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“Powerful PC gaming in an open ecosystem”
Valve just kicked the teeth of all console makers with this announcement. If only they manage to ship and distribute globally they would single-handedly threat taking over the entire gaming industry (hardware side) in a single generation. Of course, it’s well to wait for reviews, hands on demonstrations and the reality that comes out of this. But I bet there’s more than one MS an Sony executive who were apprehensive of seeing this day arrive.
Also: the fact they doubled down on the Steam Machine name. It’s like a huge FU to all OEM manufacturers who laughed at them in 2017.
I don’t think they even can manufacture at a scale anywhere close to the big three. Like with the Steam Deck, it’ll be a great product for a niche audience, but the numbers will be limited in comparison. No chance of taking over the industry.
It definitely seems to me like they’re trying a similar strategy to Microsoft’s Surface line or Google’s Pixel line where the main goal isn’t really to outcompete directly, but rather to influence the market by a) proving that the platform is viable and b) providing a blueprint/setting expectations for third-party manufacturers considering getting in on it. I swear I remember valve saying they were open to licensing steam os to third party devices (granted, I dunno if anyone’s taken them up on it), and they obviously want as many people on steam as they can pull off.
There are currently 2 third party handhelds that are officially supported by SteamOS, so at least 2 manufacterers have taken them up on it so far.
Also the controllers are hall effect by the sounds of it. Which will be a jab at Nintendo no doubt.
technically TMR, but yeah
I’m so glad the steam controller is back.
I was an early adopter, I got my first steam link and steam controller in November 2015
I went through 17 steam controllers.
Seventeen.
Because they were built like absolute fucking shit, and my ear actually got attuned to the sound of the shoulder spring breaking. Crunch.
The first one I bought was totally DOA, the replacement was DOA with a broken button membrane, the replacement for that DOA with a malfunctioning back paddle. The fourth one, and first functional one I got lasted two months before the shoulder broke. There were ones I got new out of the box and the shoulder broke within an hour.
So I’m happy as fuck that it came back, but I’m so hesitant. I choose to believe that they have corrected the shitty build problem, but I guess I’ll find out!
I dusted off my steam controller after playing on a Steam Deck for a while, and it felt like garbage. everything is better on the Deck, especially the trackpads. This new controller looks like an additional improvement.
If it’s built as well as the deck, it should be great
I’m also a steam controller lover, and I feel you on the build quality point, but just remember that this new one is going to be built post-steam-deck. The lessons from the steam controller funnel into the steam deck, and the lessons from the steam deck will funnel into the new steam controller.
Oh hell yeah, I knew all along that the steam link, the steam controller, that was a research project
And I have confidence that the new one will resolve a lot of the build issues. Cautiously optimistic
AMD must feel good about this, given their (apparent) alarmingly small desktop GPU marketshare.
…They really just need OEMs to ship the things, and now they got a great one.
I’d be neat if Steam offered an Intel Arc variant too. The B series is massively underrated.
This is so sick. I wish the console was more powerful and didnt rely on fsr for 4k preformance. I’d love to get my hands on that vr headset.
I bet you can turn it off and just do 1080p gaming. I think steam analysis one said that only about 10% of people have a 4k display. So that’s probably why they haven’t over spec the system.
In about 4 years they’ll probably have a more powerful version as well.
Not sure what the statistics are for televisions though, which is what this is focusing on (home console experience)
TVs are all 4k though. 1080p looks like shit on 4k screen.
Well they’re really not. The vast majority of TVs in actual use are not 4k.
I have a 4K TV which I basically never use because the interface is so bad. I only have it because I was giving it for free I wouldn’t have gone out of my way and bought one because my PC screen is fine for viewing content and it’s where all the content is anyway.
1080p looks fine on a 4K (2160p) screen especially if whatever you’re using to display it (be that your machine, receiver, or the TV itself in the case of “smart” TVs) is good at upscaling. Worse case scenario it looks the same as 1080p content looks on a TV of the same size, since 2160p is literally just 4x the pixels of 1080p.
1080p can look bad on a 1440p display though, since it doesn’t go evenly in and you’ll need good upscaling.
1080p can look bad on a 1440p display though, since it doesn’t go evenly in and you’ll need good upscaling.
And that’s why it’s better to use 720p in the cases where you can’t do native 1440p.
Yeah.
I was with family, on an RTX 2060 laptop and a nice TV. I fed it 1080P for the TV to upscale (since that’s the only res it would take at 120HZ or something like that), and it looked great. Those TV ASICs are quite powerful these days.
I mean, it will do 4K in old games just fine.
FSR(4) is less noticable at higher res, anyway.
FSR4 only runs on RDNA 4. The Steam Machine has RDNA 3, so FSR3 is the limit
…Oh. I see, I misread the generation.
Yeah, that’s a huge caveat, one that would get me to reconsider the whole box, as FSR4 is way better than 3. I wonder if there’s a chance for AMD (or Valve) to backport it?
This looks really solid.
Im so curious about the new VR tech, isn’t this what the VR nerds have been talking about, like, forever? I guess we’ll just have to see how well implemented it is.
But goddamn, what an absolute bombshell to drop 3 pieces of hardware at once. Lets hope they can deliver.
Valve crushed it out of the park. Great hardware and really well presented; beautiful and succinct.
Idk. The Deck atleast is really small, and portable.
The Cube just seems like a pc tower.The Frame though… I wish I could afford that thing.
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframeThe cube is smaller than it looks. It’s a bit bigger than the GameCube. 3D print a handle for it and it’s as portable as a machine gets!
Edit: I mean, obviously not as portable as the Deck, but that’s a handheld.
Edit 2:
Steam Machine is 16.2 x 15.6 x 15.2 cm.
GameCube is 15 x 15 x 11 cm.Not having an optical drive like the GameCube gives it a lot more space for other components, though
Yeah, that’s tiny. That’s like 3.8L.
I travel with a 10L SFF PC, and that’s small for an SFF case.
My understanding of volume is awful. 3.8L sounds so much bigger than the volume described by 16.2 x 15.6 x 15.2cm. Like, my brain goes, “that’s almost two 2L bottles and those are huge!”
I have several pint glasses in my kitchen and they’re all different sizes, and even though I know how that works it’s still weird.
