Based on https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ I would imagine out of 100 Steam players, most are playing at a Windows gaming computer with an Intel CPU, a bunch with Windows/AMD, then a few with a Mac, then one with a Steam Deck.
Most of those are probably NOT plugged into a TV, so in that way I agree that these are not typical Steam users. That's why the Steam Machine was developed, to bring gaming back to the couch in a way that the Steam Link didn't succeed at.
> bring gaming back to the couch in a way that the Steam Link didn't succeed at.
Also in the way that the Ouya didn’t succeed at - their kickstarter tagline was “Cracking open the last closed platform: the TV”. I actually had completely forgotten about the Ouya, but the wording of your comment made me go look it up.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of...
I've still got my ouya, wonder if it still works.
It was a fun idea, even though I mostly just used it as an emulator box.
The controllers were neat but a bit janky, I always had issues w/ the batteries.
Oh god I bought one of these. It was so terrible. Valve is definitely the right company (private) to pull this off. Gabe just needs to own a foundry and they’ll be set.
i got it because it was sold as an alternative to the steam link, but it's just an android phone that connects to your tv - with a market for games.
I bought a steam link shortly after, and it still worked the last time i used it.
Having used a Steam Link, I couldn't tell you why it failed. It works great. Maybe the controller was the problem.
My guess is connectivity. I was only happy with the Steam Link when it was using a wired connection. This isn't an issue in my home, but most homes don't have wired Ethernet all over.
I did not love the v1 Steam Controller, but it's easy to use with other controllers.
Even with a wired connection, I hate Steam Link. It's fine for streaming to the Steam Deck while playing on the Steam Deck, but Steam Deck -> TV has a lot of issues. I could probably resolve them if I faffed around enough, but I've spent enough hours trying instead of gaming.
The SD doesn't seem to support AV1 decoding, the resolution streaming resolution won't go to 4k despite forcing it in the settings, and the most annoying issue, if the framerate is not set to 90fps, there is 30ms of additional streaming latency. Which means, if I connect it to my 60fps living room tv, it will add 30ms of latency.
Then there are a bunch of minor issues, no virtual monitor, having to manually swap settings to windowed mode and hope the game offers the correct resolution for my TV (since my gaming rig is on an ultrawide), having to leave the gaming pc on and unlocked.
Apparently Apollo or Moonlight will solve some of the annoying issues, but I'm kind of soured on the streaming experience at this point. Streaming on the SD should Just Work.