Support NeoGAF

[xJavonta]

I honestly don't see Steam Machines appealing to hardcore PC gamers. It's going to do well with PC-curious people (like me) or gamers that like PC gaming but would rather not deal with building their own PCs from scratch. There's an untapped market there (real question is how big), just because these machines don't fit you doesn't mean there aren't people interested in a product like this.

Yup pretty much.

My friends hear me go on about Steam and sales all the time. As a result, they went and made a steam account, bought some games and can't really run them on their shitty laptops. I told them about the Steam machines, and every single one of them that hasn't bought a PC is interested. They're already invested into Steam, they've seen the greatness that is cheap games, and want to get in on it for real. This is for those people, not the guys who like the watercool their shit and put 3 different fucking GPUs. There's already a market for them, and they should stick to it instead of shitting on new approaches to the expand the PC gaming market.

 

[DarkFlow]

I honestly don't see Steam Machines appealing to hardcore PC gamers. It's going to do well with PC-curious people (like me) or gamers that like PC gaming but would rather not deal with building their own PCs from scratch. There's an untapped market there (real question is how big), just because these machines don't fit you doesn't mean there aren't people interested in a product like this.

My main concern is with these cheap ones. If you're new to pc gaming, I don't want you to be scared away by getting a damn r7 250 with 4gb of ram. That's no fun for anyone, and most likely going to drive you away forever.

 

[Mercury Land-Snake]

Yup pretty much.

My friends hear me go on about Steam and sales all the time. As a result, they went and made a steam account, bought some games and can't really run them on their shitty laptops. I told them about the Steam machines, and every single one of them that hasn't bought a PC is interested. They're already invested into Steam, they've seen the greatness that is cheap games, and want to get in on it for real. This is for those people, not the guys who like the watercool their shit and put 3 different fucking GPUs. There's already a market for them, and they should stick to it instead of shitting on new approaches to the expand the PC gaming market.

I've been collecting Steam games in humble bundles and steam sales for YEARS. I think I've maybe put 10 hours total into Steam gaming. I've always wanted something like this and I'm glad to see Valve really push for it.

My main concern is with these cheap ones. If you're new to pc gaming, I don't want you to be scared away by getting a damn r7 250 with 4gb of ram. That's no fun for anyone, and most likely going to drive you away forever.

True, I'm personally not ignorant of what constitutes a good and bad system so I wouldn't buy a cheap useless Steam Machine. Others might not be so savvy and end up with something not so great. I don't mind paying a few extra hundred over $500 for something a bit stronger so I hope the Alienware comes in a few configs. The easily upgradeable nature of these machines makes it a decent investment if I need to spend a few hundred every few years to bump up performance.

So far it looks like the low end is going to be about $500 where you get a machine that a bit better than PS4/Xbox One. That wouldn't be a poor experience for a first time PC gamer, it would still be as good or better than a console. If they start selling $300 POS machines, you'd have a strong case on how these things might damage PC gaming. If anything I see this as a big positive for the PC gaming ecosystem, lots of people try to game on low powered laptops with integrated graphics. These machines should help bring the baseline up for the whole industry.

 

[bluecapsule]

My main concern is with these cheap ones. If you're new to pc gaming, I don't want you to be scared away by getting a damn r7 250 with 4gb of ram. That's no fun for anyone, and most likely going to drive you away forever.

Honestly the ibuypower machine is embarrassing. The r7 250 is like integrated graphics level, so I don't know why they would even bother with it instead of a Kaveri rig or upgrading to at least a 260, which is really the minimum you would want these days.

 

[DarkFlow]

Honestly the ibuypower machine is embarrassing. The r7 250 is like integrated graphics level, so I don't know why they would even bother with it instead of a Kaveri rig or upgrading to at least a 260, which is really the minimum you would want these days.

Well they said they are targeting a 260x, but frankly i would be kinda scared to use any AMD card on linux with the piss poor support they've done so far with it.

 

[Haint]

You assume everyone wants to build a PC. What if someone wants the flexibility of PC gaming with some of the ease of use of a console (small box, standard machine, low price, standard controller and streamlined OS and UX)?

There is no standard controller, these companies can include whatever they want (possibly none at all?). All of these OEM builders have existed for years and have been building your choice of custom config or predefined config for people that don't want to build PC's the whole time. They did not spawn from the announcement or promise of a Steam OS, Steam Boxes, or a Valve Controller. All Valve has effectively done is advertise them, which was perhaps the whole idea behind the Steam Machine.

 

[AJLma]

Also that $500 ibuy has a r7 250.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/ibuypower-sbx/
That's even worse.

An Athlon X4?

Not a terrible machine, probably enough to run most games at.... 768p/60

 

[The Light]

$500 not going to get you much if you go mini itx.

 

[DiddyInAHellcat]

7 minutes smh wow

 

[ziadoz]

I had kinda hoped Valve's enclosure would inspire some clean and simple cases designs with decent form factors, but nope, apparently not. Hopefully Valve will either make theirs available to buy, or at the very least make the CAD files available so we can get one made ourselves, because everything unveiled so far is as ugly as sin.

 

[SapientWolf]

Your 6870 struggles with modern games because it probably only has 1GB of VRAM, which bottlenecks it in newer games that require ~1.5GB of ram. I'm still using a Geforce 660 which is slower than a 270, and it still runs almost everything at 1080p/60fps at high or ultra.

The 5870 is faster than a 6870. Doesn't make sense but it's true.

 

[biosnake20]

Valve and Alienware introduce the Steam Machine (The Verge)

 

[Morzak]

There is no standard controller, these companies can include whatever they want (possibly none at all?). All of these OEM builders have existed for years and have been building your choice of custom config or predefined config for people that don't want to build PC's the whole time. They did not spawn from the announcement or promise of a Steam OS, Steam Boxes, or a Valve Controller. All Valve has effectively done is advertise them, which was perhaps the whole idea behind the Steam Machine.

Yeah people are acting like there weren't a ton of pre built gaming PC options out there already, Those steam machine vendors were building complete PC's for years some probably for over a decade now. What it pushes are more small form factor cases though.

I'm also questioning the willingness of those that want convenience to be ready to set up dual boot, which is basically required if you don't want to have a very limited Library.


Edit: Oh and two of those machines (Alternate & Material) seem just to be Fractal Design Node 304 Cases.

 

[Nokterian]

Why do any of these cyberterrorist groups do it? The answer is "for the lulz" of course.

Why..this is beyond pathetic ruining people's evening or day. It's happend before the new year and still going unbelievable.

 

[ashecitism]

Not even a mention about software support or streaming? Disappointing.

 

[alexandros]

Yeah I expected at least something in regards to game support or new features, sadly Valve are obviously not ready to talk about that yet. Until we know about possible game support from major publishers the Steam Machines' fate in the market will remain a mystery.

 

[ashecitism]

Not ready? Valve promised a stream of (AAA) game announcements right after SteamOS reveal and we've only gotten 3 so far. In 3 months. So, what's up? They could have at least put up a slide of "devs working on SteamOS games" or something.

 

[NotUS]

I haven't been following the Steambox info much at all, but does anyone else think this is Valve's attempt to take on Windows OS.

Start as a games machine with a gaming OS.

Expand the OS down the line to better support browsing, social media, email, networking and other online functionality.

Further down the line, add in business apps such as office, etc.

All of a sudden, 5 years from now Microsoft has a major challenger, one with tremendous capability, and is held in high esteem by most of the gaming community.

It wouldn't take much for MS to lose a good chunk of the home OS market to someone like Valve, especially if Steam OS is lightweight, robust, well supported and better optimized.

 

[alexandros]

Not ready? Valve promised a stream of (AAA) game announcements right after SteamOS reveal and we've only gotten 3 so far. In 3 months. So, what's up? They could have at least put up a slide of "devs working on SteamOS games" or something.

I agree. It seems they're taking the classic slow-paced Valve approach with this and I think they should be a lot more aggressive. Unless they're planning a lot of reveals during the coming months, they're basically sending these machines out to die as they're gaming machines with notable holes in their catalog. These machines are not cheap enough to be streaming solutions, they need a lot of native games (including triple-A titles) to be compelling. Without them they will fail.

 

[ashecitism]

I agree. It seems they're taking the classic slow-paced Valve approach with this and I think they should be a lot more aggressive. Unless they're planning a lot of reveals during the coming months, they're basically sending these machines out to die as they're gaming machines with notable holes in their catalog. These machines are not cheap enough to be streaming solutions, they need a lot of native games (including triple-A titles) to be compelling. Without them they will fail.

Yeah, I don't think the Valve approach is that well suited for the consumer electronics space. Even if they themselves think there's no hurry, the OEMs and potential customers will think otherwise eventually (or right now).

In the Alienware vid, they even say they expect the Linux catalogue to be expanded to 400 games by the time these launch including new high profile games, so not sure why they're beating around the bush. As I said a "supporting devs/publishers" slide would be enough, just so we can adjust our expectations.

 

[Nachtmaer]

The 5870 is faster than a 6870. Doesn't make sense but it's true.

It made sense when the 6870 replaced the 5770 and the 6900s became the new high end. Sure it's dumb, but confusing naming schemes is nothing out of the ordinary.