The GabeCube could hit the market at $1000 and still be a major success. Think about the RAM prices and there‘s not really a way to build yourself a cheaper PC that‘s convenient for couch gaming.
EZ
I’m interested in the Steam Machine because I like playing on consoles. Steam’s ecosystem seems interesting because it’s more open than PlayStation’s (what I’m on currently). Additionally, I like Linux. By using SteamOS, I’m hoping bug fixes and improvements will benefit the general Linux ecosystem. I don’t want to install games on my regular computers. I want a dedicated gaming device. I don’t intend to use the Steam Machine as a PC.
The Steam Machine is the new Commodore 64 or Apple IIe. For one price, it’s going to do almost everything just good enough.
If the price isn’t ludicrous, it will likely be my default recommendation to anyone asking what PC to get for grandma.
Can she check her email?
Yes.
Can we just hook it to her TV?
Yes.
Can it play some kind of cooking simulation party game with the kids?
Yes.
Okay send me a parts list.
No parts list, just buy one and hook it up.
Okay. How often do I have to buy an OS upgrade?
Those are free.
Which game controllers work with it?
Pretty much all of them, but it probably also comes with one.
This is going to be the stupidly easy answer for casual gamers and casual PC users, as long as it doesn’t cost double what either of those would.
Ngl price part mainly depends on how much chatbot girlfriend technology is hoarding up everything.
Hopefully it all will crash by then.
As someone who’s tried several PC-in-the-livingroom solutions, just try building a PC with good specs at that size and you’ll appreciate the niche that is being filled.
Smug basher: “But it’s not stronger than my galaxy GPU 89,000 that costs four times as much! It can’t even do 14k octovision and 122 fps dynaflax!”
Oh geez, no dynaflax?
It’s for the people who can’t afford to build their own PCs these days. Graphics cards went up in price, hard drives went up and now RAM.
I want them to build a top of the line gaming pc put into a small box and sell it to me at a huge loss. Why can’t they do that?
This kinda blew up. For the record, there are probably decent use cases. I’m just befuddled by its popularity. The best I’ve seen is PC games on a TV more easily than moving an entire setup. But the form factor removes a lot of the upgradeability and repairablity that makes PCs so great, it has standard hardware like a console but still traps you in a (admittedly slightly better) ecosystem, it has Linux but masks it so well most people won’t notice or care. If it pushes gaming to a more linux-friendly place, great, but it feels like it’s packaging it to the point that it won’t push the player-base, only devs. It feels like it packages almost all of the limitations of the 3 groups with very few of the best benefits. Truly do hope I’m wrong, I often am.
I thought you were listing all the positives and pretending not to get it. The whole point is that it is a steam console designed for a primary purpose of playing steam games, and also has the full functionality of a PC which other consoles don’t.
I plan on getting one in addition to my PC for playing games in my living room that will be more fun in that format.
Steam doesn’t trap you into an ecosystem. You can even add non-steam games to to the launcher for convenience!
This. It’s an Xbox with access to the Steam library instead of Game pass.
I think there will be some PC folks who get one, but I bet that won’t be the biggest audience. Their target audience is console players who are currently putting their cash into Sony and Microsoft.
It answers the (console player’s) question: “why can’t I just buy a box that let’s me play steam games from my couch on my nice big TV?”
it has Linux but masks it so well most people won’t notice or care.
That’s the best sales pitch for linux I’d ever heard!
Idk, to me it’s like veggie bacon. Stop spending so much time trying to make plants taste like meat when you can just… make the plants taste good. I’d rather be shown the advantages and explore the reason for a switch than have it try to be what I wanted to avoid in the first place. Maybe this is just a natural in-between step towards more universal adoption, it just kind of feels like the first step towards enshittification. Maybe I’m just jaded and cynical at this point, I’d just rather have something that is proudly itself rather than something trying to shamefully hide what makes it unique
It’s a fully functional Linux distro though?
still traps you in a (admittedly slightly better) ecosystem,
That’s wrong. It comes with SteamOS which is an Arch based Linux Distro. While it launches into Steam’s big screen mode, you can always switch to desktop mode and have all the freedom you want. Install GOG, Epic, Heroic or another launcher? Go for it. Want to install Windows on your Machine or Deck? I don’t know why, but you can do.
Hooking a whole desktop to a TV is intrusive with most desktop form factors.
Most people who want a console don’t care about upgradability or repairability, and that’s certainly not the main thing that “makes PCs so great.”
Most people gaming on PC are equally “trapped in an ecosystem.” This has a desktop mode if need be, but hardly anyone does games outside of Steam.
“It has Linux but most users won’t notice or care” is a double positive.
“It won’t push the player base, only the devs” is a double positive.
The point of a console isn’t to make people into more technical proponents of open source projects. It’s to play games.
And if it’s competing in the console market, especially for people who aren’t terribly interested in the “Call of Duty” type AAA titles of today, it seems like a perfect fit.
Well what if i want something like a console but hate the big tech and dont enjoy someone spying on me? this is the only option. What if i want a console that i can modify and use as a pc or a server if i damn want to? this is the only option. What if i want a true console like experience but want to play a title that just isnt on any consoles? this once again is the only option. This thing will have so many usecases, just maybe a little specific ones… :D
I want to just buy games and have them work on my machine. So a console.
Microsoft is surrendering the console war.
Sony has already put malware in their products and I will not be their customer again.
Nintendo is super locked down.
Valve has always shown me excellent customer service.
This. I am wishfully thinking that even if it doesn’t hit the ground running at launch, over time enough people will convert for it to be a commercial success. The only thing that could make me put another console in my home is my desire for physical media, but even then half of the games released are just glorified download cards. Truthfully there is almost 0 reason for an informed consumer to purchase a console now.
Nintendo has made it better to buy a fucking steam deck and pirate their games. I think the steam deck and the GabeCube will splash the market with better performance than other consoles, better use cases and usability, and therefore make other companies make there consoles better.
As a Nintendo fan, Nintendo is like all of our toxic boyfriends. But if Nintendo either a) licensed their games to other devices or b) allowed there devices to run linux/pc games I would step (a lil bit) back on the Nintendo train.
I disagree on what it would take to bring me back to Nintendo, cause… I think its ok for them to make a fancy digital toy with games that change how we play with it.
But I want the fancy digital toy to be worth it first and be fun.
Like the DS was a planner and a doodle pad, and a contact book, and a web browser and a gameboy and a DS. They had a version that let me see games in 3D. They had a console that let me swing swords like the main character in the game that came out just for it. I could play any sport like I was actually doing it right away day 1 and design a character to play as.Now the console does nothing but play the games that dont come with it. And they dont even use a fun game mechanic they added to make the digital toy cool. They lost all passion and it is just a worse locked down version that only plays the game and goes away. Made to have you purchase more on it then use it.
I miss Nintendo.You are actually right, I didn’t think about Nintendo’s past when making that comment but I would appreciate if Nintendo stopped competing with others in the market and did its own thing to a higher extent. I mean the switch 2 is straight up the steam deck but without only Nintendo games.
It doesn’t even matter if it’s linux or otherwise, as long as they are innovating in the gaming area.
Price!
We can argue about it all we want, but basically everything hinges on its street price.
If it’s cheap, all those critiques are irrelevant.
Expensive? “It’s cute, I like Steam, I like how it mostly works OOTB,” gets real niche, real quick.
I downvote all these memes because they want to shit over a product that isn’t released yet with no price tag, all so they can feel smug superiority
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Regardless of the box cost, there’s no arguing with the price of games in a Steam sale!
I don’t think I’ve paid more than £15 for a game in years and years.
People always argue about the price of the machine, but hardly anyone mentions that console people pay to play online. Which is something i can’t even really comprehend
Good point. Steam provides a lot of the same multiplayer services and match making and they’ve never cost me a penny.
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For a lot of games, yes. They provide the infrastructure for communication and connection.
Its why you can, for example, send an invite in AOE via the in-game system or the steam system.
Its why so many games show your steam name and avatar in the multiplayer menus.
You surprised to hear this?
And also why most of my multiplayer games are unplayable on Tuesday afternoons 💀
I love you Gabe but please do that shit at like 3am.
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Unfortunately, not everyone has the cash to spend up front. Paying more over time is easier.
Or they just get lured in by a cheap sticker price.
And again, price is still relevant. If this is well over $1K, it starts to negate the Steam storefront cost savings.
Fair enough. If they’re cash poor, grabbing one of those cheap games consoles is a good plan. 😟
It’s DoA unless they have an absurdly low price. Give me a steam deck 2.
Reminds me of the steam box / idiocracy cross over I found
https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/fa3c3bbb-ada2-4876-b98e-621b35305eed.webp
I saw that post and it made me start thinking about why I have no interest in it, and a few days later here we are. Honestly, the last 3 panels live rent-free in my head
Except the whole thing hinges on the panel “i can build a better pc for less money” and nobody knows if this is true yet
Arch with KDE is for people who don’t like Linux?
Got my hands on a steam deck. First thing was installing bazzite.
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Maybe you weren’t aware, but SteamOS is Arch based and uses the KDE Plasma desktop.
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Bro preach. I’ve been out here doing real linux work on an old panasonic microwave. If you really liked linux, you’d be running it on something with less than 16 MB RAM.
It’s a PC for people who are too afraid or possibly can’t afford (depending on price when announced) to build their own.
can’t afford … to build their own
Soon to be: Everyone
I hope Valve can still afford to build it…
Maybe Valve predicted this would happen… 🤔
Or it will equally harm them by affecting the cost of making the SM.
Gabe is a billionaire yacht owner, at the end of the day. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a game of good cop/bad cop where Valve is playing off the general hatred of other large game companies with some inside knowledge of what’s coming.
