Leaks again hint at Valve doing a proper Steam Machine Console

Comments

• paultimate14@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  1. I would be surprised if a Valve-made console had a discrete GPU in this current GPU market. Part of what helped the Steam Deck succeed was that it was an integrated GPU. The Steam Deck was able to be sold at presumably a low margin (maybe even at a loss), and Valve expects to profit from the games purchased on Steam. If they were to sell a pre-buikt PC at close to cost, people would scalp the GPU’s for profit and Valve would probably lose out on that predicted Steam revenue.

  That does not entirely dismiss this news though. Could be that the 7600 reported here is a temporary workaround for them to test the CPU while the GPU (or even just the drivers) are being worked on. Or maybe for them to do comparison testing easily. I’m just saying I would not expect to see a 7600 in the final product.

  2. There is a huge gap in the market right now. The Switch 2 starts at $450, the PS5 slim is going up to $500. The Xbox Series S is woefully underpowered and holding the entire Xbox platform back while costing $380. There are no more $200-$300 console options, unless you want to go with something janky like a mini PC or a cheap Chinese handheld. And like, yes inflation is a thing, but it’s not THAT bad. I was able to buy a PS4 slim bundled with 3 AAA Sony games in 2019 for $199.99. Plug that into an inflation calculator and I get ~$250.

  Imagine Valve releases a home console for $300. I think it would have to be slightly more powerful than the Deck, to be able to target AAA games releasing over the next 5 years with 1080p 30 FPS. (And for anyone complaint about how “unplayable” that is, go buy a $600 console or $2000 PC instead. This theoretical product is not for you). What I’m not sure if is whether that would be feasible. Can we shave $100 off the Deck by consolizing it? No screen, no battery, probably of design restrictions revolving around it being portable and dust/water resistant could go away and bring the costs down. Plus general performance gains AMD has made since 2022. If Valve could do something like that they could potentially push Microsoft out of the hardware market (they have been rumored to be considering that for a while anyways).

  Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe in tough economic times, the ultimate answer is that most people just don’t have the disposable income for videogames, so it makes more sense to downsize and focus on the premium high-end market where the volune is lower and the margins are higher. But this rumor is giving me a little bit of hope.

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  • rafoix@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    A Steam Machine only makes sense with an APU.

    wccftech.com/xbox-next-magnus-apu-power-both-cons…

    This seems to make more sense for AMD, MS and Valve.

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• smiletolerantly@awful.systems ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • warmaster@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’ll buy this for my kids, a Steam console will mean:

    • Ready to play
    • Officially supported
    • HDMI CEC compatible
    • Wake on Bluetooth
    • Resume after Sleep
    • Reference target for devs
    • Energy effiecient
    • Bundled with a controller
    • Probably cheaper than buying the parts for a PC

    I have two gaming rigs running Bazzite, one with an XTX 7900 XT the other a 3080 TI, and a Steam Deck.

    The benefits of a manufactured purpose built device like the steam deck really shows how superior the user experience can be versus a DIY path.

    Personally I don’t care because I know my way around things, but my kids don’t, and still won’t until they grow. There are users that will never learn because they don’t want to, and this product is mainly for them.

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    • artyom@piefed.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Chances are your kids will never learn either. We only learned because we had to.

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  • cRazi_man@europe.pub ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The answer to making something mainstream accessible and acceptable is the experience for normies. This is where the Steam Deck really shines. Valve gets it. You say you don’t get it. I don’t fully understand peoples’ tech anxieties either. But people won’t install Bauxite or Steam OS themselves. Normies consider that to be akin to black magic. The Steam Deck doesnt even need the tiniest bit of tinkering. You literally start it up and go. And this is what has made it mainstream acceptable (even though the majorities of normies in my social group still need explanation…“PC games on a handheld? Is it like a laptop?”).

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  • TheAgeOfSuperboredom@lemmy.ca ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    For a lot of people, building a PC is magic. It’s just not something they’re familiar with, even if we consider it easy. I have smart friends who buy the worst off the shelf laptops, but it does what they need and they choose to spend their time on other things. Meanwhile, I check my local PC part shop for sales almost daily. 😄

    If this provides a good out of box experience, I can see the appeal.

    Also, it’s nice that you could buy a pre-built one or build your own if you want.

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  • RedWeasel@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Just packaging. It would come with Steam OS.

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