Comment on [[TheGamer]] Valve Fremont, The Rumored Steam Console, Appears On Geekbench
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 1 day agoNintendo makes money from underpowered console’s because their business model is nostalgia, the same way apples is fashion. They don’t need to make great products, as long as they meet the end goal.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
You’re ignoring my main point: Valve is in a similar boat as Nintendo in that their business model differs from Playstation and XBox.
The reason XBox and Playstation have been competing in in console wars the past 20 years is that they’re trying to offer the exact same thing.
Valve doesn’t need to compete over hardware or exclusives. A lot of people that buy consoles despite already having PC libraries are because they want to play on their couch instead of a desk and because they just want something that is plug-and play. They could stream to their TV with a Steam Link or Raspberry Pi, but that’s extra setup and a less clean experience. If Valve offers a standardized, prebuilt HTPC to fill that role, that target audience has less reason to buy a console.
And since you’re harping on power: Playstation isn’t likely to significantly change their hardware specifications in a few months. They can make some adjustments, but development takes time so there’s not going to be groundbreaking changes just to respond to Valve. Not only that, there’s precedent of more powerful and capable consoles losing to their competition due to other factors, an notable example being the Sega Saturn. You can’t distill sales down into one single defining metric. That’s a take I would expect from a child.
And to expand on competing market space: Valve doesn’t have to restrict their products to just console competitors. They build PCs. Remember Intel NUC’s? From the leaks and rumors, I’m expecting Valve’s product to be structurally similar to those, opening up another market space. And even if Valve doesn’t sell all the units, if the NUC-style form factor overall expands more in terms of units and usage for gaming, Steam still wins since they’re expanding the PC gaming market. We saw the same thing with the Steam Deck, where competitors started popping up, but Valve was making money on those as well since people mainly buy PC games via Steam.