It's Time to Bring Back the Steam Machine - Steam Deck HQ
steamdeckhq.com
With all the layoffs and industry volatility, I think now is a great time to consider bringing back the Steam Machine, with a few changes.
  • wvstolzing@lemmy.ml
    942·
    6 months ago

    But they’re already back! The Steam Deck is the resurrected Steam Machine.

    • cron@feddit.de
      252·
      6 months ago

      It seems sort of a waste of resources to use a steam deck as a stationary device. However, I don’t think there is a really large market for a console-like steam machine.

      • wvstolzing@lemmy.ml
        172·
        6 months ago

        Right; a stationary Steam Machine (upgradable, etc.) would be a desktop PC running SteamOS, which should probably remain outside the purview of Valve’s hardware division.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          14·
          6 months ago

          on the other hand something as sleek, cheap and ready to go out of the box as consoles, with guaranteed support for a while AND the biggest library of games on release? that could bring a lot of console people over to “PC” if done correctly. or market it more as a streaming server, that would be cool too.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
            6·
            6 months ago

            It would need to be priced aggressively and have competitive specs to get enough volume of sales to justify building. They’d also need a new controller.

            But if you want that, wouldn’t you just buy a pre built from literally anywhere and install Steam and enable big picture mode? That’s really not that hard, I do it on my laptop for when my kids want to play on the big screen.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
              3·
              6 months ago

              i havent looked into them in a while but arent they more expensive? reducing cost is realistic if valve could pull off the same punch as a steamdeck by using similar but better powered SoCs, or be able to sell at a loss as a calculated risk to get people spending on steam. sony and microsoft do it and it works.

              make it convertible as a computer, like the deck is and as upgradable as possible (at least a gpu slot pls!) and you got an easy low cost linux based introduction to the pc ecosystem. with all money going to portables i dunno if they would do it but it would change that part of the game, it would certainly make it more open.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                2·
                6 months ago

                Their SOC makes sense in the Steam Deck because it’s running at a lower resolution. If you try to run at 1080p, you’ll get significantly worse performance, and that’s kind of the bare minimum resolution for a console.

                Valve would need a significantly stronger SOC to run on a home console, and it would likely need to be stronger than what’s in existing consoles because they don’t get the benefit of devs targeting that SOC.

                I’m guessing they’d need to sell for ~$800 for it to make any sense. That’s quite a bit more than existing consoles, but it’s a competitive price for a gaming PC. And I’m guessing the market for a Steam console is a lot smaller than a handheld.

        • Patch@feddit.uk
          2·
          6 months ago

          A small set-top box (essentially a Steam Deck with the screen, controls and batteries removed, and with components that don’t have the space restrictions that come with a mobile device) would still be an interesting proposition. Particularly if they partnered with the main video streaming services to port their apps across, and implemented Chromecast/AirPlay support.

          I can see a market for it, as a “Chromecast and Apple TV competitor that also plays all your games”.

          • Belgdore@lemm.ee
            4·
            6 months ago

            This is what nvidia did with the shield, and they don’t make a mobile version anymore. The set top box was just that successful.

        • Trarmp
          1·
          6 months ago

          What resolution do you use it at? How do activate FSR on TV resolutions? I’ve tried it once or twice but my TV is 4K, and that makes the interface and games on the Deck kinda sluggish.

          • jsomae@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 months ago

            I have an old low-res TV. Never thought about the problem you’re encountering. :s

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
      161·
      6 months ago

      If I’m going to game stationary, something with more than 10W of horsepower would be nice.

      I agree that the steam machine was too early. People hadn’t been fully disillusioned by the planned obsolescence of their console libraries yet. Today, in a world of $600+ consoles that are impossible to find within 2 years of their release, hardly any worthwhile exclusives, and Nintendo trying to make you repurchase the old games at full price again, a steam console could potentially sweep the industry.

      • abbenm@lemmy.ml
        1·
        6 months ago

        I agree that the steam machine was too early.

        I don’t know how it could ever start from zero without having to go through a growing stage. I think it was just necessary to have modest expectations, and so far as I can tell, valve partnered with third party vendors and didn’t lose $$$ on it.

        Moreover, the downstream effect has been to set the foundation for the Steam Deck, which has been a smashing success. It just takes time to build up a mature ecosystem.

  • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
    212·
    6 months ago

    Makes sense, except for “one model”. I think it would be better to have two options.

    One low cost, thinking mini pc with integrated gpu (like steamdeck) for casual gamers, 2d gaming, old game®s, etc. Would also be perfect as “home office” PC or media consumption device.

    Second one would be bigger and stronger with dedicated GPU capable of “real” gaming and running all the modern games. Yes, powerful hardware is expensive, but serious gaming is no cheap thing…

  • espiritu_p@kbin.social
    16·
    6 months ago

    I don’t think that’s the job of Valve.
    They tried to push Linux gaming a decade ago by providing a Linux distribution optimized for gaming and invited hardware vendors to sell machines with that distri.

    At that time a gaming optimized distribution was hardly needed, so they were pioneers at the time.
    And they still maintain their SteamOS, although it is only supported on Steam Decks.

    But there has so many happened since then. Gaming Hardware is working from Day 1 with Linux. Proton - wich is supported by Valve - is supporting latest games on Linux, mostly from Day 1. At least if the developers don’t actively sabotage it.
    As a result we don’t have that one SteamOS distribution which would ultimately put us in dependece from Valve. We have several different gaming optimized distributions that you can use.

    It’s great that Valve does so much for Linux gaming, but I don’t want them to manage everything.

    • brisk@aussie.zone
      2·
      6 months ago

      And they still maintain their SteamOS, although it is only supported on Steam Decks.

      It’s not important, but there is no connection between the original Steam OS and there new one. The original was an Ubuntu derivative, and there new one is an Arch derivative.

  • testman@lemmy.ml
    84·
    6 months ago

    Ctrl+F Deckard - 0 results
    does author know about the Deckard thing that Valve is supposedly working on?
    from what I understand, it will be some kind of Steam Machine with focus on In-Home Streaming.