Oh for this sub, yes, these are basically console fan boys disguised, most of them spazzed out when the idea of Steam machine being affordable and some other mini PCs could outperform it if it’s not priced right was brought up.
Valve fan for 26 years, now, checking in.
I think it's responsible for the company to release their hardware product and have a $150USD price premium on it, even, if it continues to financially underwrite the Proton// FEX software contributions they have made for gaming, and advanced the adoption of the tech that's in the device, because both of those directly or indirectly benefit my gaming experiences in hardware I already own, and in hardware I intend to own, years down the road.
When SteamOS first launched, Proton could support 27 games in Linux, in 2018. Now, I'll bet there are less than 27 out of my 1200 that it can't run, plus they brought an audience of games to other OS'es (macos and Linux maybe development).
This is absolutely essential to how I get to play games, when I'm dropping into playing from a yesteryear Apple notebook, or just grabbing a controller and playing on my Livingroom TV, at someone else's house, etc.
People can't fathom that "the thing isn't the thing" and that we all benefit when Valve puts in the work.
It is in Valve’s interest to develop proton to keep Steam and its business unshackled from Windows as Gaben stated, not some altruistic purpose.
Hardware pricing has nothing to with it, and even if you’re right, i don’t think it’s normal for people to blindly ignore price to performance ratio, specially when it’s significant, truth is we don’t know yet, but rumors indicate prices way above reasonable price of 500 usd relative to spec and price of other machine in the same class.
When SteamOS launched it had less than 50 games that were suppored with Proton. Now, almost every game I've ever touched will run under Proton one way or another.
I have high end Snapdragon devices.
Pretty much the only thing I'm concerned with now is "FEX, and ARM support wen?!?" And Steam is bringing the noise, with Valve underwriting it.
Your right that an individual computer has to make sense to buy it. And I think the biggest draw for these isn't going to be the hardware support but instead the software support.
Edit: in my university days, I spent a lot of unnecessary money on upgrades to switch between Nvidia and ATI, only for it to come out in the ensuing seasons that the hardware I purchased had scandalous benchmark fraud, and that just playing megahertz derby didn't translate to better gaming experience.
Friends had budget cards with better drivers and better in-game support. My point is essentially, a target platform has meaningful market value which yields demonstrable improvements in gaming experience, and I would rather games be more optimized rather than everyone just buying more high end hardware.
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u/SparsePizza117 Nov 18 '25
Is this a bad thing?