Valve is making a huge mistake with the Steam Machine

[Veknoid_Outcast]

SvennoJ said:

1. Valve is going after a market that is already used to all games being digital. There won't be any backlash this time as it is not removing features (trading, lending, etc) that people were used to having. Plus people will expect the cheap prices to continue, as opposed to console digital games that have always been more expensive then a physical copy.

2. Some exclusives will come (HL3?), PC exclusive games might get some extra optimization for the Steam hardware. Anyway it won't matter that much when you can get the same AAA games for $10 or less.

3. The average user on Steam doesn't have a very strong PC and doesn't spend thousands of dollars to keep up with the latest GPU's. The average user plays games on their home office PC or laptop. A simple box to put under the tv would be appealing to the average user.

4. Steam is a very well established name and already offers many of the features of psn and xbox live, for free.

Great points. I really think these "Steam machines" could be a disruptive force in the industry, especially for Sony and Microsoft. I think there are a good amount of console consumers out there that would begin to jump ship once they realize the games available on Steam perform and look better, and cost much less.