The Steam Machine: What Went Wrong

Julio Franco

Julio Franco

Posts: 9,097   +2,048
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The future? Hopefully an OS that finally recognizes all the situations PCs are used in, perhaps with an adaptive interface. Windows 10 isn't perfect and often 3rd party apps are required. I don't even remember the last time I used windows explorer, simply because Directory Opus is leagues better in every way. Stardock Fences contains features that should have been integrated into windows a long time ago. I guess it's nice having zero competition.
 
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"But maybe Steam Machines were an answer to a problem nobody had. Round two, anyone?"

Yet they failed to solve a problem that we all do have (gaming on Linux). That is the key for full attraction, which has been this way for 2 decades.
 
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I think the -Linux Operated- Steam Machine was too much a threat to Windows 10 that Microsoft begged Valve to give up the idea and promised not to try and lure game developers away from the Steam Store that exists within WIndows 10.
 
Luay said:
I think the -Linux Operated- Steam Machine was too much a threat to Windows 10 that Microsoft begged Valve to give up the idea and promised not to try and lure game developers away from the Steam Store that exists within WIndows 10.
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Lol... I highly doubt that...It's just really hard to crack a monopoly... Try convincing developers to code something for a platform that MIGHT get 5% of the market - or just focus limited resources on a platform that is GUARANTEED to have over 80% of the market.... I know what I'd be choosing...
 
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cliffordcooley said:
"But maybe Steam Machines were an answer to a problem nobody had. Round two, anyone?"

Yet they failed to solve a problem that we all do have (gaming on Linux). That is the key for full attraction, which has been this way for 2 decades.
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Yes. Valve helped with video drivers for linux, but they could have done soo much more. Integrating wine as a steam option, allowing devs to sell a game in a self contained wine instance with a wrapper to speed up the availability of titles, un-screwing APIs on linux with steamOS, ece.

But much like green-light, valve just doesn't want responsibility for anything they do.
 
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For me and many other steam machine did fail on getting more user to buy in the steam machine idea. Other hand the software still being updated and it did help push more games ported over Linux with alot game running over 60fps. Comes down to as did fail some aspect other it didn't.
 
Those who are more invested into gaming won't buy Steam machines because they know about PC, how to build one and all it's perks. Those who want consoles just buy PS or Xbox. They chose Linux as a platform for games, a platform that is known by gamers to have no games and on top of that performance was worse than on Windows. Sorry but performance is the number one thing you need if you want to make it in this area.
 
cliffordcooley said:
"But maybe Steam Machines were an answer to a problem nobody had. Round two, anyone?"

Yet they failed to solve a problem that we all do have (gaming on Linux). That is the key for full attraction, which has been this way for 2 decades.
Click to expand...
Very true - when you cannot play the newest and best titles on your platform it's DOA. I'm wondering why they don't just license something from Microsoft to play the games in a "windows" environment so they can use AMD's and Nvidia's drivers and Microsoft's support. It couldn't drive the price up more than $15-20 per machine.
 
#1 This would be an easy problem to fix if Steam would get rid of the Linux OS and run a Windows based OS, that would allow gamers to play all of the great games out there that can't be played with the Linux OS. #2 Bring back Half-Life 2, 3, and etc..... as an exclusive to the Steam Machine. Then just sit back and watch the sales go up. There are so many gamers that are loyal to certain games that they will purchase a system to play them.
 
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The real problem, in my view, was that they approached things backwards: they concentrated on hardware rather than software - in particular the OS. As many have pointed out, many PC gamers would never consider the Steam Box hardware, because they build their own rigs. Jumping into hardware partnerships while still just developing their own gaming OS was a huge example of putting the cart before the horse. If Valve had put all of their resources into the OS and refined something that was hardware-independently stable, then pushed that out to allow their current users to jump in easily (maybe dual-booting), it could have created much more momentum behind the whole idea of a Steam Box concept, which would then be a prime time to introduce dedicated hardware units. Instead, we got slick designs with underwhelming hardware, stumbling and bumbling OS development with poor drivers, and very limited adoption by game designers to provide a very limited library that could even be run on the new systems. There was no grass roots to push the concept, no internal momentum from the existing (and often long time) player base, no real reason to even give Steam Box a second look. Which is too bad, because the idea came in during a perfect storm - rising console gaming profiles, and the horrible public perception of Windows 8. It was an ideal window (no pun intended) to get something out there that could have gained traction quickly. But they tripped at the starting line, and then seemed to stumble at every hurdle they tried to jump.
 
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Had Valve put a better effort in to this platform it would have likely done much better, kinda launching an OS and then leaving it up to 3rd parties to make the platform to run it and sell it whilst simultaneously expecting developers to develop tittles for it was just never going to happen. Incentive would be needed to be given to all parties involved, even the people buying it, for something of this nature to compete in a market that did not ask for another machine of mixed nature yet incapable of doing any particularly well.
 
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AntecFX said:
#1 This would be an easy problem to fix if Steam would get rid of the Linux OS and run a Windows based OS, that would allow gamers to play all of the great games out there that can't be played with the Linux OS. #2 Bring back Half-Life 2, 3, and etc..... as an exclusive to the Steam Machine. Then just sit back and watch the sales go up. There are so many gamers that are loyal to certain games that they will purchase a system to play them.
Click to expand...
Except if you're running Windows, all you have is just a PC.... I can buy a small-factor PC from numerous distributors that is cheaper... The "unique OS" was the only difference...
 
cliffordcooley said:
Yet they failed to solve a problem that we all do have (gaming on Linux).
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This is not a problem that "we all have", hell, it's only meant for linux fanboys when someone says they won't shift because there is no real gaming in the platform, holds both truth and lie, and I say lie because even if they could play on linux systems they probably wouldn't shift either.

People complain already about Microsoft being too "config hidden", imagine the same person trying to configure the wifi on CLI.

hahahanoobs said:
Prices were too high
GPU's were too weak
Game library too small
Windows > Linux
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Pretty much.

They started focusing on the lines of the steam controller which has been gaining traction too darned late, they offered it as an alternative to use the keyboard and mouse, yet never fully backed it up with a W Steam box.
 
Kibaruk said:
This is not a problem that "we all have", hell, it's only meant for linux fanboys when someone says they won't shift because there is no real gaming in the platform, holds both truth and lie, and I say lie because even if they could play on linux systems they probably wouldn't shift either.
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People would shift to Linux if they could play games. Because if they could this would create an ecosystem that eventually would draw everyone in.

I know absolutely no one that uses Linux because it doesn't do anything for them. That would change if people could play games in Linux. Slowly but surely everyone would then get used to seeing Linux in use. I tried Linux on my own but never seeing anyone use it the learning curve was too steep.
 
cliffordcooley said:
People would shift to Linux if they could play games.
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Hehe now come on, we all know they wouldn't, I mean... those that really use Linux for some reason and they like to play games, or the other way around, all of those users have dual boot. I don't see people dropping Windows because Linux has gaming capabilities, it's not going to replace Windows anytime soon.

Now let's go the other way around, I'm pretty sure lots of people would drop Linux if they had a Windows counterpart for running whatever they need, I've seen them go as far as just having a virtual machine with a CLI to run whatever they need.
 
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Kibaruk said:
it's not going to replace Windows anytime soon
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I don't remember saying it would happen over night. But unless people can play their games, it's not going to happen at all. That's the way it has been since the inception of Linux. Heck people being able to game in Windows is why it spawn life so quickly in the 90's. I think I can remember having this argument some time back. Kids don't use a PC for much other than games. And if they could use Linux for their games, why spend on an OS. Kids grow up and continue using what they grew up with. Kids are the future whether you want to see it or not.
 
cliffordcooley said:
I don't remember saying it would happen over night. But unless people can play their games, it's not going to happen at all. That's the way it has been since the inception of Linux. Heck people being able to game in Windows is why it spawn life so quickly in the 90's. I think I can remember having this argument some time back. Kids don't use a PC for much other than games. And if they could use Linux for their games, why spend on an OS. Kids grow up and continue using what they grew up with. Kids are the future whether you want to see it or not.
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The thing is, most of them aren't paying for an OS now... it's coming bundled with their PC. Yes, I know that they're technically paying for it, but the choice isn't being made by the end user, but by the vendor.

Unless companies like Dell and HP decide to include Linux versions of their PCs and dump Windows, Linux can be the "God of OSes" and will still fail to make any inroads.
 
I see now you lack imagination and could never predict how things would be. You can't see passed the facts of how things are. I'd be surprised if in a world that changes, you don't have spasms of some sort just thinking about it.
 
cliffordcooley said:
I see now you lack imagination and could never predict how things would be. You can't see passed the facts of how things are. I'd be surprised if in a world that changes, you don't have spasms of some sort just thinking about it.
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So you think that an OS that is based on an OS decades older than Windows (UNIX) will somehow magically supplant it in the future?

I have no issues with change... if Windows is supplanted, however, it will almost certainly be by something NEW... or at least... NEWER.... I can see Android giving Windows a battle once smartphones and tablets have the horsepower to compete with PCs - which could be within a few years...

But Linux... nope... don't see it... guess I should start spasming now (assuming that's even a word :) )
 
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