News Alienware Steam Machine not expected to sell well

Might it be that to be competitive they're selling these at a smaller margin than the rest of their range?

And am I right in thinking this box will be desktop components rather than Scan's petty attempt at a laptop without a screen?

 

Probably cost them more in R&D than they will make back, do not personally know anyone who wants a steam machine. Only reason to buy one is if you own a huge steam library already, most don't though. Personally also think its overpriced for what you get. The latest consoles are underpowered these steam machines are on average worse specs for similar or more money.

The high spec ones are all way to expensive.

 

I don't care about Steam Machines, I just REALLY want the Steam Controller to be released already :-(

 

"This will absolutely be the least profitable system we ever sell" means their margins will be low
"Alienware Steam Machine not expected to sell well" means something else

if they confirm they will make little money on it - its good news to consumers

 

Is Steam OS even useable yet ? I see updates to it about once a month but have no idea what they are ever talking about. I'd be happy to stick Steam OS on my HTPC to try it out, but have no idea if its still a mess or not.

 

I've always been wondering who exactly is going to go and buy a Steambox? Existing PC gamers can just use their current rig, and there can't be a huge market of people who want to drop another £350-400 on something that can just about run games on low/medium settings, especially as not all PC games are going to be ported for Linux.

I think the whole concept is going to flop, except they might sell lots of controllers.

 

True costs are:

Time speaking to Valve + Time working on prototypes + Tooling for production + Production + Distribution + Marketing

My guess is they'll not make a profit in total, but they won't be selling the actual units at a loss. Well not unless they decide they're binning it and sell off stock in a massive fire-sale.

 

I'm hoping that a range of low cost streaming boxes will appear soon after the main boxes have launched. That's all I'm interested in - streaming games from my main PC to a Steam streaming box. It's also what I think is the best feature of Steam OS.

 

^This^

The Alienware Steam Machine was one of those designs that made me question why they bothered, IIRC it's not user upgradable so negating one of the benefits of buying a Steam Machine, the one of a higher initial outlay for the ability to upgrade the hardware over time.

The idea of Steam Machines is to give people who CBA to run a desktop PC the ability to play PC games on the big screen, without having to worry about the faff of a desktop, the drivers, updates, crashes, knowing what hardware is in it, etc, etc.

 

I'm sort of thinking of it as a 'bridge' device for those who are looking to migrate from console to PC or visa versa.

In the same way you have a bridge camera in between your SLR and compact.

Anything that promotes the migration of PC games to other operating systems gets a big thumbs up for me. I do however think the real value in this is going to be low cost 720p capable units that compete price wise with the current generation of consoles.

Cheaper hardware, similar performance, much cheaper games that come in a wider variety of genres.

Its early days but it could be a winner!

 

No console gamer is going to move over to PC via a Steam machine when they could simply move over to PC and be done with it in the first place. Why would ANYONE fork out hundreds of pounds for a "PC" that only plays a fraction of the games available on the Steam library - and, importantly - far fewer games than the platform they're currently on, with none of the "exclusives" they're used to seeing on their chosen device.

I really fail to see the market for this product. At least with your example of bridging devices (cameras) you could get an intermediary camera but still take all the photos you wanted...as many as you like, of whatever you like!

Whoever said it earlier had it right. As a streaming device and a controller - for a couple of hundred quid - let's face it, we'd probably ALL buy one. Valve are way off the mark this time.

 

LOL. Just launched Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/streaming?snr=1_41_4__42

TA-DA!

 

Nope. There just aren't the titles for it. Sure enough a lot of the indie devs are working on PC+Mac+Linux releases but nobody in their right mind will move to a platform that isn't get active development and offers nothing fresh or interesting over the alternatives.

You want a cheap gaming machine for the living room with loads of cheap games? PS3 or XBOX 360

Want a cutting edge gaming machine for the living room with a fair selection of new games and some good exclusives? XBone or PS4.

Want a no compromise gaming machine with loads of cheap games and a fair section of new games and some good exclusives? PC.

It just doesn't fit in.
At all.

Edit: Home streaming could make the difference. Although in my experience there's still a few issues.

 

Steam OS is faced with the same problem as every other general linux distro... the market base is too small for most commercial software devs to bother with porting to... the userbase won't grow because there is too few available quality commercial software.

As far as the streaming thing goes... why buy a more expensive steam box? Seems unnecessary to me for what essentially amounts to a thin client. So far the announced prices on most steam boxes seems rather excessive and nearly on par with similar spec Windows options. Sure some of the cases may be more attractive on steam boxes versus more general pc models... but even still there should be a much larger discount for using a zero cost OS not a price premium for it's inclusion.

 

If you don't mind all the faff that goes with owning a PC then great, if like lots of console owners you got fed up with having to update drivers, update the OS, not knowing if game X will run on your hardware, not knowing what hardware is in your PC, trouble shooting crashes.

It maybe only a fraction of the games available on Steam as a whole, but that is growing day by day. So much so in fact that Linux Games on Steam (466) out number the amount of games available on both next gen consoles combined.

Xbox One games list = 166, only 42 playable/released.

PS4 games list = 244, only 71 playable/released

Linux (AKA Steam OS) games list = 466 playable/released.

Including titles such as Dark Souls II, Batman: Arkham Origins, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Call of Duty: Ghosts, BioShock Infinite, Wolfenstein: The New Order. Some of these are also playable on other platforms, but IIRC Valve isn't into exclusives, its one of the reason they are making SteamOS, Machines, and the Controller. Because they see the way other platforms want to lock people into using only their stuff and believe it stifles innovation.

Cheap compared to what ? PC games are on average £10 less.
Sure you cant get loads of games, if you don't mind leaving them behind when the new model comes out.

Exclusives harm the gaming and console market (imho), why would i want to support people that demand i buy their hardware to play a game i like ?

Unless that is you don't want to faff around with having to run a PC, it's one of the reasons people choose consoles in the first place. No hassle gaming, just switch on and play.

 

second hand xbox 360 and ps3 games are under £10 for the record in most uk game shops. Only newer titles are priced higher than £20.

Most new games are between £12 and £40 on pc. Even for an Indie title they can be expensive. PA was £40 on steam on its orginal launch for alpha or beta level access to it.

Never really saw price as the main reason not to buy or to buy. Alienwares steam pc was priced at above £800 last I checked.

For £800 its only about £200 short of Alienwares own gaming pcs. You can buy a Full desktop for sub £800 that will do alot better than 720p. Most of the Steam boxes are low spec and poorly priced. Using Laptop GPUs and Laptop CPUs.

 

So a Steam Machine will run all future linux games with no driver updates, no OS updates, no crashes and no hardware updates? Woweeee! It's the future! Except..we know that's not true. It'll still need to update, it'll need new drivers.....and let's not pretend that the linux way is perfect, because it isn't. It's prone to problems like every other OS on the planet.

Also, at some point the Steambox owner IS going to have to review the spec of a game vs the spec of the hardware he or she purchased. One way or another, when it stops performing the way it once did out of the box - and it will - the owner is going to have to get their hands dirty. The same faff..just further down the line....or buy another one - at twice the price of the NEXT NEXT GEN console :/

 

Are you sure they will all run on SteamOS? I checked and found this:

Dark Souls II? No
Batman? Yes
South Park? No
Call of Duty? No
Bioshock? Yes
Wolfenstein? No.

Of course this is just me browsing Steam and looking at those particular games. Am I missing a trick? Probably not seeing as you linked to the wiki page for games using steam authentication and not which of those games will run on Linux.

The Linux and Steamplay selection is varied but missing loads of popular titles. Most games that run on Linux will also run on OSX and trust me, hardly any of my collection (old and new) will run on my main computer which is a Mac. It wouldn't be better if I went SteamOS.

http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/

I'd love to be able to put SteamOS on my gaming rig. It's running win 7 and is only used for games. Maybe... just maybe I'd be willing to sacrifice non steam gaming for the privilege but I'd be insane to give up a massive percentage of my existing games and most of the new premium games coming out.

 

Because people are lazy and stupid that's why. Consoles are plug in and play. Personal computers are most defiantly not, they require some time and effort to keep running.

As for my analogy with the cameras I think it's spot on.

Console Gamers = Point and shoot cameras, only instant results will do, one button press one photograph.

Steam box owners = Bridge camera, more bells and whistles but still simple to operate with preset shooting options.

PC Gamers = SLR with a bag if lenses and filters, spends more time picking settings then they do actually taking photographs.

Most people want to sit down utter 'Xbox on' or whatever and be balls deep in the action within minutes, they don't want to **** about doing windows updates, virus scans and piss about with all of the settings.

Anything that gets people the games they want the fastest and most hassle free way will be able to sell that product.

Yes the library of games is small, but it's not going to be limited to source titles and Indy games forever.