Before you start making plans to evict your current rig, I want to explain how the Steam Hardware Survey actually works. Rather than representing every player that uses the storefront, the monthly census instead uses a small percentage of participants who’ve opted in as a sample. It’s anything but representative of all 154 million active users, meaning the statistic above isn’t an absolute.
Does the author know how *survey sample sizes work?
Do I?
Is it because it’s opt in or opt out?
If it’s not cheaper than a PS5 I don’t think it’s gonna catch on unfortunately. Xbox is obviously defunct by now but the ps has much much more wide ranging awareness than Steam. And to compete with that they’ll need more than “it’s twice as expensive but a little prettier” to the layman.
I strongly doubt it’ll be comparable in price to the PS5. They’re sold at a loss by Sony. Valve has already made it clear they are not doing the same.
On my Linux box or steam deck I can play latest cuttongbedge games, random bullshit going back yo the 70s, and any indie game off itch.io
It’s got a pretty good back catalog advantage.
Twice as expensive? Cheaper than $700 is not twice as expensive as $500.
Sure, it’d be nice if it were $500 or less, but from what I understand, it isn’t possible (I’d love to be proven wrong). PS is able to sell hardware at a loss to then recoup that loss in game sales. The Steam Machine is a PC. You don’t have to buy anything from Steam to use it after you buy it. It cannot be sold at a loss - though I wouldn’t be surprised to see Steam Machine packaged with games during sales to make it a better value for the same cost or something.
Moving from fact to opinion, I think the steam machine, for under $700, could be considered a better value than a PS or Xbox, for two reasons. The first is Steam Sales - you’ll probably save a couple hundred bucks as compared to buying the same games on a console. Secondly, and more importantly, it’s not only a gaming console for your living room, but also a PC for your living room as, when combined with the Steam Controller, I can’t think of a better way to use a full desktop on my TV. The SteamDeck track pads make it totally practical to use a normal desktop without a mouse and keyboard. They’re amazing for mousing, scrolling, and typing. I’ll probably buy it for that alone - though the lack of support for DRM protected media might force me to continue using my Xbox as a media console - though I might also tell media platforms where to shove their DRM, becuase it obviously isn’t working if I can acquire their media from other sources.
Tl;dr: it will likely be more expensive, as it can’t be sold at a loss or tight margins - but cheaper games and the fact that it’s a full fledged PC for your TV could make the additional cost make sense.
You’re missing a big factor in value: PlayStation requires a subscription just to use online multiplayer. PC games don’t. If someone buys a Steam Machine, even if they were the same price and same specs that person would be saving >$100 every year
I haven’t used consoles for gaming in so long I forgot about that haha, good point.
You missed the point where I said for the LAYMAN. Average user. Idiot consumer looking for a console for their kid or whatever. That’s how things take off. Yeah it might be great for people who know things but if it doesn’t grab the suburban mom market even a little then it’s probably not going anywhere too far.
You probably do have a point there. The SteamDeck did manage to make it to the point where people that couldn’t give a rats ass about Linux have picked them up, so I’d say it’s possible, though maybe not likely.