What is the appeal of Steam Machine as a dedicated gaming device? Isn't it going to be old in a few years and then you have to get rid of it because upgrading components isn't a viable option? Isn't that quite the opposite of anything that deserves to be associated with them term "hacker"?
> Isn't it going to be old in a few years and then you have to get rid of it because upgrading components isn't a viable option?
I expect to get the rest of this decade out of my Steam Deck so IDK, very different to my normal expectations for a computer. The Steam Deck also defines a floor that will allow compatible games to be very performant on the Steam Machine so I think that will help the Steam Machine have a decent lifespan.
I also think on some level we need to start resigning ourselves to getting 10+ years out of our computers!
I fully believe that the current PC hardware should be able to play essentially any game for a very long time. And the only reason we are being pushed to upgrade is because games are pushing poorly optimized graphics with mandatory features like ray tracing. No game play experience is impossible to achieve on the steam deck level hardware.
I'm hopeful that with the insane hardware prices right now, studios will be forced to actually make their games work on older hardware.
Compact, convenient, console-like experience that pulls games from your existing steam library. Same niche as a normal console, just not locked down in the same sense. If it weren't for the price I'd consider one, but I'd rather limp along my existing systems for as long as possible (and it sounds like SteamOS support for broader systems is improving).
With current hardware prices, I'm not sure it'll be 'old' in gaming terms in a few years. I'm expecting the PS6 to be only a moderate upgrade over the PS5, not arrive for another year at least, and probabky take 5 years to overtake the PS5.
I doubt anyone's associating the Steam Machine with the term "hacker". The "hacker" type crowd already game on Linux, they're not the target audience here. This is for the normies, for people who want to play PC games with a console-like experience, without any hassles of manual setup and tweaking that the hacker crowd normally are into.
> for people who want to play PC games with a console-like experience, without any hassles of manual setup and tweaking that the hacker crowd normally are into.
Until they want to play Fortnite/Roblox/whatever else.
There are a lot more games in the world than Fortnite/Roblox.. and besides, those are pretty bad examples since you can also play them on Android, so it's not like you need a PC to play them in the first place.
This only really matters for children, who probably aren't the bulk of the hacker crowd.
fyi: this very web site is called ... hacker news.
The "hackers" here who are interested in this article, fall in one or more of these categories:
a) they already use Linux, but want to buy this anyway just to encourage the ecosystem
b) they want to recommend it for the normies they know, who find Linux, or gaming on Linux, daunting
So my point still stands.
it's not like I'd ever expect only real hacker news here (whatever that even means) but let's be honest for a moment this is just an ordinary consumer item lacking anything novel or innovative ... it's basically just a very large smartphone with a game library for an app store.
I don't disagree, but what this does have is commercial backing and branding, and an excuse for game devs to target it - which benefits the Linux gaming ecosystem as a whole (and non-gaming ecosystem too, like look at all the improvements coming to AMD and KDE users, thanks to Valve's involvement).
Do you usually want to upgrade components in a console?
I'm pretty sure you got my point.