Re:Valve working on 'Steam Box' gaming console with hardware...
by bryanlarsen on Saturday March 03, 2012 @08:17AM
(#3660069)
How many of those 30 or so million users are looking to upgrade their video card or buy a new computer? That's your target market.
potential markets:
- people looking for a computer to hook up to their television. I bet there are lots of people out their who would like a nice HTPC but want modern gaming performance as well.
- people with laptops as their primary PC but who also game. How many people have a desktop and a laptop because gaming sucks on most/all laptops? Probably the vast majority of PC gamers. Every single one of these is a potential customer. Use a MacBook Air for work & facebook & casual gaming and get a SteamBox for serious RTS gaming or flight simulators or whatever other kind of games don't work well on consoles or on laptops. You'll no longer have to worry about anti-virus or any of the other crap involved in maintaining a Windows box. You'll just have an OS X box that "just works" and you'll have a Linux box that "just works".
- people who want to buy a PC without paying a license fee to Microsoft. Some of these will install Ubuntu or a pirated Windows on their later, but then support is no longer the Vendor's problem. I suspect it will be much easier to persuade vendors to sell "SteamBox OS" boxes than Linux boxes just because it should reduce support costs.
To summarize: cheapskates and gamers. I think that covers about 99% of the home desktop PC market -- everybody else buys laptops.
potential markets:
- people looking for a computer to hook up to their television. I bet there are lots of people out their who would like a nice HTPC but want modern gaming performance as well.
- people with laptops as their primary PC but who also game. How many people have a desktop and a laptop because gaming sucks on most/all laptops? Probably the vast majority of PC gamers. Every single one of these is a potential customer. Use a MacBook Air for work & facebook & casual gaming and get a SteamBox for serious RTS gaming or flight simulators or whatever other kind of games don't work well on consoles or on laptops. You'll no longer have to worry about anti-virus or any of the other crap involved in maintaining a Windows box. You'll just have an OS X box that "just works" and you'll have a Linux box that "just works".
- people who want to buy a PC without paying a license fee to Microsoft. Some of these will install Ubuntu or a pirated Windows on their later, but then support is no longer the Vendor's problem. I suspect it will be much easier to persuade vendors to sell "SteamBox OS" boxes than Linux boxes just because it should reduce support costs.
To summarize: cheapskates and gamers. I think that covers about 99% of the home desktop PC market -- everybody else buys laptops.