With Microsoft out of the game, could Steam get a hold of its share of the market?
>entire Steam library in one console
>steam machine
>VR ready
>Steam Deck hybrid model
>moding
>can use any controller
>gamepass
RUMOR: Valve will replace Microsoft in the console market
sounds like the death of sovl
easy pc gaming for consoleplebs
No paid online either
These machines already exist.
No one wants them.
Brainwashing tends to cause that.
You just don't own shit no matter how much you spend, you're entirely dependent on internet for your games, and the real-world value of what you have is $0.
didn't ask
Physicalgays are so fricking dumb I swear to god.
https://gog-games.to/
This homieh is worried about his video games during a world apocalypse
My 40TB RAID6 says otherwise
The important thing isn't having "physical copies" it's having easily accessible local copies that you can ensure don't bitrot
imagine thinking you own literally anything when you don't know literally anything in the operating system and you have to pay for basic online functionality
>and the real-world value of what you have is $0.
wow what a coincidence
that's exactly how much your moronic little cds are worth to anyone who actually plays games instead of treating them like a status symbol like a reddit lunatic
A lot of physical gays turn out to be scalpers
there are digital-only games that work offline
there are physical copy games that don't work without connecting to a central server
physical is a red haring in games preservation
NOOO YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR YOUR PLUS PASS MEMBERSHIP!!
Remember that gatekeeping has a purpose.
There are hundreds of millions of PC gamers already
No.
I guess they could make valve games exclusive
It doesn't need exclusives. Look at the most popular and top selling games on every platform. It's always the same few live-service games. COD, Fifa, Apex Legends, RS Siege, Destiny 2, Fortnite etc. People don't give a shit about exclusives anymore. What they want is a cheap machine that can play those live service games at good graphics and performance. Steam Deck 2 with a dock to play on a monitor/pc, and a steambox mini PC could be a viable competition to PS and Nintendo.
Then why is the PS5 outselling the Series S despite being double the price?
Shouldn't you be comparing it to the Series X instead of the series S?
Console gamers are cattle anyways. Series S X and PS5 all play CoD and Fifa the same. That anon saying exclusives don't matter is partly wrong otherwise Series S would be the leading console this gen due to its rapid availability and affordability.
Xbox is winning wherever it competes. It only competes in NA and it beat Playstation there. Microsoft doesnt care about selling Xboxes, their vision is like Amazon or Netflix or Windows. They want everyone locked into gamepass. Their endgame is to have even fanboys from the other consoles hooked into gamepass
If that's their mission why the frick does their game pass sucks so much, I got a free pass month with a controller I bought and I can't even find a fricking decent shmup/platformer on the gamepass
I know. Sadly most people still don't understand this despite Xbox making it obvious for years now.
>Steam machine
they tried that, didn't work
>VR ready
too expensive
>Steamdeck hybrid
??? that's just a steamdeck
>moding
What?
>can use any controller
What?
>Gamepass
again, what?
>these many whats
moronic by chance?
>Steam machine
>they tried that, didn't work
It was a disaster because they relied on their name only and expected developers and publishers to do the hard lifting of making their games work on Linux. There was no Proton at that time, if you wanted to play 95% of your library you had to install the Windows version of Steam in Wine, and games working was pretty much a coin toss because there was no DXVK either. The situation is vastly different now as proven by the Deck.
machine
>>they tried that, didn't work
Especially in this day and age, people dont want to buy new hardware, instead let them use what they already have and import their windows install to a new OS using everything they already have.
The problem with that is hardware compatibility. Not all hardware vendors are interested in supporting Linux and there's jack shit you can do about it if they're not willing to open up the specs either for FOSS nerds to make their own drivers. That's why the idea of Steam machines was decent, prebuilt PCs that are supposed to be guaranteed to have hardware that works on Linux. It's also why the Deck works so well, Valve specifically chose hardware that works well.
>they tried that, didn't work
With the first-gen Steam Machines, Valve tried a Windows-like business model, trying to get PC OEMs on board to license trademarks, ship an unmodified SteamOS image, and make those systems 'consoles'. They had problems, like OEMs choosing to ship Nvidia hardware, where Nvidia had zero interest in working with Valve, and the lack of Vulkan, or developer support. If that had been it, Valve could have iterated publicly, but the project freaked Microsoft out, and they used terms in their contracts with the OEMs to shut down the pilot program. They even went as far as 'licensing' an invalidly granted patent owned by a troll to attack Valve to kill the Steam Controller.
The second-gen Steam Machine was an in-house development project which used AMD hardware, Vulkan, Wine, and eventually Wine+DXVK which we now know as Proton. This was going on while Valve got the controller patent invalidated.
The third-gen Steam Machine is the Steam Deck, which took everything Valve learned from their internal development programs, and put it into hardware they owned, on an OS crafted to avoid any legal problems Microsoft could conceivably use to try to derail things.
Fourth-gen is rumored to be a PC that can act as either a wireless base station for a new VR headset, or be connected to a TV.
As we just saw with Aya, Microsoft is still forcing OEMs to only sell Windows on their systems, even when it doesn't make sense, so Valve likely is going to lean in more on the 'console' style business model where they sell hardware directly.
>As we just saw with Aya, Microsoft is still forcing OEMs to only sell Windows on their systems
How does Microsoft force anyone to do anything LMFAO?
Because a Contract is a Contract, is a Contract.
OEMs want a lower price for Windows. So they sign an agreement with Microsoft that gives them that.
However the fine print of that agreement, adds additional terms on them, that the OEM may not have realized the scope of.
The OEM has to comply, or lose that lower price, and there may also be a penalty for breaking the contract early.
This is what bit both Dell, and Aya. They both sell Windows. They both signed Microsoft OEM contracts.
Microsoft has been pulling this shit for decades, all that has changed is how the contract forces compliance.
You are a fricking child LMFAO.
>However the fine print of that agreement, adds additional terms on them, that the OEM may not have realized the scope of.
This goes through legal review. I understand that you think Aya is a naive small company, but do you also think that Dell doesn't have a legal department? Are you fricking moronic?
Nobody except Valve is putting Linooox on their systems, because it's a dogshit OS for gaming and because hardware manufacturers don't care if Valve loses its market dominance of the PC App Store for Games market, you fricking autist.
>do you also think that Dell doesn't have a legal department?
Compared to Microsoft's lawyers, Dell, or Aya's legal teams look incredibly small and underfunded. Microsoft is a Law Firm, that happens to have a side business making software. People forget William H Gates III was the scion of a family of Lawyers, and that his major business innovation, was locking IBM, the 800lbs Gorilla of the 70s and 80s, into a contract that made them buy his software for PCs. All because they weren't really paying attention to a product that they initially though would be an unimportant market, so they didn't care.
Also, as you say Microsoft has them over a barrel. They don't want to take a risk on selling GNU/Linux hardware that might potentially cost them millions of dollars in licensing and legal fees around their contracts with Microsoft.
Which is why the only companies that are really running mainstream Linux platforms for end users are Google, and Valve. Companies who have no business contracts with Microsoft, and who can make their platforms work in a way that makes them robust against Microsoft's legal threats.
>You are a fricking child LMFAO.
On the contrary, I've been around long enough to see exactly how Microsoft enforced their dominance in the past.
They may be a shadow of their former selves today, but they are still primarily contract-oriented and not software-oriented.
Which is why Microsoft hires the cheapest developers, but Ivy League Lawyers.
>Compared to Microsoft's lawyers, Dell, or Aya's legal teams look incredibly small and underfunded.
Another moron who thinks that contract law is magic. You are so laughably wrong, it's painful to read.
>Which is why the only companies that are really running mainstream Linux platforms for end users are Google, and Valve. Companies who have no business contracts with Microsoft
I absolutely guarantee you that both Valve and Google have a bunch of "business contracts with Microsoft".
>They may be a shadow of their former selves today
>largest company in the world with a USD 3 trillion dollar market cap
Just.
>I absolutely guarantee you that both Valve and Google have a bunch of "business contracts with Microsoft".
Not to buy Windows as an OEM though.
>largest company in the world with a USD 3 trillion dollar market cap
That is from the Enterprise market, where Microsoft is a Linux Cloud vendor. We're talking about end-user platforms.
>Another moron who thinks that contract law is magic.
Not at all, Microsoft's reliance on illegal terms was what got them into trouble in the 90s. Their innovation was basing their most onerous terms on legal grants from the Government.
Nobody can argue Microsoft doesn't have patents that cover Windows, so obviously OEMs have to agree to license Microsoft's patents.
The problem is that the patent license separate from Windows costs the same or more than the Windows license.
So the path of least resistance for OEMs who have signed the contract, is to just sell Windows.
company in the world with a USD 3 trillion dollar market cap
>That is from the Enterprise market, where Microsoft is a Linux Cloud vendor. We're talking about end-user platforms.
Check the 10K, you fricking mongoloid.
Yes, and what that shows is that Gaming, and Windows are the 3rd or 4th priority for Microsoft respectively, where almost all of the Windows revenue comes from licensing Windows for business systems.
If Microsoft was just the 'end-user Windows' or 'Xbox' company, they'd be smaller than a number of Linux companies.
Which is why there are the continual rumors Microsoft is dropping the Xbox, or exiting the end-user market entirely.
Microsoft can have an OS for business customers, without providing an OS that works for PC gaming users can pirate.
>Nobody except Valve is putting Linooox on their systems
False. HP, Dell and Lenovo all sell Linux preloaded on their business/developer offerings nowadays as an option.
There's no chance that they're going to release the next one as a wireless headset base station for VR as steam VR on Linux is complete dogshit and valve practically doesn't support it.
Information about the SteamOS headset project "Deckard" leaks out all the time because Valve commits their changes to the upstream Linux kernel, and Mesa driver projects.
Valve developers just got spotted adding wireless VR headset support to SteamOS.
Valve-time applies, but the odds are good that is what they are cooking.
Unless they decide to sell Apple Vision Pro style system.
>a whaaa *donkey noise*
You right now
English, motherfricker, do you speak it?
No Fortnite and no Epic store?
Dead on arrival, Timmy would annihilate Valve if they released their own console.
Steam Deck is already the Steam Machine but better. The only thing I would care for from it would be a Steam Controller 2.0.
>*dualboots wangblows on 'eck*
now what timmy tencent?
Also how the frick is Epic going to develop a UMPC? They can barely make a functioning storefront, in what fricking world do you think that they'll be able to pull off hardware development?
>monitor
?
It's the perfect emulation machine, and Steam Input allows for PC games to be played pretty damn good on a controller. Just plug it into a TV so you don't have to deal with the battery and use a DualSense controller for the touchpad radial dials and gyro controls, or any other controller. Big Picture Mode is very good on TV nowadays.
>digital only
Do you still use DVD/Bluray discs on your PC?
>Do you still use DVD/Bluray discs on your PC?
Yes
>Viper
have a nice day my man
Viper was cute and funny
You need to go back. Viper is classic.
What for it's great sadly pink one didn't get many scenes.
Frick I miss sogna so much.
peak taste.
>Also how the frick is Epic going to develop a UMPC? They can barely make a functioning storefront, in what fricking world do you think that they'll be able to pull off hardware development?
China. If Soujaboy can have a console, so can Timmy
Nah, they could license out the HW manufacturing to someone though. With everything basically being x86 letting vendors basically steam machine 'like' HW to distribute could be a huge win for MS.
>set min specs requirement for vendors
>outsource support to PC makers
>sell specialized OS to vendors to install on HW
>reap all cash without any R&D
>they could license out
they did that 10 years ago moron-kun and it was a disaster. Now Valve doesn't trust anyone and GabeN has been quoted saying he wants Valve to be more like Nintendo and take full control of the delivery system from end to end
I mean Microsoft doing it, they have more than enough industry pull to set things up compared to how valve completely half assed it.
Microsoft could release something like that. Maybe call it microsoft direct x machine and install steam os on it!
Microsoft tried this with Windows Phone and it was a disaster and at the last minute they tried to take full control of the production pipeline before shelving the project.
Outsourcing is always worse.
>Microsoft
>learning from mistakes
pick one
They also tried this with MP3 players as their first attempt at competing with the iPod. It was an even bigger failure than the Zune.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Media_Center
It's been proven time and time again that the average consumer wants a recognizable product, not a licensing program with 30 different brands all selling the same shit. The only reason that model works with PCs is because it's grandfathered in.
>they could license out the HW manufacturing to someone though.
They did it with the Steam Machines, which was one of the reasons it failed.
Steam Deck was made in-house and it came out great, I prefer that.
Also because there was no Proton at that time.
>the major problem they face is nvidia being frickfaces with their proprietary linux driver.
I can see 2 possible ending to this:
>Future Steam Machines & Decks will be always team AMD.
>NVK will become the standard for gaming on Linux.
>I wonder if that would be a good thing or not?
All of Valve's contributions are FOSS and upstreamed, then it falls to the distro maintainers to keep up the pace.
>Nah, they could license out
I can't think of a single time this hasn't failed miserably. Steam Machine, Nuon, 3DO, Mac clones, etc.
what a stupid post. steam machines were already a thing and Steam Deck is already "hybrid"
Remember Steam Machines?
The problem with the Steam Machine was that having multiple vendors is off-putting and the costs couldn't be directly offset by Valve.
Problem with steam machines was that pc people didn't want one. Console people didn't want one. People with pc and consoles didn't want one.
Steam deck at least have appeal to like 0.5% of the pc crowd
Steam Deck has appeal to most people because the interface is very console like and easy to navigate.
Steam machine had the exact same interface.
Hell no, Valve has massively overhauled BPM since the time of steam machines, and the biggest change has been advancements in the proton compatability layer that lets most games run on linux.
>Steam machine had the exact same interface.
I don't know why you would post something so objectively false.
You would want one if it was more powerful and cheaper than a PS6 with no caveats.
>pc people didn't want one
Because they were extremely overpriced. Like, over $1000 for an i3 and a 750Ti.
Steam Machines sold by Valve at cost could be successful... but how do they stop people from buying them for productivity?
There are ways and you nerds won't like none of them.
Of course there are ways: they'd need to lock the system down, like a console. But at that point they're no longer selling a PC.
Unpopular opinion: Microsoft did everything right this generations... except for the most important part, make good games. Their hardware is better (faster, smaller, more efficient, same price as a PS5), their services are better (GamePass, Xbox Cloud, cross-play with PC, backwards compatibility). All they needed were good games, but every single one of their studios produced garbage.
"You can play Starfield for FREE on DAY ONE!!" is meaningless if Starfield fricking sucks.
They are working on it. Their plan is to become the Google/Android of PC gaming.
don't forget
>$19 to effectively have microshaft flash the device for you
>but how do they stop people from buying them for productivity?
You have to order them directly from valve with a steam account, just like the steam deck. Anyone who has a steam account will probably buy games, and that's enough.
Valve not putting them in physical stores destines them to sell poorly. If you could only buy switch or PS5 on their own stores they would sell way worse.
Physical store do not matter nearly as much anymore as you've deluded yourself into believing.
Steam Deck has an appeal to everyone who actually cares about and plays video games, they just don't know it. They don't know it exists and if they do know it exists they immediately make assumptions upon hearing pc and or linux.
I know it exists and I don't want your poorgay Aya Neo.
>poorgay aya neo
I bought two decks before I bought a single aya neo.
I feel like moron windowsgays would have a better time if they just treated it like a companion device. Like a hacked vita or switch.
i wish i had one, it's the type of form factor that's a major pain in the ass for diy building.
a custom apu like in the steam deck would be great.
it failed because it SteamOS and big picture mode fricking sucked, didn't appeal to console gamers who wanted a plug and play experience and didn't appeal to PC gamers who wanted customisation
The market factors have changed considerably since steam machine. Millennials and older gamers were not interested in a steam box. Steam is much bigger and more popular today. You've got a massive number of zoomers with a preassembled pc who only use it exclusively for playing steam games, effectively treating their pc as a steam console. If Valve offered an affordable 1080p60fps machine that doesn't require much tinkering, comes with everything necessary already preinstalled and is as easy to operate as a console, it would find its audience in today's market.
I miss my stream machine. It had a custom Nvidia gpu made to fit the form factor that was powerful for its size, and it was easy to upgrade and maintain. Had an HDMI out for easy streaming stuff (I ran fighting games off of it). Literally a great little machine that suffered because it didn't have Windows. (I installed that myself)
I do remember that they were a license for like a dozen or so pre-built PC sellers to put a logo on the case and ship it with linux pre-installed instead of windows
A valve engine pci express card would be cool, it could handle controller pairing, wake by controller, HDMI-CEC and ARC, AV1 video transcoder and idk what else, that's basically all you need tho
We (mostly) have thaton Linux. They're called AMD GPUs (since Valve are the ones doing the drivers). Linux controller support in general is also top notch (again thanks Valve), but wake on bluetooth controller still requires some extra stuff in the system to be designed for it.
Which is why an official Valve SteamOS mini PC masquerading as a 'console' makes more sense than something you'd add into a Windows system.
I'm about to build my own "steam machine" with the inwin chopin case and the new 8700g apu because I loved the concept so much.
>Rumor
You just made it up honkey ape Black person b***h homosexual
I wish it were true tho
What rumor? Valve would have the chops to do it though.
Steam machine 2.0. No thanks
Very tiring to project past failures exactly as they happened into the future.
A Valve console would for sure cause some market disruption, especially with the free online it would put Sony on the spot.
It would be dumb to have a Steam console-PC-box-thing that can't play everything that shitty Windows 11 can play. If SteamOS could seamlessly launch every game .exe and emulator designed for Windows then it could be a massive deal.
>implying it wouldn't be just like the steamdeck, allowing it to play any game on steam + the ultimate emulator machine
It'd litterally just be the steam deck OS flashed onto a mid-spec small form factor PC with valve branding. It'd set a baseline for PC ports and have the benefit of the deck+consoles of shader cache compilation being deliverable as updates or as part of the game download being possible thanks to every unit having the same hardware.
i really wish we could just install steamos on the xbox hardware, it would be the best of both worlds.
they really just need to release a small box with amd strix halo and steamdeck os
Steam OS should be developed to replace Windows entirely. Frick MS.
I don't understand Valve, they are not aggressive at all. All their hardware feels like side projects. It is like they don't care.
That's cause they barely do.
Microsoft has a monopoly on the PC OS front. Steam has a monopoly on the PC games. They wisely stay on their lane.
MS keeps ruining their OS with each iteration, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Win 12 or 13 have built-in DRM to even run the damn thing.
MS needs to lose their PC OS monopoly.
Current rumor is that Win12 will be filled to the brim with AI shit and would likely require even newer hardware for it to run.
>They wisely stay on their lane
You mean valve stays in their lane. MS has tried to weasel their way into everything while making windows worse and worse. Luckily MS has failed miserably in all their efforts so far and has to keep falling back on windows, but they're certainly trying.
Valve needs to be way more aggressive with what they can do. The deck is fricking insane for what it offers and is capable of yet they don't even try to push it. They should at least be aggressively going after the pc market with it instead of treating it like a little side project.
>The deck is fricking insane
*was
with 3 years having passed, and the big price bump for an OLED model, it's real shoddy price/performance now
>and the big price bump for an OLED model
It is literally the same price
>$400=$570
ok
No, it's $549 -> $400
They dropped the 256gb model to the lowest price and put the the two oled models at the original price points. They didn't raise the prices at all.
>They dropped the 256gb model
Which not one person ever bought, and no one ever talked about because it had shit price performance even at launch.
The steam deck launched at $400. Now, it costs $570, unless you want the outdated version with a power hungry chip, smaller battery, and shit screen. And it's no more powerful than before.
That's great, I much prefer you shutting your dumb ass up over spewing ridiculous horseshit like saying that 190gb of storage is actually worth $170. Worse than the vita's memory cards, and that was dumb enough to kill a console.
>be blatantly, factually wrong
>proceed to sperg out
What happened to ignoring me, moron?
>nuh-uh! actually, they price dropped the steam deck!
>now it costs only $400, wow, get yours now!
>launch price
>$400
I ignored a post, but you're a funny moron trying your best to be as obnoxious as possible so I'll have fun egging you on. But thank you for backing down from your original claim of them raising the price and admitting I'm right with your greentext.
No, it's still $570 for the non-shit version, which has the same performance. As the $400 deck from 3 years ago.
>I ignored a post
Yeah, sure. Let me show you how that's done.
Served.
they do a lot of work behind the scenes on linux, they're a major contributor to the amd and intel open source graphics driver stack.
currently they're working on more hdr enablement and vrr for the steamdeck, once that's finished there's nothing holding back a new steam machine.
the major problem they face is nvidia being frickfaces with their proprietary linux driver.
They don't need to be outwardly aggressive, because they aren't really in direct competition with anyone, and are not beholden to shareholders or board members. Steam just keeps bringing the money in and they barely need to do anything. Behind the scenes I'm sure they are spending outrageous amounts of money on R&D, but they don't need to tell anyone what they're up to.
Steam machines didn't work 10 years ago because it was reliant on 3rd party hardware vendors and Linux compatibility wasn't there yet.
Now that Valve has significant in-house capability to design and manufacture hardware with custom silicon, and the OS experience is super polished, it makes more sense now. But just because Steam Deck is a success, it doesn't mean a standalone console would be. It's a harder sell. Most people who bought Steam Decks probably own at least one console and/or PC.
Consoles have a place, under your TV and people already feel they need the upgrade to play games at 60 fps.
Steam doing so well without a console is why Microsoft is pushing Game Pass instead of Xbox.
Steam consoles would have God of War, TLOU, and Gaylo.
The only way they could "replace them" is if Microsoft pushed out an update to unlock the sesx bootloader allowing a third party OS.
as they should, if they're going to treat all platforms the same they should extend the favor to their 25 million customers sitting on dead unsellable bricks now
The valuable part of business is the store front, not the hardware in the first place.
but who's supposed to use the storefront now that they killed all advantages and trust?
Honestly the more likely theory is Valve wanting to compete with M$ windows down the road, with the steady investment into Linux they've been doing i can't imagine they're particularly thrilled about a live service future for OSes.
Maybe the two theories go hand in hand, at that.
Sell their linux, sell a new product.
Not an expert, of course, but on surface level this sounds much smarter than building hardware and competing with sony. If Valve created a gaming dedicated OS that can play all my Steam games, I'm dropping Windows in a heartbeat.
That's my idea honestly. If they just quietly made a windows competitor based off an ecosystem that's always based itself as a windows competitor, 'cept now a big company's actually investing money into quietly doing so, it could work. No big time SteamOS tier blunder, most of the work is already done, they're just putting in the finishing piece.
A far more amusing situation would be MS allowing Steam to run on Xbox.
This is what pcbros came up after leaving their cave or just bored of shilling the steamdeck?
When will tendies get bored of shilling the switch?
>Linux becones significantly more popular
>But it's mostly steamOS
I wonder if that would be a good thing or not?
it would be but it would come at the cost of everything user experience wise getting worse because console tards cannot use a interface that isn't made specifically for them
this is fricking moronic, the only reason xbox stayed in the console market for so long is because it had microsoft backing.
valve may have cornered the PC gaming market but they dont have microsoft money, they would literally be burning money for no reason.
they should stick with steam and the occasional niche product like index or deck.
just supporting any controller, VR and all the games on steam it could beat ps5 easily if it has a competitive price
it doesnt even need to be near as powerful as a ps5 to massively outsell it because ps5 has no games anyway lol
they already did that and it was a massive flop, and even if they did it all in-house,
it still would not be worth the investment, because it doesnt have a huge competitive edge in that market.
the reason the deck was so successful (and even with its success its only a fraction of a fraction of what the switch has sold)
was because it was the only game in town in the handheld pc market.
it doesnt have that advantage here.
all it needs to do is be kind of significantly cheaper than the ps5 while supporting a lot more games and features and it could catch on
i never imagined PC gaming would have gotten anywhere near this popular after i built my first one in 2010 but now every zoomer has one
dude the Sony loses money on each PS5 sold, and youre saying they should make an even cheaper version of that.
could they do it, yes, but it would be a niche product with for a small audience like the deck.
and it wouldnt even have portability to its advantage.
its one of the advantages of being first to market.
>not portable
a console requires 2 cables. power and hdmi
they could do something smaller, more robust, cheaper, weaker yes, and clean up the market by just being better than ps4 and xbox one because the next gen is largely a failure anyway
portable as in handheld like the deck.
and again they could do that, but it would not have as much pull as a lot of people think it has.
To date they have sold ~3 million Decks (estimated) that is abysmal when compared to PS5, Switch or even Xbox.
and keep in mind the deck can also plug into a tv and works with any controller
Honestly they should stick with deck and develop on that front.
a handheld computer that can plug into a monitor like the switch has a lot more market appeal.
Plugging a Steam Deck into a monitor is a shit tier experience on all fronts.
not gonna argue that point, but hey how about instead of splitting resources on a new product, just pour more resources into making the deck a better product.
> deck can also plug into a tv and works with any controller
This is verifiably false. I really like my Deck, but controller support sucks. I have a couple of XBox1 controllers, using them with long USB cables to not deal with charging. You plug in XBox1 controller with microUSB to USB cable into Win10 PC and it just works. Win11 tablet - just works. Android phone - just works. Steam Deck dock - nagh, tells you to bugger off and connect by bluetooth. I hate bluetooth and controller charging so fricking much.
>Android phone - just works. Steam Deck dock - nagh, tells you to bugger off
That is weird, because Android and SteamOS literally have the exact same controller support because they are both Linux distributions.
Most USB controller should just work, and Linux has supported Xbox controllers longer than Windows has.
XBox controller support in Android is relatively recent, I remember byuing XBox360 wired controller specifically to connect to Android tablet because XBox1 drivers were not there, this was couple of years before covid. I am using JSAux dock for deck, it is likely more popular than valve's one, dunno if it works better with wired controllers.NXYH
PS5 isn't sold at a loss these days. It hasn't for a while.
Deck wasn't the first handheld PC at all
>was because it was the only game in town in the handheld pc market.
it's not anymore and it's still the only thing selling well.
it's all about software.
And it's fricking cheap and performant
Valve is not the same as MS. Valve gets all their games from everyone else, they don't have to shell out billions upon billions to try and nab developers and exclusives only to still get reamed. Valve has the entire pc market in the palm of their hand to provide them with endless money so long as they don't betray their consumer's trust. Valve wants to keep improving and pushing for Linux anyway and what's the point if they don't push for broader adoption.
thats sony worst nightmare valve replacing microsoft in the console space sony isnt winning against valve with proton and what will they do remove their games from steam
I don't think that Valve can be too aggressive. MS still owns the platform that 98% of Steam users mainly play games on. I think that they will just keep doing what they're doing and make sure that the PC platform and derivatives aren't closed off by MS.
Steam machines and the steam deck running linux instead of windows are in a way their version of "if you want peace, prepare for war" to ensure that MS doesn't try to close off the PC games market.
Who pays you to repeat unsubstantiated rumours?
You just described a PC, moron.
Steam Machines are literally gaming PCs.
A PC for the living room for your average consumer
>entire Steam library in one console
You can already have it on your PC?
>steam machine
A small factor gaming pc seems good, but even for its time it really wasn't, especially at the price range of 400-600 and its hardware.
The Steam Link was a good idea though, and IIRC there's a Steam Link app for SmartTVs.
>VR ready
VR seems okay, but the Index is very costly and resource intensive, and the VR market still isn't that huge.
>Steam Deck hybrid model
Sounds like a Nintendo Switch, but honestly, I would like if the Deck had Docks that allowed for overclocking, would increase the Steam Deck's appeal just a bit.
>mod(d)ing
Really depends on the game, but most console players don't give a damn about mods, many of them don't even know they exist.
>can use any controller
One of the best things about playing on PC, gotta give you that one.
>gamepass
Gamepass is a Windows thing, and we all know by now that Valve isn't in best terms with Windows/Microsoft.
>You can already have it on your PC?
The point of a steam machine would be to have the control and freedom of a PC with the convenience of a console. The masses don't buy into PCs because they can't be assed, they just want to turn the thing on, push a button, and be playing a game. Valve's hardware is aiming to provide the best of both worlds.
Digital only no thanks and PC is better than underpowered steam console and can use it for more things.
Wouldn't you be able to play disc games if you connected a disc drive to a Steam Deck dock? It's just a PC after all.
Will Steam console physical disc games also work on a PC?
what marketshare?
xbox has spent the last decade ensuring they shrunk their marketshare to nothing, where it is now.
There really just isn't the space for a third party. sony is the big console, ninty gets the big handheld spot. Period.
Xbox is still fairly popular in NA and UK.
Where? xbox games fail to chart top for physical, and it's almost always a smaller marketshare digitally from titles that are released. Destiny 2 went from being larger on xbone to having an almost null presence on series x/s.
The best move would be a SteamOS release fit general desktop usage, Valve could easily replace windows as the go-to OS for PC gaming.
I don't know how many times people have to tell you this for you to get it, but there is NOTHING special about steamos. It's just read-only A/B arch linux with a preconfigured gamescope session. All Valve's improvements go straight upstream.
There is no target audience for steam machines. That's just a PC with pre-installed linux in a fancy box with steam logo. If it is cheaper than PC with same specs valve will just lose money, if it is more expensive nobody will buy it
You keep saying that but you don't run business
And? I don't need to run business to know how basic things work.
Since when is Microsoft "out"? They bought Activision Blizzard.
If they do it'll be like one of those
>Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing
videos. Valve isn't going to change anything in their strategy here since it's profitable and works.
I would really like a standalone Steam controller that's just like the Deck, trackpads and all.
It is strange that they haven't done a steam controller 2.0 based on the deck hardware. I'd buy one
If valve takes over for MS then it's unironically over for Sony.
valve is moronic they can't make hardware
>but steam deck
as i said, valve is moronic they can't make hardware
>mogs the shitch
>can't pass 1m after 3 years in the market
Clearly, people don't care about the 'eck.
Yeah this wouldn't end up well, remember the steam box?
>RUMOR
NOT RUMOR: OP CONFIRMED homosexual
>Partner with Intel (yes, I know...)
>Cram a 24gb Battlemage GPU in there
>2 NVME expansion slots
>Valve devs help Intel get their shit together on the driver end
>Launch it with Half Life 3, Portal 3, and whatever the newest iteration of Index will be
intel could only work in a new xbox, forcing devs to optimize for it.
not gonna happen now though
Why is that? It's not like every console isn't already an x86 box in disguise, so why would it specifically have to be in a new Xbox? I would buy one of there was actually some sort of novel architecture or hardware implementation. I bet Intel would jump all over it as well, considering the state of their GPU sales. From what I gather, Arc isn't even shitty as far as hardware goes. It's just the drivers that suck dicks because Intel has zero experience with drivers. Valve could theoretically fix this for Intel. Maybe they could even coax Intel into resurrecting Optane for dedicated a DirectStorage like function since it is literally double the throughput of Gen4 NVMEs. Pretty disappointed when I bought my PS5 and their "ultra magic SSD" is slower than all of the Gen4 NVME drives I have in my PC (I have 5, two in the slots, 3 in my PCIe raid card)
maybe it could be possible if intel invested a lot in it, but the intel linux graphics drivers are fricking trash compared to amd's and their state on windows.
valve is too small to bring them to the same level as amd which they've already invested a lot into.
microsoft would work with intel's windows codebase for another xbox, which isn't great but a lot further ahead.
Would be interesting to see but I doubt they'll actually commit to it.
Also, a console where you can't play fortnite is not going to sell well.
>Valve will replace Microsoft in the console market
incorrect
They wont replace them, they will bypass them.
The problem valave has is windows. The problem sony has, is windows. They would easily release their games to PC, but they prefer not having to make them for windows PC's if possible.
So what do you think the solution for Sony would be?
Expect a partnership at best with valve/sony. at worst, expect Valve to release their new "gamer focused OS" for PC gamers, allowing Sony to release a large catalogue onto it, bypassing the windows ecosystem altogether.
The steamdeck isnt so much a serious hardware platform as it is a test bed for their software development to beta test features coming to PC.
rumor source: my ass
>it will work this time
Last time it didn't work because vVlve had to rely on non existent Linux ports, now they have proton. Also steam machines were very expensive and OG big picture pretty bad. Now they could solve most of the issues.
Doesn't really matter because OP pulled rumour from his ass.
They'd fricking wreck everyone, it'd be hilarious.
But honestly I hope not. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that the general masses are absolutely moronic sheep that corporations see as free marks to use and abuse. They need to stick to consoles where nearly all the abuse happens or corporations are going to find the most cancerous ways possibly to fleece them on pc and screw over everyone.
nintendo is safe anyway, it's what i'd buy for my kids too, and the playstation crowd is too invested to switch to steam.
I would buy a SteamCube or a GabeCube
I don't want a Switch
honestly i welcome it.
i want technology to move forward more.
imagine if third parties had access to apple silicon?
apples engineers are fricking geniuses but the downside is while its arm its all stuck in the apple eco system.
but imagine a few years down the line wed have handhelds in the psp/vita formfactor that are as powerful as budget gaming pcs and your entire library is still there.
yeah i hate the you dont own your games anymore but thing on the plus side steam inst generational like consoles.
your games stay with you and you can play them on any platform steam runs on.
i so want fricking lunix hanhelds to become more mainstream. the steam deck is a great start but it needs more exposure and the technology must be further along to facilitate it.
There is really nothing that special about Apple silicon except the fact that Apple chooses everything that goes in, and supports the drivers and user experience themselves.
A lot of companies are making similar hardware, but OEMs selling Windows on their systems have to deal with the fact that Microsoft aren't what they used to be, and hardware vendor's Windows driver teams have gotten cut back and paired down as the money has shifted from Windows gaming, to Linux AI.
Valve comes the closest to Apple, by selling hardware running a UNIX-like OS, and using open-source drivers that Valve themselves can support.
As long as AMD remains the easiest to work with, and the top-tier of new games remains compiled for AMD64, Valve has no reason to switch to ARM.
Microsoft on the other hand, probably is switching to ARM, and the warning Valve had for that in Microsoft's long-term road map is why Steam Machines exist in the first place.
i beg to differ. the m chips apple makes run leaps and bounds around other arm processors.
while that is partially because of specifically tailored software it is also impressive hardware.
i personally like arm a lot and i have no qualms of abandoning x86 for it in mobile form factors such as laptops.
i do agree with you on the software side. there needs to be a lot done to facilitate easier deployment to the arm architecture but honestly most of that is because not a lot of that is going around. unity and unreal for example can compile to arm64 just as they can do to x86.
>the m chips apple makes run leaps and bounds around other arm processors.
Only because Apple's M chips for desktop-class systems, are for desktop-class systems.
While most ARM hardware you can buy in cheap devices, are repurposed phone SoCs.
Powerful ARM hardware exists, but the problem is that within the market of data-center class hardware, for Linux systems there is very little difference between running ARM64 or AMD64 or really any other supported architecture like RISC-V, and all of those chips sell for massive premiums. Nobody is going to sell cheap 'desktop-class' ARM (or RISC-V) hardware right now, because there is no money in it. Not without a big bulk production order.
Apple are willing to make those orders because they know that today's workstation-class chip, is a prototype for the phone chips 5 to 10 years from now.
The economics currently don't work out for anyone else. Except maybe Microsoft if they go ARM as rumored.
>unity and unreal for example can compile to arm64
They can, but this is sort of hypothetical just like they can in theory compile to AMD64+Linux+Vulkan, but almost nobody does that.
Apple's hope is that by unifying their platforms ARM64+Darwin+Metal, they can increase the amount of software support they get.
>m chips apple makes run leaps and bounds around other arm processors
Because they don't have to care about costs, since their products sell for a fortune and they know people will buy them no matter what. So they can use the latest TSMC nodes and "waste" a ton of silicon area for cache.
No other company could get away with it, because no one would ever buy a chip that's 30% more efficient but three times more expensive to produce.
When you compare 5nm vs. 5nm, they aren't even that far ahead. It's just that they had access to 5nm a year before everyone else because they were willing to pay more.
Now Apple is on 3nm, while everyone else is using 5nm.
not counting shipping or research and development costs, making an iphone costs about 10$.
5 for materials and 5 for manufacturing/labor.
making chips is dirt cheap for apple because they moved all their manufacturing to the us with tsmc.
they dont use asia anymore for the important bits. its local in the usa anon.
manufacturing has become terribly cheap overall. the industry has basically lied about fabrication costs for years and every shmuck believes it.
t. trucker that collects and delivers from fabs directly, i have seen shipping manifests with costs for batches.
Yep. When you can make bulk orders, securing supplies for millions of chips in batches of hundreds of thousands a month, the individual chips are dirt cheap. The issue is the up-front R&D costs, and knowing you have a market that will buy millions of chips.
Well, of course, R&D is what's so expensive about these newer nodes. That's why the price per wafer is insanely high at the beginning, but it becomes cheaper (per transistor) than previous nodes once the initial investment has been paid off. Only Apple and BTC miners manufacturers (when BTC is booming) can realistically afford the most advanced nodes from TSMC.
My point was, Apple M1 isn't that impressive when compared to other 5nm chips... but they were the only ones who could afford 5nm in 2021. The rest of the industry upgraded from 7nm to 5nm only last year.
And now Apple switched to 3nm at the end of 2023 (Apple M3). The rest of the industry will follow by 2025, once the node becomes cheaper. People praise Apple for their engineering, when they're "just" throwing money at the problem.
The future has always been for consoles to become PC's. It's inevitable, even if brandcucks will screech about it in anger and write their corporate masters a thousand fanmails.
I've said it before plenty of times. There will likely be overpriced mid-range PC's with their favourite logo slapped onto them to placate the brandcucks in the future.
Finally someone who understands that this is a console peasant device.
Is this what moronation looks like?
I'm so sick of these goddamn wojaks, man.
There are rumors they are doing another Steam Machine kind of thing with making new versions of the deck
>RUMOR
You making shit up doesn't count as "rumor".
That's not a type of rumor.
That's a type of speculation.
Why exactly is Microsoft getting replaced? They are still functioning as intended and making consoles arent they?
RUMOR: OP is a homosexual
I will worship Steam since they have done so much in advancing Linux gaming.
I don't think there's anyone who can realistically become part of the big 3
Tencent.
the scenario would be comparably nice, but what about when gabe dies?
Console gays think PC gaming is for nerds, while they chug JRPG semen
that is a sentence.
Apple will buy Pocketpair, Larian, Remnant, Capcom, Ubisoft, and From Software and launch their own console. Screencap this post.
It's not like a pc is hard to build. If you need to have a steam account and buy this from steam anyways there is a 99% chance you'll already have a pc. Steam deck only sold because it's a portable pc and it didn't even sell particularly well. This would probably sell worse than Xbox who at least got 30 million series systems. How many steam decks were sold?
Only figure we've got is like 3 mil IIRC. Not really console numbers, and like you say, a machine without a use-case or an audience is obviously not going to do better.
>How many steam decks were sold?
How many were produced they were all waitlisted woadie
My point is valve isn't great at selling hardware themselves. They do in fact need to partner with someone who can sell in bulk or they'd just be niche pre-built again.
>rumor
first of all have a nice day, second Valve don't give a frick about the console market, why would they risk something like that (you will need to invest and pay billions to start from almost 0, that's without games and exclusives)
They are going to sit down and print billions and do their own think, like Nintendo
>Sit there
>dont do anything
>collect fat stacks of cash
versus
>having to maintain an expensive PC console and support it when people can just install linux on some cheap box already
Valve doing it would be a massive mistake.
i was told the pc market and the console market were completely different audiences???
They're not if the console market thinks it's a console because it offers the same level of turn it on and play convenience.
If it means I get a Steam Controller 2 and a Steam Deck OLED 2, my body is ready.
The wildly successful Steam deck sold 4 million units. Let's be generous and say they sell 20 million lifetime.
It's still way below what the Xbox is doing regularly and they're trying to get out of the expensive hardware business. Do you guys not understand how terrible it is to be in hardware, right now?
The xbox isn't expensive because of the hardware, it's because of ms dumping tons of money and manpower into trying to force it to be successful. You're right that the steam deck is wildly successful despite its way lower sales in comparison and that's because valve does damn near nothing to try and sell it. Valve doesn't have to make 70 billion dollar acquisitions to try and force people into their failing brand. Hell valve doesn't even have to market it. They make it, they have a little banner for it on their steam page and so far that's enough for them.
Gabe said that they're selling the steam deck at a loss because they think it'll carve out a new market segment. Why would they consider selling a "steam machine" when they're losing money on each unit sold if it's under $1000?
Hardware is a losing business and Xbox is far more competent at it than Steam and they're struggling. There's no real incentive for Valve to get into more hardware when they already allow anyone to install linux and make their old PC a steam machine.
How can you say that when you can build a competent pc for 850? Valve could bring that way down.
>Gabe said that they're selling the steam deck at a loss
He didn't say that, he said that the initial price of the $400 model at launch was 'painful'. But the hardware itself was never selling for a loss. If they had only sold a million units of the base model, and the more expensive models hadn't sold Valve probably would have taken an overall loss on the project, but not on the hardware itself.
What actually happened is they've sold something like 3.5 to 4.5 million units, on pace to hit 8-10 million this year and most of those are the more expensive SKUs.
>Why would they consider selling a "steam machine" when they're losing money on each unit sold if it's under $1000?
Because the R&D costs on a mini PC form-factor are much lower than a handheld form-factor. Valve could order an RDNA3 or RDNA4 SoC chip from AMD just beyond the TDP of what would work in a handheld or fully self-contained VR system using a cheap process, and then use die-shrinks to move the chip into lower TDPs for other products over time. Lowering their R&D costs further, and expanding the volume of their bulk orders.
A official mini PC would be not only a console, and a VR base station, but would also serve as official developer hardware for Deck 2, and Deckard. It might also prove popular hardware for net cafes and other low-budget PC gaming environments down the road.
IF it follow the Steam Deck model this would be the best possible thing for the console model or more accurately would put an end to it a it should be. Valve and the Steam Deck (+ SteamOS and a bunch of other tech including Proton, SteamVR etc At the moment they're using the Deck to create the Gamescope Wayland compositor in a way that will benefit Linux significantly and address some features in the transition from X to Wayland).) favors openness. The Deck is easy to use and gives the immediate console-style pick up and play experience that console tard have been claiming their setup is the only way, but does it all without being proprietary or locked down.
Valve has spent years improving a lot of things vs consoles and other PC applications alike (ie Big Picture UI / Deck GameScope UI is pretty much designed to be controller navigated and is console like etc). They COULD have turned it into some "We only support Steam games. Guess you'll need to reformat or if not that boot into completely different OS to do other stuff otherwise TEH PIRACY HURRRR" proprietary shitfest or even made it a little harder to do anything that wasn't using Steam, but they didn't. They give full access even in Gamescope mode , while also have the Desktop UI - its a full Linux powered PC you can do whatever the frick you want with. If you install a huge EmuDeck setup or whatever its not just viable in the desktop mode, but seamlessly works in the Gamescope / big picture mode, all your emus are lined up right there waiting for you.
Provided they don't do something massively stupid like by contract exclusivity (which they won't if not just for their open approach, but also because it hasn't exactly worked for the fuming, feet-stamping tard behind the Epic Store), Valve putting an end to "console" proprietary platforms based on exclusivity and causing everyone to basically focus on open, common PC and mobile OSes and prefab common hardware, so much the better.
But would you buy it? I have a pc so I wouldn't.
I have a PC and a Steam Deck OLED - it was a "want' not a "need" purchase, but I wanted to support and enjoyed my original Deck. Its comfy to play in bed, and have an extra pc i can hook up to the Deck Dock should I need it, in addition to portable use.
However Valve doesn't need everyone with a powerful gaming PC to buy a Deck, or a Steam Machine 2.0 or anything else and they don't push it that way either. The big benefit would be for those who were formerly console focused types to buy an 'open console' like the Deck and it starts fricking with proprietary consoles to the point they stop their behavior. Did you see what happened in Japan once the Deck partnered with Komodo to sell it there? it was some sort of eye opening "you can have a console experience and an open PC at the same time?" thing to a community that was very console centric and it sold very well considering, and expanded the playerbase of PC gaming even further. So yeah, they do seem to be selling and quite well. I imagine the next generation will continue to do better, and the benefits such as JP devs testing their games to be Deck Validated isn't just limited to the Deck itself, but basically means any Linux player is going to get a benefit especially if a JP dev would have never even looked at Proton in the past years ago etc. So the whole thing only benefits openness and when given the chance, players and devs alike like it - excepting those with vested interest in proprietary lockdown of course who seethe that Valve is doing so well without needing to resort to their bullshit.
I really don't think valve was expecting Microsoft to drop out, their attempts were to create a bunker in case they went full apple but they don't really have the logistics or production to replace Microsoft in the hardware market
daehhh will dis PC gaming company join da wars?
Valve could never compete with anything that is heavily time constrained like the console market.
If it's equivalent to a high end gpu I'd might bite the bullet
Do you guys think there are people that don't have a PC but bought a steam deck?
I think the biggest issue with any kind of new steam machine would be brand recognition by the masses. Unless you're already a PC gamer you probably don't know what steam even is or that they're selling stuff like the steam deck.
Little billys mom and dad are going to be confused when they go to buy him the steam machine he asked for and don't find it on store shelves.
Maybe I'm biased and out of touch with younger generations.
>Do you guys think there are people that don't have a PC but bought a steam deck?
Yes, but it probably isn't yet the system that introduced those people to PC gaming. If Valve sticks with the Deck hardware, then it could enter that niche when they hit a production volume high enough to supply retail stores.
My guess is the lifespan for the Deck's SoC is Deck -> ChromeOS/Steam combo systems -> Net Cafe hardware and Emerging Markets
I haven't upgraded my PC yet because I'm waiting for valve to release their console box.
valve has been working towards a partnership with nintendo for awhile. if gabe secures that deal it's over
PC gamers already play Nintendo games on PC
emulators suck
true, but i like to pretend. nintendo would make so much money from stable networks and the easy implementation of pokemon with online components
Nintendo would never play by valve or pc rules unless their hardware flops so hard they have no other choice. They're far too scummy for that.
The rumor that I've heard would mean Nintendo wouldn't have to play by anyone else's rules. They would distribute their own storefront as a Flatpak, or ChromeOS container for compatible systems. They might partner with some hardware vendors to make it pre-installed or prominently featured by default, but they wouldn't be operating within someone else's store and paying a cut on all software sales which has always been Nintendo's sticking point.
They would support a limited set of hardware, Nvidia+ARM, RDNA_AMD64, maybe Intel's latest and greatest.
Windows users would officially be SOL, but I'm sure somebody would hack together a 'emulator' quickly enough.
This would be a huge mistake for them, but I hope they do it anyway
I already know shitloads of normies who are usually just console gamers that have decided to buy a Steam Deck, and every single one of them love it.
How does Valve somehow keep succeeding?
Contrary to popular belief, Valve employees are doing a massive amount of work, and Gabe is spending more money on PC Gaming on Linux, than Microsoft spends on PC Gaming on Windows.
Which is understandable when you see the numbers for how little money Microsoft makes these days from Windows.
It's almost like being consumer friendly half the time wins you the hearts and minds of people who are constantly being fricked over by gaming corporations and the industry as a whole. Of course tendies,snoys,and xbots will never understand this and will seethe about the steam deck for all eternity
This, the deck completely mogs the shitch so hard it's not even funny
Frick the shitch!
I mean, this is what's been leak in SteamVR updates, no?
Some sort of dedicated box to stream high-end VR experience like Alyx to their new headset. It'd line up with the new big APUs got lined up (Halo point or something?).
Bait used to be believable
Unless they make at least 4 of the following:
>Half Life 3
>Team Fortress 3
>L4D3
>Portal 3
>Dota 3
>one new interesting IP
Available within 6 months of launch AND exclusive to Steam Box on launch, Valve ain't replacing shit
Valve is currently selling every system that they can produce. They don't need exclusives to sell systems, and they'll never make 'Deck exclusives' because there is no reason to prevent games from running on Steam for Linux.
If Microsoft exits the console market, and PC gaming compatible PCs start to become more rare given the rumored shift to ARM hardware at retail, Valve really won't need to do much other than just scale up to meet the new demand.
they still haven't added workshop support outside of desktop mode.
they've already did it
why would you buy anything that isn't a pc
xbox has literally no exclusives
why would you buy a snoy? for one of those le 2deep4u troonyBlack personhomosexual simulators?
and switch has been completely busted open by emulation
Different market. Plenty of people don't want to mess around with settings and just want to turn a box on. I still do it and I have a good pc. Consoles work better with my TV. Windows I always have to reconfigure it and it's annoying.
microsoft will buy steam sooner or later
when that happens
im going to laugh
and continue playing nintendo games
Kojima is going to patent the "computer" and then we'll see who's laughing.
>microsoft will buy steam sooner or later
They tried in 2012, it is why Valve launched Steam for Linux in 2013.
The message Valve got from Microsoft was basically
>Sell to us, because Windows PC Gaming isn't going to exist 10-15 years from now due to (reasons)
Microsoft thought Gaben would sell, but he actually took it as a call to action to preserve PC gaming as we know it.
The only way I could see this work is via Steam Deck 2 and a Oculink dock like the Win Max 2 can use.
Steam would provide a high quality dock for $99, you provide the GPU.
I could also see a $500 custom dock module with like a 7700XT or 7750XT built in.
Sell it for just a little over cost and rely on game sales to prop it up. Maybe throw in the entire Valve game library and a new title like HL3.
God, imagine if they made Half Life 3 exclusive to the Deck2 Dock.
If they release an affordable prebuilt PC marketed to console gamers and it ends-up being a hit I'm gonna laugh my ass off. That's exactly what Microsoft should have done with the Series X/S to start with.
The problem for Microsoft is outside of the Xbox, or the Windows Store nobody uses they don't make money from game sales.
Same reason that major PC OEMs have been slow to get on board handheld or console-style gaming PCs.
They have razor thin margins on hardware, and no way to make money from games.
The only advantage Microsoft would have would be not having to license Windows.
Oh cmon. Chinks have been trying to sell garbage hardware in small format for years now, going back to Intel Atom and "netbooks" (maybe even earlier), then tablets, now "gaming consoles" (while VR glasses are being late to the party). Then, everyone realizes that the current iteration of handhelds are useless toys, and it all repeats.
Why are people saying microsoft is out of the game? They're not making a new xbox?
The rumor is no new Xbox hardware.
Most people seem to be ignoring the other half of the rumor which is Microsoft moving to ARM for consumer systems, and developing a '10 foot' interface for it.
Basically it is not so much the Xbox dying, as Microsoft trying to kill PC gaming again.
Correction: Microsoft will buy Valve and merge Xbox with Steam.
whats the purpose of getting this over a ps5 if im gonna consolegay
You exchange all those pseudointellectual movie games for actual games
All Valve hardware flops. Steam Deck only sold 3 million, nobody gives a frick about it.
Isn't that enough to make it the best selling gaming PC for the last 30 years? So Steam Machines didn't go away, they came back and sold really well.
Steam Controller also didn't 'flop', it was the best selling PC controller. It got sued out of existence by a patent troll using an improperly granted patent Valve got invalidated.
Just took so much time they had discontinued the first-gen controller, and haven't released the new 'Neptune' controller yet.