Comment on Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]
simple@piefed.social 18 hours agopeople can still just buy a $500 mini PC and install Linux on it
GPU performance, unknown OS compatibility issues, performance profiles for normies.
I love NUC like devices and I already run linux, but i’m confident the steamos implementation will just work on their hardware because they’re building it for it.
If you’re on an AMD GPU and not at least dual booting linux you’re missing out imo. Only a handful of competitive online games need windows for anticheat/drm.
The overwhelming majority of consumers will never install an OS on a system.
They will only ever use the OS that came pre-installed.
Folks that would/could do that are not the folks this seems geared towards IMO, and I think it may whoosh a lot of us on Lemmy because in general we like to tinker and figure tech out, that’s obviously not ubiquitous, but the vast majority of people(read consumers) do not want that at all. I also suspect the Steam Machine will be priced right around $500 to compete with the PS5, depending on their sales expectations they could legit make this a loss leader.
More likely geared towards the average PC gamer that just wants to play games and doesn’t give a fuck about OSS or Linux in addition to lifelong console gamers that prefer controllers on couch gaming but are interested in all the other perks/freedoms that PCs offer. I was in the latter group about a year ago when I bought my deck.
depending on their sales expectations they could legit make this a loss leader.
I don’t think they will. The problem is that the hardware is open.
Closed-system console vendors can sell at a loss because if you’ve bought the console and don’t buy games from them for it, you’re going to have limited use of it. It’s maybe an expensive Blu-Ray player or something. Not a sensible purchase. You’re gonna buy games for it.
So they can just crank up the price of games and make their return over time from games.
But if the Steam Machine is sold at a loss to undercut mini-PCs, then people will also buy it to use it as a regular mini-PC, and Valve doesn’t make a return from them.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
The part where they have to install the OS itself is going to be a major deal breaker for mass market.