Steam Machines

[Bob The Skutter]

Valve are now advertising Steam Machines via their Steam store. There are various machines at various prices. Check it out.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

 

[Reverend]

Some of those are *way* over priced. Unless you're totally mechanically inept you can build your own for half the cost. Some of them also seem to have some very bizarre configurations. The Gigabyte one is especially weird. £460 odd for an i7 and a notebook grade GPU? What's the target market for that exactly?

I thought the whole point of these things was to be competitive with the console market. Compared to the price of a PS4 or X-Bone most of these offer very poor value for money, bordering on a rip-off. It was bad enough when Valve refused to curate their game store and permitted a flood of junk early access games, now they're doing the same thing with hardware?

If they're looking to push adoption of Steam OS, this is probably a very bad way to go about it.

 

[Kemaiku]

Yeesh, even the most expensive ones barely match the XBOne nevermind the PS4, but for several times the price?

No thanks.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I could plug my fairly basic laptop in to the TV, get a decent performance and it cost nowhere near those prices.

 

[Reverend]

On that note, the Steam Link thing looks fairly good, assuming it can perform well over wi-fi. Would be even better if it came bundled with a Steam Controller for a net discount (i.e. five or ten quid less than buying both separately.) Doubly so considering that this is what the majority of the install base who already have halfway competent gaming rigs are going to want over one of those overpriced Steam Machines.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I didn't realize they'd be so expensive. That kind of puts it out of the price range of what most people would be able to afford. For that price, I'd much more comfortable gaming on my PC and be able to upgrade it along the way, something I already do. Are these even upgradeable?

 

[Jax]

Valve trying to be Apple of the gaming world I see with those ridiculous over priced machines.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Valve don't produce any of the machines, there all third party, so not so much trying to be apple as not setting a standard.

 

[Rincewiend]

so a couple of companies get a license from Valve to produce SteamOS machines and than decide to overprice them?!?
Yeah, can't say i'm shocked...

 

[Reverend]

You'd think Valve would have a tighter reign on things to prevent companies from overcharging to this degree. I mean it's their brand slapped on the outside of this and it's their OS they're trying to push with this.

At the very least, perhaps they should have partnered with one of these companies to make a flagship product that was priced a bit below the new-gen consoles, with specs equal to or a bit better.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think the flagship I'd the Alienware models but I could be wrong.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I already have my own steam machine, i threw my old I3 core, mobo, 8gig memory, spare 320gig HDD and my old GTX 560 into a £30 pc case, and whalllaaaa.......nice steam box that runs almost everything at 1080p via big screen.

 

[Kelthaz]

Who exactly would be the market for these things? People who like PC gaming, have plenty of disposable income, dislike actually playing on a computer or a laptop, and lack the technical knowledge to hook up their computer to their TV. Yeah, that's like a good dozen people or so.

It's the Nvidia Shield all over again.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'd be quite happy to buy one if it was cheaper.

 

[Kelthaz]

Yeah, so would I. I was interested when I thought the machines would be priced competitively with consoles.

 

[SPCTRE]

Yeah, Kelthaz pretty much nailed it, the main thrust of this venture demographics-wise remains a mystery. There's no apparent target audience here.

Not even if they were priced competitively with current-gen consoles would I be interested. Like the majority of enthusiasts, I'll always prefer a machine that I've built myself.

People who don't like to do that and would like a living-room alternative that's not a current-gen console aren't going to exhibit the amount of elasticity required to fork over that amount of cash.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Personally I like the idea of having access to my steam library with a controller in hand and can't be arsed building a rig for it but I'm not willing to fork over that sort of money.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, as Alienware have proven by their continued existence, there is a market for a turn-key solution for PC gaming. Those not willing or confident enough to build their own machine are willing to pay a premium for that extra convenience...however, a 200% mark up is just taking the piss.

It should also be noted that with Steam OS these things are *only* good for gaming. If my PC could only access the internet or email via the steam client interface and be incapable of playing non-steam games...well let's just say I'd sooner switch to a mac & PS4 combo.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

There's nothing to stop you installing Windows is there? And Steam OS is a full blown Linux client with a desktop, just Steam is their default interface, isn't it? And they're also working on bringing other entertainment and apps to the Steam interface.

I doubt there's anything to stop you installing Windows or another OS on there and dual booting if you wanted to.

 

[Reverend]

Oh sure, but like I said, for those looking for a turn-key solution, it would mean more fiddling around (and expense) they're probably not inclined to do and like with the hardware, those who are inclined would probably just build their own machine at half the price.