Originally posted by efikkan
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At that, Steam Machines aren't meant to have anything to do with PC gaming. They are meant to solve several ongoing problems with how Sony and MS are developing consoles:
- The release cycle is very long, so your hardware can start out "too good" for developers to use properly, and quickly becomes obsolete (because of the low specs required to meet <$500 price targets) that immediately start holding game fidelity behind.
- It is a one size fits all solution, and on the other side of the spectrum is the desktop computer where you can customize it extensively on a per part basis. There really is no practical middle market until Steam Machines to meet the crowd that wants prebaked systems at multiple price points, unless you consider a prebuilt desktop you just stick behind your TV and have to set up yourself (the key point) as filling that gap. I don't.
- Due to the way the platform is devised, it is unlikely Valve will ever need to change architectures and thus all games will remain backwards compatible for much longer in the same way Windows games usually outlast their playability relative to each console generation. And even then you can usually emulate older OS features appropriately to run older games, and the Steam Runtime gives Valve a static target they can permanantly support - if they ever have a backwards breaking update, they can just have parallel runtimes, one for newer titles and previous versions for older ones at the ready.
Consoles as a concept are ostensibly outdated. In the 80s and 90s using specialized hardware to minimize cost for games made sense, but when you have a console generation where all three are effectively PCs (the Wii U is just powerpc based instead, while Xbone and PS4 are literally crippled x86 desktops) it is time to bite the bullet and realize the architecture - complete control of everything by the console vendor - just does not make sense anymore. It stunts game development to their time tables and their incentives (platform exclusives, milking the same hardware as long as possible, locking out fundamental computer functionality like network features behind paywalls) are entirely against the consumers interest, it just takes a sufficiently powerful player to upset that status quo.
I really do hope Steam Machines kill consoles. If the user experience is identical, but without any of the negative effects of the single device per company model, it should bleed the market dry, especially considering how economical Steam already is considering all its sales.
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