Nicholas Chandler-Yates said:
A steam machine *is* a PC, small form factor, and with steamOS preinstalled instead of windows, but it can do ANYTHING a PC is capable of.
So...why should I bother getting it? That still literally says' same thing different name.
Where you are wrong here is that valve isn't trying to make a console... it is trying to make PCs more compatible with the living room.
So why are half the comments supporting the Steam box all about bringing the "glorious" PC to us "stupid, dumb console gamers?"
Valve isn't trying to get existing Steam users to buy steam machines, if even a fraction of those users install steamOS on their machine it is a win for Valve. as we can see from the poll, about 15% of gamers here are keen on that option, which might seem small, but think about how many PC gamers there are... 15% is a HUGE amount of people. Admittedly most will probably keep using windows concurrently.
Not every single PC gamer is going to go to a steam box. Especially if Steam is already on their computer.
Also Steam has been getting pretty shitty about their policies relating to games. No thanks. I don't want a Steam OS.
So if Valve isn't trying to get Steam users on OS, than who the hell are they marketing to?
Especially when you said they are trying to get people away from Windows.
Valve is trying to get more people using steam, less people using windows,
The majority of the people using Steam, are also using Windows.
more people using Linux, more hardware drivers for linux made, more games for linux,
I find it pretty damn sad that Valve is doing all the marketing heavy lifting for Linux. If Linux even gave a rat's ass about advertising themselves than they would of done it by now.
The thing is, every computer uses some parts of Linux. Linux get's paid by Apple, and Microsoft to use those parts. They don't care to advertise the thing, or do they seem like they intend to in the future.
and perhaps even sell a few prebuilt low-form-factor steam machine PCs to people that just want to jump into the living room market.
Or they can just buy a console at that point.
And saying that the console space is locked in at the 'big three' is ridiculous.
But you just said that they aren't competing with consoles. So that would imply that yes, the console market is closed out.
Valve loses almost nothing by releasing Steam Machines and SteamOS, aside from dev time, but are Virtually Guaranteed success in at least some of the areas above. Because of Steam's existing linux library, Valve's own catalogue of games, and valve's clout with other Devs (many of which have gone on record already saying they are developing for linux), Steam machines are guaranteed to have a WAY BIGGER launch lineup than the PS4 or XBone will have even by the time Steam Machines release.
If the Steambox is basically Steam in a plastic case, than I think it's pretty unfair to claim it has any "launch" title line ups. That's like Nintendo releasing the Wii U slim and than stating "look at our launch line up!" yet all the games are just stuff you can get on your Wii U anyway.
Secondly, again, you say that Steambox isn't competing with consoles yet continously compare it to consoles.
if they manage to somehow sell it cheaper than the price of amassing the parts yourself and building it (by bulk ordering presumably) Steam Machines will sell like MAD.
You have an overwhelming majority of people who will not give two craps about the Steambox because their PC and/or consoles suits all of their needs. The only people who will buy this are those who are in need of a new PC
The more I think about it, Valve is the only company that could build PCs and sell them at cost to consumers and make a profit,
We have zero clue how much Valve will succeed. For one, they never made a PC before.
Two, you woefully underestimate the corporation titan that is Microsoft and Apple.
Secondly, only people within the gaming community knows what the hell Valve even is. When they go out into the public market, they might as well have zero dollars to their name.
Third they not only have the disadvantage of having no brand force outside of videogames and a digital store front, but an overwhelming majority of the PC owning populace ( yes, non tech savvy, and non PC gamers use computers too.) have no fucking clue what the hell Linux is. The few people outside of the gaming sphere that used it had shitty experiences with it, and are very quick to tell everyone else how much of complete garbage it was regardless how long it's been since the last time they used it.
And since Linux makes zero effort to tell anybody about their improvements, it would be reasonable for those consumers to still have that same opinion.
