Valve Announces the Steam Machine

[The Minsky Moment]

I haven't looked into it thoroughly, since disabling wifi connection was a sufficient fix for my needs.

Steam family sharing is pretty easy to set up and it works great. Not only allows simultaneous gaming (as long as the games aren't identical) but separate cloud saves for each family member.

[celedhring]

My holy grail device would be a Steam Deck where I can also install basic productivity/entertainment software (although I guess you can already fool around with WINE on the current steam deck?), or an iPad where I can run PC games.

[The Minsky Moment]

You can install just about any application you want on a Steam Deck that runs in Arch Linux.

Alternatively, you can set up a dual boot of Windows and just install Windows applications.

Plug it in a dock and voila.

[viper37]

I'm quite excited to finally have a steam deck without the portability.

I wasn't being sarcastic. I have no use for a portable system.

Oh, sorry.

I fail to see the use beyond a PC.  Install Linux Mint, Steam a few software to bypass those annoying launchers and you're good to go with much more performance.

[Grey Fox]

I'm quite excited to finally have a steam deck without the portability.

I wasn't being sarcastic. I have no use for a portable system.

Oh, sorry.

I fail to see the use beyond a PC.  Install Linux Mint, Steam a few software to bypass those annoying launchers and you're good to go with much more performance.

It's a niche product. We all have our own special usecase.

I am looking for a PC-based console-like livingroom/couch experience. At a cheaper price point than what is currently offered from those mini pc.

[Syt]

Saw it called the GabeCube

[Tamas]

To be fair if my kid was old enough for pc games I could see the appeal.

[Josquius]

To be fair if my kid was old enough for pc games I could see the appeal.

I'm thinking not too long.... When did I get my mega drive? 4? 5?
Ive definitely got some stuff on steam that is child appropriate. Sonic for instance.

[The Minsky Moment]

Every X box game is on PC now
Most PS games are also on PC. Except Astrobot, and some of the newer franchise games, but the latter will go to PC eventually.

Thus, a PC-based console like Steam Machine can play all the XB library, most of the PS library, and a ton more games neither of those consoles have.

The question isn't so much why one would buy the Valve machine, but why if someone wants to buy a console gaming machine, you would buy any other console instead? (Switch is its own category)

There are some answers:
1. Steam Machine probably can't natively download and run games from GamePass unless you install Windows on it.
2. You really want one or more of the few PS exclusives left and can't wait for the PC port.
3. The Valve box will require some setting tweaking to fully optimize performance.

Those are significant considerations for some and perhaps many, but otherwise the Valve box seems superior.  Bigger potential library, mostly cheaper games through various Steam sale and Steam key sale possibilities, it can expand storage cheaply through micro SD, AND you can hot transfer SD cards from the box, to Steam Deck, and to the new VR headset.

We'll see how the pricing ends up . . .