Last year at CES in Las Vegas, Valve finally announced its long-rumored Steam Machine platform, designed to bring the PC gaming experience into your living room. At the time, the appeal was obvious: a small PC that fits under your television and lets you play the thousands of games on Steam from the comfort of your couch. It even looked like a unified platform that could help simplify the notoriously complex world of PC gaming, making it accessible to a more casual audience. But one year later, the appeal is less clear.
You’re not having deja vu. Six years after launching a line of Linux game consoles that went down as one of the biggest tech flops of the past decade, Valve is trying once again. Only this time, its Steam Machine dreams and unusual touchpads have been rolled into a 7-inch handheld PC that looks and works like a Nintendo Switch.
Here are six reasons why this isn’t Steam Machines all over again — and, a few brand-new reasons to be skeptical.
Steam Deck comes from a company with a mixed reputation for hardware.
Valve may very well have a hit on its hands — but many fans thought the same thing back in 2014.
At least they're trying. They could just keep pulling an EGS. I think this is Valve's answer to cloud gaming, though. I don't think they want gamers streaming from the cloud, they want them on their storefront. So, if that's their reason, they'll likely support this more than they have past endeavors.
I feel they want to start the new era of portable PC gaming. They said they would offer the customized steam os for free to any companies that want to make their own portable machine.
Somebody had to get the ball rolling is what I took from that statement lol excited for the future with handhelds since I'm a primarily handheld gamer.
The hype around this thing is wild to me. It screams “new toy to use for a few months but then go play steam on my pc”
We will see. The market is unpredictable. You cannot rule out the power of a platform with good exclusive games and even when I don't support Nintendo anymore there is no denying the power of its exclusive games.
Valve, the company behind the Steam platform, spoke boldly about its SteamOS plans in the past. It was all about creating an operating system designed from the ground-up for gaming and adding this operating system to hardware known as Steam Machines.
PC gamers probably wont touch it not when they already have a PC.
This might interest them if they are looking for HTPCs. Though many of us already have those. Plus with an HTPC we already can play any game we bought on our main rig.
So really this might just be a machine suited to a newer audience looking to gain an entry into PC gaming without having to go through the hassle of building one themselves.
console gamers scared by keyboard+mouse, pc rig configurations and os's
and pc gamers..bored of keyboard+mouse, pc configurations and os's
It's a niche product. I don' tthink they will ever make a very large impact.
Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks. Tough kids, sissy kids. Even kids with chicken pox.
Snooty people, I'll stick to my DESKTOP PC thanks :)
$6000 for a steam machine wtfhehebbq...