Support us on Patreon
PayPalThere's a whole bunch of hints and speculation going around right now, showing that Valve may be working towards a new kind of Steam Machine. Suddenly, their new Steam Controller 2 that was leaked, along with the new SteamOS branding guidelines make a whole lot more sense if this is true.
While the SteamOS branding mentions third-party vendors using it, and we know they're working towards releasing SteamOS for other hardware vendors for their handhelds, having a standard way to show it also helps Valve keep it the same across multiple of their own devices.
As for the Steam Controller 2, it makes even more sense with this because otherwise the target for people to buy it would have been reasonably small. Sure there's all the people with a Steam Deck, but it would be only a percentage of people with one that would buy a Steam Controller 2, and a lot of other people on PC already have their preferred gamepad. So, having a fresh Steam Machine would pretty much need a dedicated controller, unless Valve bundled it with a third-party controller, but that leaves Valve at the mercy of another hardware vendor on features and support.
The speculation and leaks on some form of new Steam Machine from Valve come initially from a Reddit post, where a user pointed out a change to the Linux kernel used by Steam Deck / SteamOS. It mentions a change for HDMI CEC for Fremont, with code that references AMD Lilac. Lilac on Geekbench being a mixture of different AMD chips like the Ryzen 8540U and Ryzen 7735HS.
On X / Twitter, VR enthusiast Brad Lynch mentioned in a thread after more digging through Valve's code noting "But also that Quanta Computer, Valve’s Steam Deck manufacturer, is giving feedback on it" and "All references to Fremont ensure checks for a full-size HDMI Type-A port you’d see on TV-focused consoles and other desktop computers that don’t have a dedicated GPU with its own HDMI ports". Lynch is the one that has been covering a lot of the leaks for the upcoming Valve Deckard VR headset.
November next year will also mark 10 years since Valve's original Steam Machine launch. That would be a pretty good time for Valve to announce something don't you think?
Things have changed dramatically since the original failure of the Steam Machine launch, which kicked off Valve's effort on everything that made up the Steam Deck. We have Proton now, the real important bit, which runs tens of thousands of Windows games and Proton compatibility is continuously improving to the point where so many games really do just work (but we still have the anti-cheat problem). We have another big update to Proton 9 coming soon too.
It's going to be really interesting to see what becomes of all this. Very exciting time to be a Linux / SteamOS gamer.
What do you think this is all for? Leave a comment with your thoughts.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyWhy would that change anything? It'd be no different to when Windows XP reached end-of-life, or Windows 7, or Windows 8... People will just move over to Windows 11 or whatever they're up to now, just like the gullible sheep they are.
I don't expect huge amounts of people changing over either, but the big difference is that for all those Windows versions, you usually could just install the new version on your old computer. With Windows 11, the requirements are quite strict, and while you might be able to trick the installer, MS does not promise updates for unsupported system, so this is a dangerous path.
So, the question has changed for many people. It's not "Should I install the new Windows on my old computer?", but "Do I really want to replace my still good enough computer just to install the new Windows?!?" And even if the answer is yes, then they have a spare computer which they might use to check out this Linux thing.
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyValve really need to address this... Most (all?) of the "anti-cheat" systems natively support Linux-based operating systems - but almost all of the developers behind them flat-out refuse to implement their own "anti-cheat" systems for gaming under Linux.
really? valve only did deals with 2 anti cheat providers to support linux, everything else that work just happens to work and not be blocked.
https://areweanticheatyet.com/
Quoting: Craggles086Valve has proved to a mass market that their idea works with the SteamDeck.
Consumers should be a lot less sceptical about what a Steam Console without windows is capable of, Proton has now proven itself capable and has been accepted as such for anything outside the anti-cheat MMO’s.
Now if they can only get the pricing right, as they did on the SteamDeck then we have a gaming computer that can play the majority of PC games, and is priced competitively with building your own PC. Also functions well as a console. Whole different story to the first Steam Machines.
I would say it will only work if Valve are producing the hardware themselves but would love to be proved wrong.
i dont think the issue was the fact that steam machines run on top of linux, playstation run on top of bsd (wich had less games than linux, outside of the console) and yet, no one cared about, because it had games and the marketing of the games noticed the fact that its avaliable on playstation, the marketing of playstation quoted the games you can play on it, and it had exclusives.
no one cares what operating system an hardware have, so longas they know there is content they want there (or the content they want is there)
Mohandevir 2 days ago
Quoting: elmapulQuoting: Craggles086Valve has proved to a mass market that their idea works with the SteamDeck.
Consumers should be a lot less sceptical about what a Steam Console without windows is capable of, Proton has now proven itself capable and has been accepted as such for anything outside the anti-cheat MMO’s.
Now if they can only get the pricing right, as they did on the SteamDeck then we have a gaming computer that can play the majority of PC games, and is priced competitively with building your own PC. Also functions well as a console. Whole different story to the first Steam Machines.
I would say it will only work if Valve are producing the hardware themselves but would love to be proved wrong.
i dont think the issue was the fact that steam machines run on top of linux, playstation run on top of bsd (wich had less games than linux, outside of the console) and yet, no one cared about, because it had games and the marketing of the games noticed the fact that its avaliable on playstation, the marketing of playstation quoted the games you can play on it, and it had exclusives.
no one cares what operating system an hardware have, so longas they know there is content they want there (or the content they want is there)
The "Steam Machines 2" will probably attract the same audience that got the Steam Deck. Many of them got introduced to PC gaming via the Steam Deck. I'll be one of them because, lately, I do not have much use for a full fledged PC under my desk. It's solely used for work and it's supplied by my company. When it comes to gaming, I sit back in my couch and play with my Steam Deck, locally or via Moonlight/Sunshine, depending on the game, because I have no better solution. Hooking my personal full tower gaming PC to my TV is a no go. I'd prefer to have a small dedicated console or an egpu docking station, for the Steam Deck 2 (maybe?), to play in 1080p-60hz (minimum). I'm probably not the only one.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 9 December 2024 at 9:39 pm UTC
Quoting: ElectricPrismI think they will approach the market with this same modesty and probing it will reveal at least millions of sales if the price is able to be competitive.i dont think so.
the hardware need to be good, and if they cant have the economics of scale that sony and microsoft have, i doubt they can make a competitive hardware for a competitive price.
not to mention, steamdeck had a lot of games that you couldnt play on the go on switch or anywhere else, the same cant be said about an living room device.
Quoting: elmapulQuoting: ElectricPrismI think they will approach the market with this same modesty and probing it will reveal at least millions of sales if the price is able to be competitive.i dont think so.
the hardware need to be good, and if they cant have the economics of scale that sony and microsoft have, i doubt they can make a competitive hardware for a competitive price.
not to mention, steamdeck had a lot of games that you couldnt play on the go on switch or anywhere else, the same cant be said about an living room device.
PS5 has 813 games. Foremont + SteamController2 will certainly let you play games you couldn't play on any other console like device, unless you build one yourself. The PC ecosystem has huge advantages over traditional walled garden console ecosystems and console exclusives are less of an issue then ever before.
It could also once again be a device for game developers to target, this time for PCVR performance, which could give PCVR a big boost.
With the SteamDeck, Valve tricked traditional economics of scale by taking the risk of preordering a huge chunk of APUs. That worked damn well for them, so why would they not do it again? My guess is foremont will be a lot cheaper then a Laptop or ready made microPC with similar performance.
Last edited by const on 10 December 2024 at 9:09 am UTC
Quoting: constPS5 has 813 games. Foremont + SteamController2 will certainly let you play games you couldn't play on any other console like device, unless you build one yourself. The PC ecosystem has huge advantages over traditional walled garden console ecosystems and console exclusives are less of an issue then ever before.on paper, the steamdeck is better than the switch on every aspect, it could even emulate switch... in pratice, nintendo sell much more than the deck, so no, being a better product is not enough, it never was.
It could also once again be a device for game developers to target, this time for PCVR performance, which could give PCVR a big boost.
sure its a bit different on home consoles, because they cant afford to make exclusives anymore, they are porting to pc mostly because the cost of production of games is too expensive to keep then locked to a platform, yet i feel that if sony have to chose between help an competitor or not, they will chose not to, they will delay the port to pc or stop it altogheter and valve already comited to not making exclusives.
it may be sound crazy, but taking an cut of 30% of every game sold on playstation is more profitable than porting their games to pc, and pc was a different market, pc gamers were unlikely to move so it didnt affected playstation sales in the past, it will be different with a home console from valve, not to mention that now that pc gamers know sony exclusives, some of then might like it enough to purchase an playstation in case the game sequels stop coming to pc.
Quoting: constWith the SteamDeck, Valve tricked traditional economics of scale by taking the risk of preordering a huge chunk of APUs. That worked damn well for them, so why would they not do it again? My guess is foremont will be a lot cheaper then a Laptop or ready made microPC with similar performance.pre ordering,sure, but if they cant sell then, this preorder will be a big loss of revenue for valve.
sony can preorder and keep lowering the cost of production over the generation due to the massive sales, then they can cut the price if nescessary and invest tons of money for the next generation.
valve ould compete with the switch in terms of power, but switch was over 7 years old and never bet in power, i doubt valve can do it again against sony and specially microsoft that can do tons of dumping.
as for the steam console having a big library, for microsoft its not a problem, then can flip a switch and allow windows games to run on xbox, they just dont want to accept other stores, but they can do better deals of revenue split to entice more people to "port" their games, and accept every other store but steam.
not to mention, bigger library didnt translated into sales for the deck over the switch so this might repeat against playstation.
See more from me