Most of us reading this site want Steam Machines to do well. Not all of us will be interested in buying the hardware, but we're aware that its success is also tied to the success of Linux as a gaming platform, which is why I'm pretty miffed that the OEMs and Valve have messed it up.
Valve have done well with the controller and with making SteamOS pretty coherent and user-friendly, but messed it up when it came to defining what a Steam Machine actually is, leaving it open to interpretation. I've said this time and time again, but the original Steam Machines line-up was a complete mess. We had everything from $1500 PCs to ludicrously overpriced machines which didn't even have discreet graphics cards.
Even the best offerings fall short. Alienware's cheapest offering comes in at $450 (this should be the ideal price point in my opinion), but offers a mere 4GB RAM. If you want to scale this up to 8GB, you have to pay $750 since it also means upping the CPU to an i5. Does a GTX 960 need an i5 to do its thing? No, not really. You might get a few extra frames or do better in a more CPU-intensive game, but if one tries to step outside the worldview of a PC gamer and into one of a console gamer, then it doesn't take long to realise that those $200 aren't worth it, but $20 for an extra stick of 4GB RAM would be worth it.
This is perhaps the most frustrating thing. Most of the time, the specs are completely wrong, but when they're not then the price is a serious problem. An Intel i3 and Nvidia 960/1060 series (or AMD equivalent) are the perfect mass market specs for a sofa 1080p gamer just coming off a console. Someone with more needs than that will know how to build a PC and will do it cheaper and better than an OEM.
With the GTX1060 coming out, estimated to have a performance somewhere between a 970 and 980 (probably more on the side of a 980, but I like being conservative) at $250, and if AMD's Zen architecture lives up to the hype and delivers the same price/performance ratio benefits that the Piledriver architecture did, then we could be looking at a new era for the Steam Machine if things are done right this time round.
So what should be done right? First and foremost, deliver the best performance at the lowest cost possible. There is absolutely no room for diminishing returns here, which is why I can't advocate i7s or even i5s. Upgradability would also be a nice plus and a huge selling point if it's approached in a way where a non-technically minded user can get an upgrade easily through using modular designs (there's a lot of possibilities here, but too much to go into for this article). This has the potential to be a massive selling point over this last console generation, which was underpowered on release.
The second, and perhaps more controversial, point is that Valve should really take a few lessons from the console world. By this I mean manufacturing their own machine (which doesn't mean exclusivity). While the idea of everyone building their own box is amicable, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits. This is what makes consoles so competitive, gives them (historically, not this last generation) great performance compared to PCs on launch at a much better price, with a considerable lifespan.
There's a few reasons for this. Firstly, there's economies of scale, with a single manufacturer pumping out tonnes of machines, the production costs are lower for a number of reasons which this article won't touch upon. Secondly, the benefits of optimisation are tremendous. If everyone is developing for the same hardware, it's easy to accommodate for and optimise a game to get the most out of that hardware - this is one of the main reasons why consoles have such a long lifespan, considering this optimisation also gets better with time. The third reason is simply a retail one, since a high street vendor is far more likely to stock Steam Machines if there's only one option, again for a number of reasons. There's probably more, such as the ability to sell hardware at a loss or a significantly lower profit margin (since that money is made back through game sales), but those are the main ones.
In essence, for Steam Machines to succeed, I would like to see something priced at just over $400 (might be a bit optimistic, but possible with lower profit margins) made by Valve and at those sweet spot specs I mentioned earlier. The original launch was very underwhelming, but there's still a lot of potential to turn things around significantly if Valve come to their senses. Even without them making their own hardware, there's still room for OEMs to improve a lot. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Valve have done well with the controller and with making SteamOS pretty coherent and user-friendly, but messed it up when it came to defining what a Steam Machine actually is, leaving it open to interpretation. I've said this time and time again, but the original Steam Machines line-up was a complete mess. We had everything from $1500 PCs to ludicrously overpriced machines which didn't even have discreet graphics cards.
Even the best offerings fall short. Alienware's cheapest offering comes in at $450 (this should be the ideal price point in my opinion), but offers a mere 4GB RAM. If you want to scale this up to 8GB, you have to pay $750 since it also means upping the CPU to an i5. Does a GTX 960 need an i5 to do its thing? No, not really. You might get a few extra frames or do better in a more CPU-intensive game, but if one tries to step outside the worldview of a PC gamer and into one of a console gamer, then it doesn't take long to realise that those $200 aren't worth it, but $20 for an extra stick of 4GB RAM would be worth it.
This is perhaps the most frustrating thing. Most of the time, the specs are completely wrong, but when they're not then the price is a serious problem. An Intel i3 and Nvidia 960/1060 series (or AMD equivalent) are the perfect mass market specs for a sofa 1080p gamer just coming off a console. Someone with more needs than that will know how to build a PC and will do it cheaper and better than an OEM.
With the GTX1060 coming out, estimated to have a performance somewhere between a 970 and 980 (probably more on the side of a 980, but I like being conservative) at $250, and if AMD's Zen architecture lives up to the hype and delivers the same price/performance ratio benefits that the Piledriver architecture did, then we could be looking at a new era for the Steam Machine if things are done right this time round.
So what should be done right? First and foremost, deliver the best performance at the lowest cost possible. There is absolutely no room for diminishing returns here, which is why I can't advocate i7s or even i5s. Upgradability would also be a nice plus and a huge selling point if it's approached in a way where a non-technically minded user can get an upgrade easily through using modular designs (there's a lot of possibilities here, but too much to go into for this article). This has the potential to be a massive selling point over this last console generation, which was underpowered on release.
The second, and perhaps more controversial, point is that Valve should really take a few lessons from the console world. By this I mean manufacturing their own machine (which doesn't mean exclusivity). While the idea of everyone building their own box is amicable, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits. This is what makes consoles so competitive, gives them (historically, not this last generation) great performance compared to PCs on launch at a much better price, with a considerable lifespan.
There's a few reasons for this. Firstly, there's economies of scale, with a single manufacturer pumping out tonnes of machines, the production costs are lower for a number of reasons which this article won't touch upon. Secondly, the benefits of optimisation are tremendous. If everyone is developing for the same hardware, it's easy to accommodate for and optimise a game to get the most out of that hardware - this is one of the main reasons why consoles have such a long lifespan, considering this optimisation also gets better with time. The third reason is simply a retail one, since a high street vendor is far more likely to stock Steam Machines if there's only one option, again for a number of reasons. There's probably more, such as the ability to sell hardware at a loss or a significantly lower profit margin (since that money is made back through game sales), but those are the main ones.
In essence, for Steam Machines to succeed, I would like to see something priced at just over $400 (might be a bit optimistic, but possible with lower profit margins) made by Valve and at those sweet spot specs I mentioned earlier. The original launch was very underwhelming, but there's still a lot of potential to turn things around significantly if Valve come to their senses. Even without them making their own hardware, there's still room for OEMs to improve a lot. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The problem is that testing entertainment software on every variety and combination of hardware released even in just last three years is prohibitively expensive for providers of entertainment software (or any software, for that matter). The minimum specs you see on most games are not really the minimum specs, they're just the least powerful machine that was tested on. This is why developers like consoles, only one thing to test.
Customers do not want exclusives. Customers want good games. Console vendors, and Microsoft, try and use good games as exclusives to force customers to buy their product over competitors. Exclusives hurt customers. However, I don't have a problem with games releasing on one platform first and then others (I think a year is to long though, 3 months or 6 at most is reasonable). Fanboys may want exclusives so that they have something to hold over fanboys (or even regular owners) of other systems. These sick individuals are an extremely small portion of customers however and are unimportant. They can love their chosen platform without exclusives and they will.
Issues:
1. Valve want partners to make hardware (Dell and others). Not to compete with them. It's the same reason Google were hesitant to make mobile hardware.
2. There should not be "one hardware target". That's easy but also very bad, since games simply won't work properly on anything else. No thanks, but thanks. You should not ask for such lock-in.
About the rest - I agree. Such consoles should be as cheap as possible, but not cheaper! Don't forget that incumbent consoles (MS and Sony) aren't priced realistically, they are subsidized. Steam Machines aren't supposed to do that, they are intended to disrupt the market with real competition, and bring prices to real level.
Last edited by Shmerl on 11 July 2016 at 3:55 pm UTC
Console gamers will look for two things: 1) Affordable price. It doesn't necessarily have to beat PS4 or Xbone, but it should come close. 2) Game availability. People want to play the games they like. This is improving over time as more games come to Linux. These gamers won't care what OS is running in the box as long as the games are there and perform equal to or better than consoles (an easy mark to achieve).
For Windows gamers, it's a more difficult sell. TO lure them to SteamOS, it's all about performance. When Linux reaches a point where it can truly outperform Windows, I think a lot of Windows gamers will gladly ditch it. Microsoft hasn't maintained dominance because there are truly that many fanboys out there. It's different than Apple's users. People use Windows out of a feeling of necessity and then complain about it even as they use it. If these people eventually see the benefits of SteamOS, they'll build their own Steam Machines, which suits Valve just fine. They care about selling games on their platform, regardless of the hardware.
Last edited by chipgw on 11 July 2016 at 5:00 pm UTC
No, sorry, but it's not. Compared to the console and windows gaming platforms we are way, waaaaaay off even being a slightly realistic alternative for an average "serious" gamer.
Kerbal is not AAA. not even Cities are. AAA are the major releases from the big ones; Bioware, EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, Blizzard & co with franchises like Assassins Creed, Call Of Duty, Battefront, Mass Effect, Overwatch, The Division, Fallout, GTA, The Witcher, Bioshock, Uncharted, Far Cry and so forth. The big productions.
And the problem is: It's not enough with just one or two of the absolute top tier releases. A gamer want them all. On release day. Not a day later. He can miss out on maybe one or two due to exclusivity, but no way he'll go for a platform that only can offer one or two of ten major releases. And one billion indie releases can not make up for that; they don't count at all.
So we are so, so far behind being a player in that market yet. I believe this is exactly why Valve hasn't pushed SteamOS: It's not ready for the mass market. You only got one chance to make a first impression.
Last edited by Beamboom on 11 July 2016 at 5:10 pm UTC
We shouldn't be trying to market pretty mediocre hardware just to get a few more %'s in a misguided attempt to hopefully get better game support. Any of the people who do end up being suckered into these machines are likely to have an awful experience anyway.
The hardware isn't great, the ports are significantly worse than their windows counterparts, the store page shows great titles you can't play, and a lot of the games worth playing you are going to want to play with a kb/m.
This stuff isn't ready for mass adoption by console folks and there isn't a hardware combination, price point, or "I'm a MAC" type commercial that is going to change that any time soon.
I know a few Steam gamers who bought the Alienware machine who were extremely upset. They didn't realize they wouldn't be able to play their Windows titles on that machine.
You may think "Wow that's their fault for not understanding the product."
I'd agree to some extent, but remember those people are who the Steam Machines are being marketed to. Until we get to a point where the majority of new releases for PC see proper support on Linux I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a Steam Machine for their gaming purposes.
I believe that day will come eventually, most likely due to ease of porting rather than market share. The software will have to come first to break the chicken - egg paradigm.