Is this a bad time for Valve to launch Steam Machines?

[zarx]

kabamarutr said:

Let's consider the following possibility. A large portion of PC gamers make the jump to Steam Machines, due to curiosity, desire for a ready-set machine, or bringing the PC to the living room. This could result in developpers creating games with Steam Machine's specs in mind. That, in turn, can mean building a monster rig is an action to no avail. Your extra specs will not be put in use in many games, thus pushing you to adopt the Steam Machine spec profile.

1. There is no SteamMachines spec profile, there is a range topping out at a fucking Titan. Various manufacturers will be making SteamMachines for multiple different price points and featuresets. Stoping thinking about them as if they are going to be like consoles, they aren't they are PCs in a livingroom freindly box with a gimped version of Linux that is optimised for gaming with a Steam big picture interface.

2. That already happens with Consoles and PC games still scale, there is no reason to not allow games to scale on high end hardware even if it's only resolution and framerate.

3. SteamOS is going to be extreamly limited in functionality being designed and limited to only installing stuff through Steam from the sounds of things. As I have other uses outside of gaming for my PC and I don't need two devices it's far better for me to invest in one device than two to do the same job. Unless Valve are going to be subsidising the hardware (they wont), in that case maybe I might get one (and install Windows) but then i would have to make a home server to hold all my HDDs lol.

 

People really have to realise that Valve are not making a traditional console like the big 3, it's not going to be that and people need to stop thinking of them in those terms. SteamMachines are PCs in a living room freindly box (that come with SteamOS preinstalled and possibly with that controller), nothing more nothing less.