Anyone else think Steam Machines are going to be a massive flop?

[Dr.Henry_Killinger]

fatslob-:O said:

Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

Oh I know it won't succeed. But Steam Boxes are Steam's chance to break into the console industry, so when Consoles are eventually assimilated into PCs they will have a huge advantage, even against MS.

Problem is because the manufacturers are selling custom PC, a market that already exists, rather than steam consoles, its fails to reach both audiences. Not to mention those manufacturers couldn't sell the steam boxes at a loss because they aren't profitting from Steam's software sales.

Thus it has/had potential, but the execution is the major issue with it.

 

How is execution the issue when it was just a bad idea from the gecko ?

Even if steamOS had everything except for directx it would still fail miserably because it offers no differentiation between the PC and the console market. As blurred as the line is between console and PC they atleast have a factor that differentiates them such as easier accessiblity as well as having some high quality exclusive software. PC's have benefit of being able to do many things not related to gaming. Steam machine on the other hand will have almost nothing to differentiate it because Valve can't afford to support a huge platform as large as this. Valve has also failed to control the price that OEM's are charging which will mean that it will get a bad reputation as an overpriced console like the PS3 initially was. The controller is shit too as well.

Why didn't they realize all this ? 

The plan was bad all along and I just can't see it having any sort of potential.

I must admit I was seeing it from mainly the future of consoles perspective. Once price to power becomes low enough which could happen as early as mid this gen, Consoles will be completely obsolete, and the big 3, with the exception of Nintendo, will probably migrate wholly to digital platforms. This is inevitable if Moore's Law continues to hold. From this viewpoint, I saw SteamOS as a early entrant into this "virtual" console space. However, you are right, the diversity of a PC os like Windows 7 or OSX is not going to even be dented by SteamOS.

I would argue that the potential it had would mainly be in increasing Valve's appeal to console gamers or the mainstream in general, but I agree that the whole entire idea is pretty flawed.