Do you guys think its a good time to bring back the steam machine that runs steam OS?
Picture a console sized steam machine running steam OS and it has specs that can compete with any modern console? I would 100% buy it. I consider myself more of a console gamer but I would love to bang out a few games on the 4k TV instead of docking my deck.
I think there is a market for a non portable steam OS machine. What do you guys think?
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Yes!!! 100% yes. Then I can finally replace my Xbox series X with it and not have to exist in 2 ecosystems between Xbox and steam.
Having both a steam deck and a dedicated TV console would be awesome. The deck kind of sucks when connected to the TV, and as I got older I prefer playing on the couch instead of a PC chair that I sit in at work all day.
With the deck on the rise linux gaming is definitely becoming more popular. That is a very good thing.
But i dont think that the market for console like pcs running linux is big enough to have a good roi. SD was a success due to marketing and selecting a niche. The normal console market on the other hand is much to competitive.
The fundamental problem is that there is nothing special about a “Steam Machine.” The Steam Deck is special because it’s an all-in-one handheld gaming device, but a console version of it would literally just be a normal PC with SteamOS preloaded onto it.
If you really want a Steam Deck-like console for your living room, then you can just get a PC and throw something like ChimeraOS or HoloISO onto it. Bam, DIY Steam Machine.
If you want something with better value, you can get one of those mini-PCs with RDNA graphics in them and do the same thing. Now you have a lightweight, moderately performant Steam Machine for a few hundred dollars. Or, heck, just get a Steam Deck and a dock.
This was a big part of why the original Steam Machines failed. Sure, SteamOS has better game support than it did then, but it would still just be a PC with Valve branding slapped on top.
Proton didn’t exist during the original Steam Machines. It’s the final piece of the puzzle. There’s certainly a Steam console coming down the pipe in the next few years.
A console with the ease-of-use of the Steam Deck, but with more powerful specs that is just for my TV? And my entire Steam library is available? Yeah, I’d buy that in a second.
I have several PCs already. There’s always something annoying or something to troubleshoot when they’re hooked up to the TV. I’m sick of it.
Not only that, Big Picture was not nearly as good as what we have today.
“Steam Machine” is going to be Steam OS for all PCs. PC prebuilt manufacturers will start selling gaming PCs with Steam OS at a discount VS Windows machines because they don’t have to pay for a license. That’s Valve’s endgame.