Valve enters the console wars [The Verge]

Lets Go Sport GIF by ALL ELITE WRESTLING
 
The difference is the timing. This box plays most of the games on PS5 and a few hundred thousand more. There are no online fees. They can play every retro game known to man. They can mod those games and give characters breasts for feet and feet for hands. I think this will be a hell of a value prop for young people. It also kicks off what I expect to be a tidal wave of similar machines from all your favorite OEMs. That STRIX APU (I'm not up on APU names forgive) is gonna make this market super interesting.
 
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Topher said:
It's a PC
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I think there's a huge untapped kid audience. We keep seeing all this data about console gamers being boomers.

Meanwhile kids don't want to play a walking lighthouse simulator. They're glued to Megabonk, Getting Over It, Chained Together, … all these viral, meme driven games that explode on TikTok and Twitch.

If you look at the numbers for what younger players and streamers are touching, it's overwhelmingly the weird indie stuff that thrives on PC. This is the content pipeline now: something new and viral drops on Steam, a streamer loses their mind playing it, and suddenly every kid wants it. That ecosystem doesn't exist on consoles the same way.

We'll see though I could be wrong, this shit is hard to predict
 
KyoZz said:
Keyword is AND. If you don't see how they are getting closer to a console with quick resume, fixed HW etc... it's on you 🤷‍♂️
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This is dumb. Valve doesn't state "console" anywhere in their PR. It's PC gaming. It doesn't say "It's a console AND PC", it says "it's optimized for gaming AND is a PC".

store.steampowered.com

Steam Machine

Your games on the big screen
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

They just borrowed some features that are console like, nothing else. We have had the console like interface for years, we have had full gamepad support for years, we have had mini PCs with fixed hardware for years. Nothing here is new. The OS is just working better than before, but that doesn't make this a console. It is still the same open platform as before.
 
delishcaek said:
This is dumb. Valve doesn't state "console" anywhere in their PR. It's PC gaming. It doesn't say "It's a console AND PC", it says "it's optimized for gaming AND is a PC".

store.steampowered.com

Steam Machine

Your games on the big screen
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

They just borrowed some features that are console like, nothing else. We have had the console like interface for years, we have had full gamepad support for years, we have had mini PCs with fixed hardware for years. Nothing here is new. The OS is just working better than before, but that doesn't make this a console. It is still the same open platform as before.
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If it gets a good enough console-like experience, I don't think most people will care that it's not strictly a console

I've owned a similar one of these machines in the past. The historic problem has always been they just don't work right. If they can fix it and make it as brainless as a Nintendo Switch, that would be huge. This is what the article talks about.
 
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Once again either they are clueless, creating click bait or the Cheque cleared from Microsoft to spin that console pc hybrid campaign.

It's not a console/
 
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More like Valve is walking through a battlefield with decayed green corpses emblazoned with Xs on their armor, and you see an untouched island in the distance with a mushroom castle on top.

The only ones still fighting the war are old millennials to boomers, each ranting about a war because their dementia brain thinks its the 2000s still.
 
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reinking said:
You can upgrade ram and SSD. You can install another OS on it. It is a PC.
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You can upgrade the SSD on consoles too.
They even have graphical options now LMAO.
delishcaek said:
This is dumb. Valve doesn't state "console" anywhere in their PR. It's PC gaming. It doesn't say "It's a console AND PC", it says "it's optimized for gaming AND is a PC".

store.steampowered.com

Steam Machine

Your games on the big screen
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

They just borrowed some features that are console like, nothing else. We have had the console like interface for years, we have had full gamepad support for years, we have had mini PCs with fixed hardware for years. Nothing here is new. The OS is just working better than before, but that doesn't make this a console. It is still the same open platform as before.
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It's a new system that's aiming at both the PC and consoles user base.

It's an hybrid, with the best of both worlds and again if you don't see how they are getting closer to a console, I don't know what to tell you.
 
KyoZz said:
Keyword is AND. If you don't see how they are getting closer to a console with quick resume, fixed HW etc... it's on you 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...

And a keyword they never use on that page is "console". Add features like quick resume doesn't make this a console. Fixed hardware? Plenty of gaming PC options in the past have had limited options in upgrading a device. That doesn't turn the device into a console. Certainly none of this turns Steam Machine into a new entrant into the console wars.
 
It's a Steam Deck in a tiny box that can also be a PC, if you want it to be.

It's meant to have the ease of use of a traditional console, though.

The Steam Deck is the closest thing to a portable "console" that we have. Sure, you can use that as a PC, too. I've never wanted to, but some people do. Other than that, how is it much different than a Switch 2?

I can see the argument for both. It's whatever you want it to be: PC, console, hybrid.
 
KyoZz said:
You can upgrade the SSD on consoles too.
They even have graphical options now LMAO.
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I knew when I threw that in there, I would get this reply. Yes, you can. I also still have my n64 ram expansion pak and my Sega Saturn ram expansion cart. Let me ask you, when was the last time you changed the OS on your console. Oh shit, Linux on PS3. Maybe it is a console after all... :messenger_grinning_squinting:

Nah, it's a PC and the OS will be available on other PCs in the near future.
 
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KyoZz said:
It's an hybrid, with the best of both worlds and again if you don't see how they are getting closer to a console, I don't know what to tell you.
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I am saying that Valve isn't entering any "wars" with this PC, because it is essentially still a PC that will have the same issues as any other PC.

For example: You buy a newly released gamepad and that gamepad will not be 100% supported by this device because Steam doesn't recognize it properly.

This can't happen on a console because it's been tested to work with the system it releases on, but this is normal for PCs and even more so with an OS like Linux that has spotty to no official manufacturer support, so it relies on Valve adding support for peripherals.

What's my source? I've been there already when I bought the Wolverine v3. Steam recognized it as an Xbox One gamepad, so the screenshot button didn't work for months.

Just getting closer doesn't remove the inherent friction that comes with PC gaming.
 
Topher said:
And a keyword they never use on that page is "console". Add features like quick resume doesn't make this a console. Fixed hardware? Plenty of gaming PC options in the past have had limited options in upgrading a device. That doesn't turn the device into a console.
Click to expand...
Firstly please answer: What's a console anyway? Is it a system with fixed HW that play games? Because then the Steam Machine is a console, just with a different OS like Xbox and Sony have their.

BUT again I never stated it was a console. In my opinion it's an hybrid and again for the third time in this thread: if, with all the features announced and the ultra simplicity of the system, you don't see how they want to get closer to a console I don't know what to tell you.

Let's just agree to disagree because you won't change my mind on this.

Topher said:
Certainly none of this turns Steam Machine into a new entrant into the console wars.
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Watch them eat Xbox alive in the next few years. This Steam Machine will fit nicely in many homes if priced correctly.

And I'm only half kidding.
 
DarkShadowXI said:
It's a Steam Deck in a tiny box that can also be a PC, if you want it to be.

It's meant to have the ease of use of a traditional console, though.

The Steam Deck is the closest thing to a portable "console" that we have. Sure, you can use that as a PC, too. I've never wanted to, but some people do. Other than that, how is it much different than a Switch 2?

I can see the argument for both. It's whatever you want it to be: PC, console, hybrid.
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It's the semantic Switch argument all over again.

"It's not in competition with PlayStation because it's a handheld/hybrid."
 
I collect VHS tapes said:
your definition is circular. you're using 'PC games' to define what a PC is, and then using 'PCs' to define what a PC game is, so neither definition actually proves anything.
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Open platform vs closed platform, but not everyone understands that, so the easiest remains the software as it's already established as to what was built on open vs closed.
 
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I collect VHS tapes said:
your definition is circular. you're using 'PC games' to define what a PC is, and then using 'PCs' to define what a PC game is, so neither definition actually proves anything.
Click to expand...

It's really simpler than all that. Can I erase the computer and install whatever I want? If the answer is yes then it is a PC.
 
They said the GPU equivalent is a 4060. Now normally, I would say that's not powerful enough.

However, given the fact that Linux is the OS, this could be a substantive power boost at a very competitive price.

If it is priced the same as a PS5 Pro, I think the value proposition would be an excellent one.
 
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