Valve Starts Listing The Steam Machines In The Steam Store

[eidolon]

Most steam machines have terrible price/performance ratio.

I have multiple theories:

1. It's bundled with hardware +/or software like a console is
2. Niche: low stock, higher price
3. Size. Some of these are really compact
4. Labour to get these set up and working okay

5. When factoring in their costs, of which labor is only one, the manufacturers have to profit from what they sell. For a historical example, "Unfortunately since the profit for manufacturers had to come from the sale of the hardware itself – all other consoles were sold at a reduced price for a loss and software sales would close the gap for profits – and the 3DO sold for the staggering price of $700." While the 3DO manufactures didn't have the benefit of build-to-order, they didn't have to contend with DIY system builders either. People may rightly contend that Steam Machines aren't consoles, but they are marketed as gaming platforms, so I don't think the 3DO example is completely without merit.

Regardless of how the Steam Machines fare, Valve will continue to do gangbusters. Valve's future isn't the elephant in the room.

[r1348]

Too expensive and little game selection so you're going to be streaming anyway -- might as well just get the Steam Link.

Now if Valve had done something to make SteamOS amazing and given it a clear advantage over Windows, or did something really incredible like bundle some amazing highly-anticipated games with their console, people would be excited.

But they didn't.

GabeN made very clear since the beginning he didn't want to create new lock-ins. SteamOS exists for that one purpose!

[MartinN]

GabeN made very clear since the beginning he didn't want to create new lock-ins. SteamOS exists for that one purpose!

They are out to slay Goliath. And Goliath was slayed. Valve will slay Goliath. My bet anyway...

[AnonymousCoward]

5. When factoring in their costs, of which labor is only one, the manufacturers have to profit from what they sell. For a historical example, "Unfortunately since the profit for manufacturers had to come from the sale of the hardware itself ? all other consoles were sold at a reduced price for a loss and software sales would close the gap for profits ? and the 3DO sold for the staggering price of $700." While the 3DO manufactures didn't have the benefit of build-to-order, they didn't have to contend with DIY system builders either. People may rightly contend that Steam Machines aren't consoles, but they are marketed as gaming platforms, so I don't think the 3DO example is completely without merit.

Regardless of how the Steam Machines fare, Valve will continue to do gangbusters. Valve's future isn't the elephant in the room.

Interesting observations.

[tehehe]

Some of them are actually great value:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2y8093/steamboxes_compared_in_price_to_pc_builds/

[moilami]

Those platforms actually have game exclusives to set them apart and, more importantly, they are the first target for new game releases.

Steam Machines have five-year-old retreads.





The point is................ there is a catch-22 here. Developers are not going to target Steam Machines unless it's an important platform, and that requires a lot of immediate interest up front so that it would take off rather than crash land. So Valve needed to generate a lot of interest in Steam Machines. But they didn't. They brought a knife to a gunfight.

I might guess Shitbox have the most shitty gamers. That said, things might depend a bit on what games you play. Stop playing CoD

[eidolon]

Some of them are actually great value:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac..._to_pc_builds/

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[slalomsk8er]

As you said, the ZOTAC EN760 is what remains of what seemingly was going to be ZOTAC's first gen Steam Machine, until delays made that unfeasible. As such, it isn't officially branded or marketed as a Steam Machine, and ZOTAC has announced the SN970. The barebone (no memory, no HDD) EN760 was launched at $549.99, and the EN760 Plus (8GB DDR3L-1600MHz SODIMM, 1TB 5400RPM HDD) was launched at $699.99.

The aforementioned aside, a few follow-up research questions:
Do you have SteamOS installed?
If SteamOS is installed, do you use desktop mode regularly?
You are dual-booting with Windows and were already a Steam customer, correct?

No I didn't install SteamOS but with Debian and Steam client it is close I guess.
I spend quite some time watching streams and checking Emails so guess I'm more on the Desktop then in Bigpicture mode this said I really enjoy the Bigpicture to use Steam with the PS3 controller.
Yes I'm dual-booting with Windows and I'm a existing Steam customer.