Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans.

I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC, but then, you also need the name and reputation for it. Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console. Which is mostly a PC, but you need xbox games, a separate ecosystem.

but it has 'steam' in the name. So the target is the steam audience already.

>Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console.

Missed the one, they did try with the rebranding of 'xbox'

That rebranding and Microsoft's abjectly terrible product naming convention essentially killed the Xbox. What the absolute fuck were they smoking when they went from Xbox, to Xbox 360, to Xbox One, to Xbox One X, to Xbox Series S and X? Like anybody wants an enterprise gaming console.

Absolutely bonkers considering how strong they came in with the first Xbox, Halo, and Xbox Live.

And the rationale that they couldn't go from Xbox to Xbox 3 because of the PS3 is abject bullshit. They skipped Windows 9, after all.

Nintendo almost managed to do the same to their own gaming machines with the absolutely insanely inadequate Nintendo Wii / Wii U decision making.

As an engineer and a consumer / customer, I simply cannot understand why there's a need to complicate things.

You have a Thing, right? It sells, right? You develop the next Thing? Great! Call it Thing 2. Instant success.

I wonder why car manufacturers don't operate like that. They might add a number to the model (e.g. "Golf IV"), but it will always be advertised as "The new VW Golf".

What would've happened if Nintendo simply would've advertised "The new Nintendo Switch"?

Never thought about that, but now it's an interesting thought experiment.

In the world of cars, industrial design is the version number. Beyond that, VW just wants to sell their latest Golf to whomever is buying a new hatchback today. End of strategy.

Numbering helps sell electronics because it makes it clear that your old phone/console is old and "needs" upgrading. It's also critical for selling software exclusive to a certain hardware generation.

They did that with the "New Nintendo 3DS". It was confusing as hell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_3DS

Things are going wrong when you have a model name like "New Nintendo 2DS XL" to describe a product IMO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_2DS_XL

I think they made like three games for that one.

Many people replace their car on a regular basis because it is considered a wear item.

With computer/console, you have to pretend the devicethey are still enjoying is obsolete to invent a need to replace it

Imagine how much more money Sony could have made if they called their latest game console Playstation Ø

Funny that you used that symbol, as it would have been a fantastically bad choice for clarity in product naming. I'm going to assume that you're German speaking and think of it as meaning "average".

In my head it would have been the "Playstation Island", while for most of the world it would probably have been the "Playstation Empty Set".

Not as fantastically bad as “Xbox One” though.

You mean the X-bone?

Playstation half-diminished, a.k.a Playstation mi7(b5)/"minor seven flat five"

Fortunately while Squarenix is still important to Playtstation (and Tetsuya Nomura to Squarenix), it's not the juggernaut it once was in the early 2000.

(for those who don't get it: Tetsuya Nomura is a director at Squarenix and known (amongst other) for its Kingdom Heart series who ends up with word salad title such as "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" or "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days")

>Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans.

Steam deck is "just a PC" as well, which can be turned on to immediately play video games.

Thanks to its reputation, the masses will trust the Steam Machine to do this much.

Valve know what they're doing.

That machine would be very different from my gaming PC however. I could use it exactly like a console, which is a different use case than a desktop PC.

I have a Steam Deck. All you have to do to use it like a desktop PC is to connect a cheap hub with power delivery, HDMI and USB ports for keyboard and mouse, then boot into KDE Plasma which is a regular desktop environment.

Honestly, my SD has seen more use as a stationary PC than a handheld :-P

>> when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans.

In like, what way? You can "just" boot up a new Windows PC, install some games and play them straight away. Do you mean the fact that you now have to log into a Microsoft account first? Because if yes - SteamOS also requires you to log in before you can use it.

>nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC,

Since Valve owns the library it makes sense that people will trust their solution and it has more chance for succcess

> I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC

Microsoft used to have Windows Media Centre, which was a version of Windows designed for HTPC use that booted straight to the media centre control screen. The last version of that was in Windows 7.

It is actually possible to replace the desktop in Windows, window management (but not chrome, that's part of Aero and/or individual "owner draw" applications), Explorer etc. Nobody's really bothered with that.

Microsoft are just too used to not having to compete, so they don't provide lots of variant SKUs for different uses. Even "point of sale" and LTS are somewhat neglected.

This. Zero reason I should have to download Playnite for a unified gaming frontend

I think valve are the only players in a position to do this. They can probably ship this new hardware at a loss and make the money back through steam game purchases. Much like console manufacturers.

LTT reports Valve said it'll be priced "like a PC, not like a console" as in not expect to be subsidized by game purchases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3FkuZNSGkw

I see :)

Then it will compete more with those entry-level SFF PC builds.

I still hope that they will compete with console pricing though.

Which means expensive

I mean, even Valve has tried it in the past, and it was a failure. Look up Steam Machines from 2010s. I consider the success of Steam Deck (thanks to flawless execution this time) as almost a minor miracle.

The big difference is the extra years of work that went into Proton and Steam-on-Linux ecosystem, including controller support etc.

A failure they fully admit they learned from. Proton was the outcome of that failure, and I'd say they are well poised to make a bigger dent this time.

they've done a ton of engineering to make this happen. they implemented the necessary interfaces in steam, _they developed proton_ to avoid windows, worked with hardware to get console features like wake from controller connect, and custom hardware we see here.

> I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC

Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Atari, Sega...

They intentionally choose to brand their personal computers poorly to coerce their customers into giving up control of their computers. That doesn't make their computers any less personal, unless they are using it to serve other people.

Valve had to make an entire operating system to make this the case for steam games.

A lot of these capabilities would rely on windows, sleeping and resuming the system thats entirely the purview of the OS.

And Microsoft just doesn't care.

> Valve had to make an entire operating system

A Linux distribution. Which is often done by one person. Zero snark intended.

Microsoft had to make an entire operating system to make this the case for running Xbox games. Sony had to make an entire operating system to make this work for PlayStation games. I don't really know why that's significant.

Microsoft’s core competency is a general purpose operating system that can be used for anything and work with infinite combinations of hardware.

The fact that you can almost, sort of use a Windows PC as a gaming console, even with all the headaches that come with it, is something of a miracle.

Valve did not write Linux from scratch or something...

The goal with consoles is not to force people to give up control of their computers, it’s to create the best possible gaming appliance, which consoles succeed at.

What is the difference between an appliance and a computer?

The easiest way to see the difference is to take a desktop PC, plug it into your living room TV set, and try to play games on it.

Can you tell me what the difference is?

Uh

* two major platforms on PC and one of em doesn’t sport a Big Picture mode

* the other store does nasty tricks like never terminate a game process completely when you launch their titles through the other platform (very obvious w/ Alan Wake 2)

* other store’s titles doesn’t have this problem if I use Playnite as the TV frontend, but Playnite is a giant security vulnerability waiting to happen cause you need 3rd party plugins to emulate Steam Big Picture

* entire swatches of games that act funny with Steam Input or have incomplete configurations and I don’t feel like figuring that out just to play Backrooms

* Windows window management when using Steam Big Picture w/ controller is bad, b/c lots of desktop things will steal focus (hello Rockstar Games and EA)

* oh yeah, mandatory LAUNCHERS

* Try to play Mass Effect Legendary Edition on a TV with a controller; no really, try

* don’t even get me started on OOTB auto HDR config for almost any random TV with PS5 vs dicking around with the NVIDIA control panel

* the Steam store navigation w/ controller is baaaaad in 2025, many times you won’t be able to move or select certain things.

This is an incomplete list. It actually doesn’t matter whether you have a point-by-point refutation, no non-technical person wants to deal with any of this. They want machine to take care of everything. That’s what an appliance is

(Edit: formatting)

Thank you for writing all of this so that I didn’t have to.

And the exciting thing is I’m not even aware of many of those because I don’t play the same games and use different peripherals. If I listed out all my issues many would be unique to me. There are an infinity of issues with using a PC as a console.

A random one - audio outputs and inputs randomly locking to something you aren’t actually using. Between virtual devices for streaming apps you didn’t know you installed, weird devices hidden in USB peripherals, outputs on various TVs and monitors - my sound rarely “just works” and I have to spend a lot of time in the desktop fiddling around with the system tray.

I made sure to match brand between my TV and sound system for this reason. Also reminds me: you can have wake from sleep with an Xbox controller on PC, but not any other controller, and Windows won’t wake if I turn the TV on and switch to the PC connection; consoles have done this a long time.

Speaking of electronic devices, an appliance is generally locked down, and the manufacturer limits the number of use cases. You end up with something that is not a general-purpose computer, even though many use the same hardware as a computer would.

A game console is a classic appliance. You turn it on and see your current game running or a selection of games to play and you can start playing a game with zero intermediate steps.

The Steam Deck and Steam Box are designed as appliance emulators—they boot and by default operate in appliance mode. They can provide the same exact experience as a console if you use them as designed. They are also general-purpose computers, if you wish to step out of console mode.

This is a good comment, I don’t understand the downvotes.

Anything that makes the PC gaming experience more like a console is good. This is the first gaming PC that I could actually justify putting in the living room.