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Companion cube skin pls
Can anyone tell me why anyone would want to buy a Steam Machine? Serious question.
I’ve been PC gaming for 20 years and always wanted to be able to play them on my TV. Yes, the methods exist, but it feels needlessly complex- right now I have long cables running through my small apartment just to play on my TV… with latency. It feels like to get everything running you need specific dongles, cables, hardware, ports, and then there’s compatibility issues on top of that.
I’m not a computer savant who runs a home network and meticulously manages their home tech. I’m also not a total noob- I can troubleshoot issues, setup mods, do some basic tinkering, etc. which puts me ahead of many, many typical users. That said, I have other hobbies and things I want to do, and the amount of work it takes to get this stuff minimally functional just isn’t worth the time and frustration for me (inb4 someone replies “just try xyz!”).
The Steam Machine is something I’ve always wanted. A one-stop shop I can plug into my TV, hook up my controller, and boom- steam library at my fingertips. No worries about compatibility, cable runs, or any of that crap. Plus, it could get someone like my partner (a lifelong Mac user who hates computers in general, can’t troubleshoot, and loves Nintendo games) into PC gaming.
People who don’t have a game pc, and don’t have the time or the inclination to tinker with one, but who do like to game.
People who would like to play retro games on their TV but don’t have the desire to tinker with a raspberry pi to set up their own arcade.
It may not he for you, but there’s a huge potential audience. Somebody who is used to the console experience and wants that simplicity for playing on the couch, but wants access to PC gaming platforms like Steam.
I like tinkering with my PC, but a lot of people don’t. They like consoles because they can pick up the controller, push a button, and it powers on and works, and they never have to worry if a game will run. If it’s released on the console, it should work.
Yeah, there’s 1001 ways to get a PC running on the TV, but none of them are as dumb-simple as turning on an Xbox. This device solves that issue.
Hell, even consoles aren’t as easy as they used to be. They require accounts with Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, they require updates for the console itself as well as individual games, most games have to be “installed,” you still have to think about internal storage…
Valve having such a stronghold on the market is both:
- amazing because of projects like this,
- frightening because we’re one Gabe brain damage away from having PC Gaming enshittified.
I like to believe the main reason he got into BCI research is to digitize himself and live on as an actual Steam Machine.
I avoid buying from Steam and prefer GOG when I can because I don’t really want to have continued access to my games collection be dependent on Gabe eating his veggies, avoiding saturated fats and doing at least a 30m walk a day to keep the risk of a heart attack low and look both ways before he crosses a road so as not to be run over by a car.
In almost 4 decades as a gamer and a techie I’ve seen plenty of good companies turn into evil companies and start to leverage whatever dependencies customers had on them to pretty much blackmail them into paying more, sometimes after the founders died, others when the founders cashed out or just lost interest in managing the company’s direction and yet others because they were evil all along and just hid it whilst they built their customer base - enshittification isn’t a XXI century thing, what’s XXI century about it is that many companies nowadays already have it as part of their mid and long term strategy from the start.
Best avoid situations where you give power to some big company (for whom you as an individual customer are basically a nameless bacteria) over something you care about, unless you have no other choice, even if at the moment they’re basically a benevolent dictatorship.
Better safe than sorry.
They are not public so we are safe for now. When they go public they go shit mode
Sadly i guess it could happen to GOG too. I mean, anything you have already bought is safe but someone could step in and change the business model and end such a great thing.
Indeed. Any online store can go under or enshittify.
If you want to stay safe with GOG, download the offline installers for your games and archive them. If you don’t you’re running the risk of losing some or all of it.
The rule “best avoid situations where you give power to some big company (for whom you as an individual customer are basically a nameless bacteria) over something you care about” is general, not Steam specific.
Fortunatelly GOG has DRM-free offline installers available for download as standard, Steam does not make that option available - at best you can copy and zip existing installations of Steam games and hope for the best (some will work, some will not), and that is a “hack” rather than official supported.
The point being that Steam could make something like DRM-free (or at least phone-home-DRM-free) offline installers available - at least for games whose developers/publishers are willing - and mark that as a feature in the game page in their store for those games, but they have chosen not to do so and remain steadfast in that choice: they purposefully keep customers dependent on them of enjoy their purchases and we’re all expected to just trust them, now and forever.
As I said, 4 decades in gaming and Tech have taught me you can’t trust large companies forever.
Valve is set up as a horizontal organization. I expect that to continue after Gaben’s death. He doesn’t really do much at valve these days anyway.
Yeah, well, somebody is going to inherit his share of ownership, and even if he goes out of his way and sets up a Foundation for the purpose of preserving the founder’s strategical vision for the company that will inherit his share, such Foundations tend to over time end up subverted and doing the very opposite of what the founder would’ve wanted.
Great customer friendly companies turning to shit when the founder dies is the kind of thing that happens all the time.
Best avoid situations were your shit is hostage to the whims of a big company for whom you as an individual customer are irrelevant.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it became employee owned.
Missed opportunity to do a goatse gape cube
TIL I built a Steam machine 6 years ago
How did you like that case?
I almost went with that before getting the M1 Case back when it was just a forum post order.
I’m not an expert but I wanted to build my own gaming mini-PC. I followed this guide step by step, which was super useful because they were giving useful tips to make sure everything fits and works correctly: https://techbuyersguru.com/reviews/building-a-small-form-factor-pc/ (they update the config each month so the current guide is very different from 5 years ago) But, in retrospective, I think I should have gone for a bigger case because there is basically no other GPU that can fit this case anymore.
GabeCube
GabeCube™, GabeGoggles™ and the GabeController™. Maybe we’ll get a GabeBoy™ next
Maybe we’ll get a GabeBoy™ next
steam deck
That’s the Gabe Gear.
While that comment was made as a meme, and I certainly thought of the Steam Deck, what I was initially thinking was about a super efficient SteamBoy of sorts.
An ARM-based, powerful, power-efficient, and pocketable handheld to play select retro games from Steam. And of course it will support emulation. It’s just wishful thinking at this point but would be great. I think a smaller handheld would pair nicely with the Steamdeck.
sorry by dose is stuffed.
I’d call it the PlayBox, just to confuse elderly relatives who want to buy a console for their kids.
Looks familiar…
Oh nooooo
Indeed
Off topic but the NeXT logo is my favourite logo of all time. If I get a GabeCube I’m 100% putting a NeXT sticker on the front
Can someone tell me how do I recreate the guitar tone from Hazardous Environments (the Valve theme)? I want to do a funny thing!
single coils, reverb , bridge pickup, play near bridge
edit : although it might be a baritone/bass vi ?
Somehow I get NeXT vibes…
Half Life3 confirmed!
this motherfucker looks beautiful
Add another year.
Might as well call it the billionaire cube
I mean you could do that with most all electronics
Indeed.
*Sent from my billionaire rectangle
Hoho! It’s because he made money hahaha!
Noooo!!!
It is ok for Gabe to be billionaire and profit off predatory gambling practices on children and micro transactions and selling broken games and selling unfinished games and repeatedly trying to monopolise the pc hardware industry and being anti consumer and taking 30% of all game sales
Because he monopolised the PC marketplace so I no longer have to leave the house to buy anime porn games.
Complaining about the 30% is insanity, that’s how retailers work, it’s not an unusual cut for an online store.
I fail to see how steam is anti-consumer, or how it ever actively tried to monopolize anything.
Selling broken, unfinishedband shovelware games was just them giving in to the demand to let everything on the store, after people (rightfully imo) hated greenlight.
Fuck the gambling though
Complaining about the 30% is insanity, that’s how retailers work, it’s not an unusual cut for an online store.
Epic takes 12% and 0% until the game reaches a million. Devs are paid in full for free and giveaways and games on sale.
Microsoft also only takes 12%
It’s only standard because Gabe got his greedy hands there first.
Physical retailers have been taking 30% before steam was even a thing. And no, the physical storage does not mean they should be paid more, because steam provides hosting capabilities that also cost money. Console stores from limited research seem to also take 30%.
Epic takes less because they operate the store at a loss in a desperate attempt to gain market share. If ms takes less, it’s for the same reason.
he didnt monopolise anything. the consumers did. valve does not enforce a monopoly, its just the competition shoots themselves in the foot all the time
also for the 30% you get a hell of a lot of service as a dev, including but not limited: the biggest storefront in PC gaming servers provided by valve managing of transactions free advertising on mentioned storefront. and thats just a tiny part od what you get.
and he aint trying to monopolise harware, nothing is preventing you from installing Windows on your steam devices, nor are you limited in peripheral harware choice (like controllers)
valve aint forcing you to do shit, therefore they aint monopolising anything. the competition just kills itself by providing horrendous service
valve does not enforce a monopoly, its just the competition shoots themselves in the foot all the time
Since you’re clearly too young. I’ll give you a history lesson.
Twenty years ago. Valve started paying publishers to change their physical games to use Steam. The Disc (because games came on discs back then) were useless without the Steam code.
They also paid for exclusivity. As there were quite a few digital distribution platforms at the time. IGN even had one.
free advertising on mentioned storefront
Aww dude. There’s no free advertising.
Since you’re clearly too young. I’ll give you a history lesson.
I am clearly not to young, let me chime in.
20 years ago, publishers had the full Control. Indie publishing was not possible.
The big studios controlled what you can play, and on wahr price. They took a big big share of the profits.
Now, with platform like Steam, self publishing is a thing, and more.
Yes, of course they tried to get some traction on steam. Epic games, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, all do exclusivity deals!
Yes, valve takes 30% of every transaction on Steam. Publishers take up to 60% … And so you play games published by auch publishers? Yes? And you don’t feel bad about yourself?
Twenty years ago, was 2005.
Cave Story was the year before, Dwarf Fortress was a year out, and Doom was Doom.
Self publishing was a big thing, shareware and early online distribution. Even bigger than it is now. (Because there’s not a monopoly sucking in all the eyes(which includes you it seems as you can’t even imagine a non-Steam world (probably because you’re a young lad trying to act old)))
Downloading capacities where a major issue. Distribution required still discs. Doom was published 1995, not 2005.
Dwarf Fortress and cave story where “small games” considering the total binary size. But, games started to take up multiple hundred megabytes, leading to massiv traffic costs back in the day. I was working my first it job at this time. At a hosting company. Having 100GB of downloads a month was rare, and the price for it was massive.
Dude, I wish I would be under 40 again, but I am not.
My point was that self distribution was already a thing.
And Steam didn’t improve download speeds. If Steam was around then it would be subject to the same speed restrictions.
no free advertising yeah you pay it via the 30%
twenty years ago… alright i may have been wrong in that regard, however 20 years are more than enough time to catch up. epic games and basically every publisher tried to do so, also with their own exclusivity and all. but they didnt. cause they suck. steam doesnt suck. it actually provides a good service, maybe not 20 years ago, but today they do.
however 20 years are more than enough time to catch up
I suggest you read about the Network Effect in markets.
It’s not at all easy to reverse the market share of a business which benefits from a dominant market position in a market were such effects are strong, even when they turn complete shit (example: Twitter), which Valve hasn’t.
PS: A “20 years made no difference” example: Microsoft and Windows, with which a literally free product - Linux - competes.
if you count a user base of 4-5% a competition then every other launcher is a competition to steam, which i completely disagree with. 4-5% isnt even barely a competition, its a couple of people deviating from the norm.
and to the network effeft:
…depends on the number of users of compatible products
what exactly has to be compatible here? the game will run no matter where i buy it, the only difference is how enjoyable the launcher is
Yes Steam is a defacto monopoly. But not through the actions of Valve but through the actions of it competitors.
Valve does not behave like a monopoly, and it takes its money to improve gaming for all.
I would get it if someone here would be really simping for Gabe. But may I remind you all, this is a shitposting community and this is a meme.
If not for Valve and their openness towards Linux, Microsoft would long have followed Apple and made a walled garden out of Windows.
If you want to make sure that gaming is not getting a walled of eco system be Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, that you need Valve.
Just look at that release: NO AI bullshit, no walled garden, no vendor locking. No locked bootloader’s, repairability and consumer rights are in the focus.
If course you can point out that this is a profit oriented company and everything they do, they do to make money. And I would not argue with that.
But this? What is this? Why?
Yes Steam is a defacto monopoly. But not through the actions of Valve but through the actions of it competitors.
Being honest with you. I didn’t read past this. Because it’s so obvious you’re a young G*mer who has only lived in a Steam world.
Steam paid for exclusivity with publishers. Getting them to not only pull games from other online stores (because there were a number of stores back in the day before Steam killed them).
But also to change their physical copies to use Steam as DRM.
consumer rights are in the focus
Ok so I skimmed the rest of the comments and had to laugh here. The EU literally had to come out and tell Valve to stop being anti-consumerist cunts. And even now they’re only doing the bare minimum. Jesus Christ you must still be in school.
Ok, so answering after reading the first line and the again you are to young you have no ideas.
Even if I was that young, that is just a stupid line of argument.
But, considering the fact that I am in IT for over 20 years now, it is just hilarious.
Just for reference, the first picture with me and a PC on it. Maybe you can calculate my age from this…
So you’re willingly misremembering to reinforce your brainwashing.
That’s just plain sad.
Am I? Proof? Srsly, it you have some hard fact’s (beside a single ruling some years ago because of geo blocked keys), let me know.
I bought my games on Humble, and GOG for a very long time. Since humble offers specific packages now only through a fucking Windows only Launcher and GOG likewise, I am FORCED to use steam…
But I prefer DRM free content.
That does not change the fact that I think valve is the most consumer friendly company on the market currently.
But this does not make me a fanboy or someone who must have steam the the good guy
Oo a west highland terrier!
That was Charlie. He was a good boy. Died a year ago :( still muss him
It’s not ok but that where we at.
They are all billionaires.
Says the guy writing on a billionaire phone.
The OP comment is annoying but your comment gives this vibe
Just received my Fairphone LOL
Cope harder and simp your fave billionaire as much as you want
You know, Valves decision years ago investing into the Linux eco system and literally pumping millions of dollars into open source development, contributing, hiring the sole maintainers of stuff like dxvk and more.
This brought Linux and especially the Linux desktop a lot further than without it.
We all gained through it.
And those new products are, like your Fairphone, designed with repairability and consumer rights in mind.
You talk like Fairphone does earn nothing in their phone’s and their are not in it for the money. Well, bad news. They made 54.400.000€ euro net profit last year.
So, go and stick your pseudo elitist behavior up your ass
We all gain through a lot of things related to wealthy shitheads. I’m not against companies making money but we shouldn’t be bootlicking any billionaire.
Billionaire fanboyism has got to be the stupidest most sheepish behaviour imaginable - possibly even worse than looking up to celebrities who are famous for being famous - because billionaires are literally hoarding money which could be way more useful to just about everybody else in the World.
Mind you, at least before Elon’s Nazi Reveal people still had an excuse (if seriously flimsy and mainly self-deluded, considering his earlier “tunnel submarine pedo comments” bullshit), but at this point everybody into Tech should’ve already learned the lesson.
You say this like the Fairphone’s CEO isn’t a billionaire.
Is he, though?
They sell around 100k phones per year. They had an annual revenue of ~55 millions euros for the past three years and are barely profitable. It isn’t worth billions and they certainly don’t pay their CEO that much.For context, and to help with the semantics, allow me to add that 1 million seconds is 12 days. Meanwhile, 1 billion seconds is around 31 years. So, fairphone CEO can hardly be a billionaire. They do have profit, sure. We all make a living, their is way higher than average but still far from those ‘unicorns’ we call billionaires.
Ps. I’m with you since your first comment. You just got downvoted because it was being too snarky. Thankfully other user replied showing all the bad things Valve has (while, as we all know, having 1 tangentially-nice thing which is that they used Linux for their products)
