The latest rumours have suggested that Valve is (still) building a 'Steam console' to rival PlayStation and Xbox units.
Debunk from dev Pierre-Loup Griffais
@plagman.bsky.social
“we’ve done pre-release Mesa Vulkan work on every AMD architecture since Vega thanks to them kindly providing hardware, so there’s nothing meaningful to read into there.”
When the first Steam Machines were announced years ago, I assumed they’d all be running the same hardware like consoles do, and I thought that was actually quite a good idea because it could give game devs a sort of “baseline” set of hardware to aim for, as opposed to the sort of “vaguely make it run on Windows” system we seem to have currently. So if the new ones are all more-or-less the same kit like the Steam Decks are, and they take off well enough, it could be handy in that way I guess.
Plus it’ll presumably run SteamOS so more Linux exposure which I always appreciate.
Kinda, but not quite. The main difference, imo, is that consoles have several anti-tampering measures in place, often as exclusive hardware, to ensure owners don’t jailbreak. The PC is, by design, open and “unsafe”, without measures to stop owners from doing whatever.
Kinda. They are not very customisable. They are locked down boxes. You can’t run your normal applications on it, control it with a mouse or keyboard, etc.
Having a popular, standardized pc with fixed hardware and OS would enable game developers to aim that as minimum(or recommended) requirement and to optimize their games for that. And since it will be running linux, this means that gaming in linux would become even more mainstream and better supported too.
Having a Valve made device that can run switch games that take up more resources would be amazing. Definitely hope they go for better specs that allow for emulation to become easier.
Optimization profiles for games to target the specific hardware. It would be for people that want a steam deck like device that isn’t portable. Which would probably sell more units than a steam deck now. If priced right I would put it in my living room. It just needs to have the QOL that comes with console for couch gaming.
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I’m not sure what would be the point. Isn’t it “just” a PC with Steam OS running on it? Would it be to help people just default to SteamOS?
Anti Commercial-AI license
When the first Steam Machines were announced years ago, I assumed they’d all be running the same hardware like consoles do, and I thought that was actually quite a good idea because it could give game devs a sort of “baseline” set of hardware to aim for, as opposed to the sort of “vaguely make it run on Windows” system we seem to have currently. So if the new ones are all more-or-less the same kit like the Steam Decks are, and they take off well enough, it could be handy in that way I guess.
Plus it’ll presumably run SteamOS so more Linux exposure which I always appreciate.
aren’t the other consoles just pcs with custom os?
Think of them like laptops, they have a lot of components that make them a pc but arent really able to be modified or changed
Kinda, but not quite. The main difference, imo, is that consoles have several anti-tampering measures in place, often as exclusive hardware, to ensure owners don’t jailbreak. The PC is, by design, open and “unsafe”, without measures to stop owners from doing whatever.
Kinda. They are not very customisable. They are locked down boxes. You can’t run your normal applications on it, control it with a mouse or keyboard, etc.
Anti Commercial-AI license
Having a popular, standardized pc with fixed hardware and OS would enable game developers to aim that as minimum(or recommended) requirement and to optimize their games for that. And since it will be running linux, this means that gaming in linux would become even more mainstream and better supported too.
Also being theoretically not portable, it could be more powerful than the Steam Deck making emulation even easier.
Having a Valve made device that can run switch games that take up more resources would be amazing. Definitely hope they go for better specs that allow for emulation to become easier.
That is indeed a good argument reason. I wish them all the best!
Anti Commercial-AI license
Sure, which would be great for people who don’t want to build their own PC or buy an expensive prebuilt.
Optimization profiles for games to target the specific hardware. It would be for people that want a steam deck like device that isn’t portable. Which would probably sell more units than a steam deck now. If priced right I would put it in my living room. It just needs to have the QOL that comes with console for couch gaming.