a decent pc box thatdoesnt run windows and is purely built for running steam os and games sounds like fucking mana from heaven.
Ignoring all the "but you can hook yer pc up to the large screen tv" shit, cos who can be bothered with that.
NERDS THATS WHO
FUCK NERDS

PigLick on 7/1/2014 at 17:35

also gabes head man, whats up with that?

Renzatic on 7/1/2014 at 18:05

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

I wouldn't be surprised if you're totally able to erase Valve's custom Lunix distro that this small form factor PC will LIKELY be using and just install Windows/Ubuntu/whatever.

Likely? They'll all be using SteamOS. Though yeah, they're all just small PCs, so you can erase it and install whatever you want to on the things.

Much like everyone else here, I'm a little disappointed with what we're getting. I was expecting the perfect crossroad meeting between consoles and PCs. What we're getting is a PC with an alternative OS. That isn't terrible in and of itself, but I don't see it setting the world on fire. Not unless Valve has something huge planned to make SteamOS more appealing than Windows.