Steam Boxes

[Musicman247]

So what do you guys think? All of them cost more than any of the current consoles and won't play many of the games you already own right away. Is this a viable alternative to the console market? Are you interested in any of them? Will this boost PC sales (assuming you can call a Steam Box a PC)?

If you haven't heard about the 13 Steam Boxes announced, here they are with announced prices: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/2 ... alve-s.htm

[The SheoDovah]

The price tag is too high and to be honest, it's not worth getting a Steam Box. You can build or buy a high end PC for around a thousand quid/dollars. It's a good concept but poorly excuted and i suspect most will just stick with their gaming PCs instead of buying the Steam Box. And the name makes it sounds like a console instead of a Steam OS PC.

[Iamgoofball]

I'll probably just end up buying a steam controller and using it on my computer.

[AKB]

I don't think anyone was expecting this when they announced Steam Boxes. I figured while there might be a pricier one or two, that the majority would be competitively priced to go against consoles. What we got are basically just a bunch of pre-built PCs, in a market where anyone who has half a clue what they're doing can build a pretty powerful computer for about the price of a console anyway. So you're not appealing to people who want a simple pre-built computer or console, or the high-end enthusiasts. I'm not sure how this will work out for Valve. While Valve doesn't stand to lose money over this at the moment, due to them not being responsible for anything but the OS and controller, I don't think this is what they wanted. I think more people will go the route Iamgoofball says he will, and just buy the controller to use with their current PC.

That's not to say I disagree with the mission, getting more people off of Windows seems to be the underlying point of this affair, but this is not the best way to do it at the moment. As long as traditional PCs and consoles can be bought at a lower price, I do not see where the market for these will come from.

[Orz]

The main reason that Steam machines are so much more expensive than consoles is that most consoles are actually sold at a loss. The profit is made from selling games. Steam machines can't use this method since companies other than valve are the ones making the actual machines and they also need to make a profit. Also, the quality of the parts in the more expensive Steam Machines are way better than whats in other consoles. I agree that pre-built Steam machines are completely pointless to anyone who knows how to build a PC. But a lot of people buy pre-built gaming PCs so why wouldn't they buy pre-built Steam Machines? One complaint I've heard a lot about SteamOS is that not enough games have been ported to run on it. This is a real problem, but VALVe could be at least partially, if not completely, solve this using WINE run windows programs.

I think I read somewhere the real reason valve started steam machines was because they realized that they were completely dependent on Micro$oft. M$ could easily exploit valve, like make them have to pay ridiculous fees to have Steam run on Windows 8, and valve wouldn't be able to do anything about it since they essentially don't have any major market outside of windows. Not only this, but M$ probably wants to run Steam into the ground since it competes on some level with their precious xbone. That's the real reason why VALVe wants to move to Linux, not because of its innately superior qualities. Steam Machines are just the way VALVe is trying to get gamers to switch to Linux so VALVe can be free from the clutches of M$.

And the name makes it sounds like a console instead of a Steam OS PC.

Not to be rude, but what difference is there between a console and a pc besides the way they are marketed? Consoles are just underpowered PCs that have a really simple OS and don't allow third party programs.

[Thuro Pendragon]

Well I hate Steam so I'm never going to buy it. But that might just be me. They force you into being online which I hate. I just miss the good old days when you buy the games out of the store.

[Orz]

Steam doesn't force you to be online (you can set it so it always starts into offline mode) so I don't think the steam boxes are going to do that either. And last I checked, stores still sell boxed copies of games.

[Thuro Pendragon]

Steam only lets you be offline for two little weeks before you have to connect to the internet again.

[Orz]

The two week time limit is a myth. Valve has clearly stated that offline mode is designed to work indefinitely.

This is not actually true - Offline Mode is designed to be indefinite. You can't access any of Steam's online features such as friends lists or saved game synchronization, of course, but the client should allow you to run in Offline Mode for as long as you like.

That said, there are many components involved in Offline Mode, and some of them have known issues and bugs which we are continually working to improve. We're aware that it doesn't always work as flawlessly as we want it to, but please keep reporting bugs with Offline Mode. It is not broken 'by design'.

[Iamgoofball]

My internet was out for the day, and logging in but not connecting to steam servers lets you start with Offline mode enabled. You might have to do it a couple times, but the option is there.

Only the multiplayer games really need a connection.

Games like Civ V, GMOD, CS:S, etc. can all be run locally with no issues.