memes

Yeah but the Steam Box comes with steam already inside. If you build a PC you need to get your own steam and then someone put it all inside yourself.

I dunno, that sounds like like Sisyphean task to me.

The target audience for the Steam Box? Game developers.

Makes sense for Valve.

How do you not get it? Didn't you buy an eggs box when you were a kid? What was in it? Eggs. Now this is the same thing but with Steam. Your just pretending you don't get it.

Is your pc a box though? Boxes are much more stackable, in case you want even more boxes.

I just want a Gabe Belson signature Steam Box.

correction: it's a cube with gaben on it

I imagine it also has conveniences like hdmi cec and turn on by pressing a button on controller. Not gonna get one, but I think there are valid reasons.

It's good because the more linux machiness we get out there the more likely adobe is to support linux

It's steam. They could sell turds with their logo on it and gamers would call it genius.

“I can build a better PC For less money.”

How would you know? They literally haven’t announced a price, yet.

EDIT: The only official word we’ve had on pricing is that it will be priced “like a PC”. Their stated reasoning is that because it’s a general purpose PC on an open platform, making margin back on games isn’t a guarantee.

If they priced it too low, there would be nothing stopping volume purchasers (like companies) buying them all up at scale because it’s the best compute / $ and then not using them for actually playing games.

No, the interesting part is not that Valve is releasing a box.

The interesting part is that they are releasing a desktop platform linux OS that is basically a commitment from the largest and most integrous digital distribution platform in the world that has an unshakable chokehold on gaming, past, present, and future. It's a declaration of war upon Microsoft, in a time in society where the people also desperately need a champion for home computing.

The interesting part is Valve is positioning themselves to potentially do an incredible amount of good for a lot of people fed up with publicly traded companies min-maxing extraction of money and forced reliance upon inferior service and software.

It's not a box with steam on it. It's an OS option for those of us that want to game in peace.

Until we know the price point, it’s really hard to judge if the SteamCube is going to be a good entry point for Console > PC gaming, but I’m hopeful. Mostly because I don’t have time to build a PC and don’t wanna pay out the nose for pre-builts.

1. Its better than 70% of Steam users PCs
2. Its standardized hardware thats consistent and has a level of quality that you can expect, if it breaks you can get it fixed
3. You're paying for software support, specifically SteamOS
4. Its not meant for ultra hardcore PC gamers who build PCs with used parts to get the absolute maximum value, its meant for console gamers who explicitly dont want to do that
5. It looks pretty yet it fits in with any entertainment center
6. It has greater integration with other Valve products, specifically the Steam Controller

You are clearly NOT the target audience of the gabecube. The steam machine is fricking useful for whoever want a tiny PC and not a fucking tower, a machine that is quite good and that is plug and play

Many people seem to ignore the fact that its a 3.7l case :D I love small PC's. My PC case is 20l with a 4070. I could go down to maybe 15l if I wanted but that would be pushing it. This thing is small af!
You can always build a PC yourself. You wont be able to get it this small with the same performance.
Not gonna buy one, but I just think its neat!

It's a small form factor PC, pre-installed with Linux and steam. Period.

Can you build something more powerful cheaper? Probably

Can you build something more powerful with the same form factor for cheaper? Maybe, probably not... We don't know.

All of those are beside the point.

They sell millions of desktop PCs pre-installed with windows, they often make terrible hardware choices, and don't even have a small form factor, if they do they have the computing power of a laptop. All of this at an unreasonable prices. At the very least the steam machine will be better value than those. Anyone who would consider one of those PCs, might consider a steam machine instead.