Comment on Valve confirm the Steam Machine will be priced like a PC with similar specs, rather than a console
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoThey can’t, and they won’t.
The way I see it, the people the Steam Machine is meant for are these:
People who are sick of the increasingly predatory nature of console gaming and want to switch to PC, but don’t have the confidence or knowledge to build their own
People who are similarly sick of Windows bullshit and want to try Linux, but don’t have the confidence or knowledge to do it themselves
People with plenty of cash who fancy an extra gaming PC to put under the TV
Valve fans who will buy anything Valve releases, no matter what
IMO it’s not trying to compete against consoles directly, and especially not on price, it’s trying to be an alternative to people who are already sick of consoles.
There is some overlap among those, particularly 2-4 and 3-4.
Also, I’ve read a lot of comments from people for whom the Steam Deck was their first experience with Linux and they are overwhelmingly positive. I can see this new device having the same effect.
FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Something that I don’t really see people talk about and could be a huge selling point for people is that it’s pretty small. Especially for folks that live in a small studio, saving space can be pretty important. I know mini-PCs are big in China, which itself is a huge market
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Sure, for real.
Of course, it isn’t like you can’t build yourself a small PC. I’ve got a build in a Fractal Design Terra with a beefy GPU, and that thing is barely bigger than a shoebox.
But building small is even more daunting than building large, so IMO it ties into the same angle of people wanting something that is premade and a product that just works, right down to the SteamOS operating system it ships with.