Well, It's a game box that doesn't record everything you do, shove it into AI, and sell all your secrets to the highest bidder.
It's basically a linux PC from a reputable vendor that comes with support.
And yeah, you could build your own cheaper.
And yeah, you could build your own cheaper.
Notably, though, this is the case with any pre-built PC; the Steam Box isn't an exception. We don't know the final price or specs yet but presumably it's no worse value than buying something from e.g. Dell. Probably better value purely based on it coming with Linux and without the bloatware.
And also cheaper because steam expects to make additional money on each user in the future via steam purchases, so they can keep the margin smaller in the hardware price
Steam has explicitly said they are not subsidizing the steam machine as other console makers do
iirc they said they weren't selling at a loss, but that's not the same thing as selling at a low margin. PC manufacturers have to make essentially 100% of their profit from the initial sale of the device, but valve can make a smaller profit from the sale of each device because they know each device will lead to additional profit through game purchases
https://www.vice.com/en/article/valve-finally-confirms-leaked-steam-machine-price-rumors/
Well, it's true we don't have actual numbers yet, we do have some pretty solid info on the hardware. And we have some statements from Valve themselves that it's not going to be console-priced, even though the hardware is clearly console specced.
Don't get me wrong. I really really want it to work out well. I would love to have well, supported Linux workstations in people's hands.
But I think we're going to find its price is going to shove it into a niche audience.
With the prices of RAM...
that comes with support
biggest point.
When you build your own linux pc, you will always have a big risk of some unexpected problems. Lowering the bar of technical expertise to run linux is the main selling point here IMO.
Yeah, I think the missing point is the average Lemmy user is not the target market. This is Steam's attempt to grab market share from the other consoles. People with gaming PCs are probably already using steam. People with Xbox or PS are probably not. Steam needs to provide an out of the box ready product to let them existing console players play steam.
Not just the highest bidder. All bidders.
It's a linux gaming PC where you do not have to worry about hardware compatibility.
The box in question is tiny: about the size of a GameCube. Extremely portable, light, and quiet. Valve has a strong profit motive to ensure games can actually run on it without Windows, doing nearly all of the troubleshooting for you. Yeah you could install Linux on a system you built yourself. You can eat the responsibility of expensive mistakes you could possibly make in building it and setting it up. But if the steam machine doesn't work ALREADY, straight out of the box, without the expectation for you to fuck with it, it's valve's problem. For grown ups who have a job and limited free time, not having to waste that time on unfucking shit may in fact be worth it.
It's smaller, it has build-in wireless steam controller/frame/deck connector, iirc it switch on your tv when you turn on the machine, it has minimal amount of programmable LED, and it's powerful enough to play the latest release. The form factor alone is quite enticing, building my own pc with the same spec probably will be a lot more bigger.
Have they announced a price yet?
Nope, it's fucking hilarious how they already go crazy about the price and the bad stats with nothing concrete being announced yet.
I like the idea that it's a targetable hardware profile personally.
How do you not get it? Didn’t you buy an eggs box when you were a kid? What was in it? Eggs. Now this is the same thing but with Steam. Your just pretending you don’t get it.
Seriously. I have like 3 egg boxes. Can’t wait for all the Steam I could be putting in boxes.
But i could just buy chicken and wait for the eggs.
No one is stopping you buddy
I can build a better PC for less money
Can you?
First of all, Valve has not even announced a price yet. Everything is still pure speculation.
Second, have you seen the price of GPU's, RAM, and SSD's these days? Consumers for gaming PC parts are competing for supply with industrial buyers now. AI is hoovering all the supply up with the backing from private equity. The GPU market never fully recovered from the cryptocurrency era either.
I've been wanting to build a new mid-range gaming PC for years now. I've kept an eye on prices. I spent ~$1k on a machine in 2019, with the GPU costing a mere $175. Nowadays a comparable tier of GPU starts at $600, and the cost fo a mid-tier machine is over $1,500, getting closer to $2,000 with the RAM and SSD prices.
Valve can get better bulk pricing on components. Their primary profit center is software sales, and it's really hard to sell software when no one can afford hardware. So Valve is incentivized to design these machines that are resistant to being scalped or scrapped for specific components, and to sell them for relatively low margin in order to drive game sales. We already saw this with the Steam Deck- it was hardware that could play games without mining crypto.
I do think the RAM and maybe SSS supply could throw a wrench into Valve's plans though. Just because if the prices go high enough, people could start buying steam machines to rip out the RAam modules and sell them separately. But we are nowhere near that level of RAM pricing yet.
People say the same about a Mac, and they are usually correct but a Mac is built to last and be energy efficient. Hardware/software integration is also tight.
You'd spend less building your own or buying a cheap windows machine but in terms of performance, energy efficiency, build quality etc you'll struggle to get better value in the long run.
It is so bizarre that even when something like this is announced, a unique phenomenon in gaming and modern pc history, which is sure to make a lot of pc linux converts because of its accessibility, the pc linux masterrace is still being gatekeeping about it.
As a PC Linux gamer I hear you...I really do, but listen...I really just wanna stick something Steambox-esque on my face and finally have a smooth open source VR experience.
I'm really looking forward to that.
And I know when they announce it, it'll probably be way out of reach for me, but I'm still looking forward to it lol.
Steam box
It's got what nerds crave!
Funny meme, but I would genuinely worry for the people who don’t understand the value proposal of a pre-built, console-like PC for Steam gaming. We will see if it’s worth it based on price and specs later, but the logic is definitely there, especially with MS, Sony and Nintendo dropping the ball so much.
from my wife - we sit in front of a computer all damn day. we don't want to sit in front of a computer all damn night too. we want to sit down in front of our TV and play games together in the evening. we just want it to work. we've built PCs and we have no interest in cobbling something together and supporting it for it's lifetime. don't act like that doesn't come with a huge cost of time.
100% This, I work in IT all day. The last thing I want to do with my personal time is build and support a home built machine attached to my TV that my kids or wife will use to watch Netflix or play a few games. Especially if I am out of town and something stops working.
That’s why I own a PlayStation and pay a premium for their games on an inferior platform compared to PC. It generally just works with out me having to fuck with it all the time. I’d get a Steam box for the same reason.
I have game consoles, but I don't use them regularly. Every time I turn them on, they want an hour of updates and a password reset just to use the dvd player.
A PC just works.
I bet a Steam Machine would just work too, because Valve aren't as incompetent as the competition.
Quite a bit of speculation in these comments considering we don't even have a price yet
I would pay any price just so I have a pc with games only on it. I haven't gamed in years cuz my pc is just too full of hobbies, video editing, photography, personal items, backups, movies, albums. Can't game with all of that in my space.
A steam console where I can just lay in my chaise lounge and play some Terraria? Gosh yes
Its a *gabecube*
Meh. You can’t beat the economy of scale with boutique retail PC part prices. That said, you’re probably going to get the min quality for specified performance.
I remember that guy on hacker news who said Dropbox would never take off because he could build something similar with rsync. He's not wrong, people who looked for something rsync could solve continued just use rsync. Meaning, people who want to build a PC for less will continue to build a PC less. The Steam Box isn't for people who want to build a pc for less, though.
Bro have you seen the prices for storage, graphics cards, memory? I'll take 2 Steam whatever shape it is.
I'll just repost the same comment I wrote the first time someone posted this meme:
It's a small form factor PC, pre-installed with Linux and steam. Period.
Can you build something more powerful cheaper? Probably
Can you build something more powerful with the same form factor for cheaper? Maybe, probably not... We don't know.
All of those are beside the point.
They sell millions of desktop PCs pre-installed with windows, they often make terrible hardware choices, and don't even have a small form factor, if they do they have the computing power of a laptop. All of this at an unreasonable prices. At the very least the steam machine will be better value than those. Anyone who would consider one of those PCs, might consider a steam machine instead.
By the time it arrives you won’t even be able to buy the memory for whatever the Steam Machine ends up costing.
Does it go to 11?
It's from Valve. It doesn't even go to 3.
It's got what PvsZ craves.
I'll repeat what others likely mentioned before:
Valve specifically chose to build a mid range PC, so more people can afford it.
Also they priced it in a way where it's still affordable while offering the convenience of not having to build it yourself. The majority of people never built a PC themselves, nor do they want to.
i think i must be their target audience because i'm excited as hell for the steam machine. i have no desire to build my own, i just want to play my steam games on my big tv. that's it. they're making that easy.
(Talking about OS because I'm assuming they want a console experience, not a windows desktop experience)
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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
