Steam Machine Maker Says Other Companies "Just Don't Get It"

[Andy Chalk]

Steam Machine Maker Says Other Companies "Just Don't Get It"

The marketing manager of iBuyPower says companies making high-end Steam Machines are missing the point of Valve's living room gambit.

Despite initial expectations that the Steam Machine would be a fairly standardized, console-like system, there are actually an awful lot of designs and price points in the pipe, which is perhaps not terribly surprising given that 14 different companies have signed up to build them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131066-Steam-Machine-Prices-Range-From-499-to-6-000-for-First-Generation]. Entry into the club will come as low as $500, but gamers with extra-deep pockets and a burning need to be on the bleeding edge will be able to drop as much as six grand on one.

The question on a lot of minds following the Steam Machines reveal was how exactly they will be different from a conventional gaming PC. Ricky Lee, the marketing manager at iBuyPower, explained that in order to sell a PC with a preinstalled version of Steam or SteamOS, manufacturers must acquire a license from Valve and bundle a Steam controller with it. He said his company could ship the SBX Steam Machine [http://www.ibuypower.com/Product/SBX] it revealed at CES next month, but when it will actually be able to go out the door "depends on Valve."

He also made the very interesting observation that builders going to the high end of the price range, like Falcon Northwest and Digital Storm, "just don't get it." Like it or not, Steam Machines will have to compete with consoles if Valve wants to make inroads into the living room, and for an awful lot of consumers that means a price point that's at least remotely console-like.

It's a valid point. Gamers willing and able to drop the coin on a multi-thousand-dollar Steam Machine are probably going to be more likely to just build their own custom rig and slap Steam on it. But it also reveals that even among the people who are making them, there's no consensus on what the actual intent is - if there even is some specific "goal" at all.

Source: SlashGear [http://www.slashgear.com/steam-machine-oems-ready-when-you-are-valve-13313010/]


Permalink

 

[Morti]

Gamers willing and able to drop the coin on a multi-thousand-dollar Steam Machine are probably going to be more likely to just build their own custom rig and slap Steam on it.

At least someone gets it. Been thinking this every time we hear about another steam machine in the 4 digit price range.

 

[The Wykydtron]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

It's the "I'm not decided on next gen, and I've heard nifty things about PC and Steam, but I do not know enough about PC Gaming to know what I should get, and I don't want to be swindled by store clerks trying to sell me a shitty celeron laptop".

It's not that sizeable, but it's still the first generation of steam machines, so they are most likely here just to test the waters.

The second generation is when we will see if Valve's gambit has/can pay off.

Also, iBuyPower looks like the only company who gets it, because they hit that $500 mark, which is within reaching distance of console prices, and it might end up being powerful(if they believe in Steam Machines and sell at a slight loss).

 

[Roxas1359]

Ah iBuyPower, you make me glad that my desktop has parts made from you. :3
Seriously, the point of the Steambox was basically to give an affordable PC with the Steam OS to help get others into PC gaming. The iBuyPower model of the Steam Box is reasonably priced for what it is, but the others are basically doing what Alienware does and charging ludicrous prices for something that's way cheaper to build yourself.

 

[CriticalMiss]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

As far as I can tell it doesn't run only Steam. It's that it has the SteamOS pre-loaded and undoubtedly has Steam preinstalled too, but is otherwise a Linux PC that you can put anything else on. Unless I've misunderstood.

 

[soandnb]

Valve shot itself in the foot by allowing multiple Steam Machines to enter the market.

The appeal of console gaming is that a person can very easily pick up a game, put it in his console of choice and be sure it will work. The games are developed specifically for those consoles. With PC gaming, you don't always have that type of assurance. Games may require drivers or patches to get them to run butter-smooth. The Steam Machine was supposed to offer the advantages of Consoles while maintaining the advantages of PC gaming.

With 18 or whatever of these Steam Machines, each one offering vastly different performance at even more vastly different prices, we're back at square one. If the point of having a specialized PC is to introduce people to the advantages of PC gaming while providing the plug-and-play ease of a console, then having 18 different choices is going to undermine that concept a little bit. It also doesn't seem to help developers that much. One of the advantages of console gaming is that the developers are developing for one piece of hardware. They don't need to make sure their games work for every PC ever built. While that is not a possibility for PC gaming anytime soon, games can at least be optimized and guaranteed to work is there was a single common unit to work with. With 18, though, why bother?

What Valve could do to fix this problem they've created is label a specific Steam Machine (most likely the iBuyPower) as the "official" Steam Machine. While it's not as good as only having one Steam Machine, it can be a good psuedo-standard upon which developers optimize the code of their games for, and for retailers to market to consumers.

As I said, the iBuyPower would be a good official Steam Machine. It's comparatively cheap, it gives good bang-for-your-buck performance, and it's developed by people who seem to understand the concept Valve intended.

 

[Sanunes]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

the SteamBox is just able to run Linux supported games and stream existing non-Linux games from a Windows PC.

Regarding the article I am in agreement with what is being said, I think the SteamOS is aimed at people that don't have a lot of knowledge about Personal Computers and having fourteen in the market that range from $500 to $6,000 that I have seen is just going to confuse people more. In my opinion the one that can dual boot between Windows and the SteamOS for $1,500 is still excessive, but I understand that one for people that want to play games that aren't available on Linux, I have a harder time understanding the need for dual GeForce Titan cards in one computer.

 

[balladbird]

6 grand.... 6 grand... no... I'm just not seeing it. Unless they crammed live leprechauns and unicorns into that box, I don't see what it's doing costing that much. O.O

at least I know if I ever become a billionaire, there'll be an overpriced piece of hardward to play on my 40,000 dollar 80 inch tv.

 

[Sanunes]

6 grand.... 6 grand... no... I'm just not seeing it. Unless they crammed live leprechauns and unicorns into that box, I don't see what it's doing costing that much. O.O

at least I know if I ever become a billionaire, there'll be an overpriced piece of hardward to play on my 40,000 dollar 80 inch tv.

I am going by this link which if you max out the hardware it will cost $6,000 - http://steamdb.info/blog/

My guess is it would use dual GeForce Titans which are around a grand each and using multiple large Solid State Drives with some other really expensive tech that is bleeding edge. Its also made by Falcon Northwest, which I find to be expensive like Alienware was.

 

[Frezzato]

...Also, iBuyPower looks like the only company who gets it, because they hit that $500 mark, which is within reaching distance of console prices, and it might end up being powerful(if they believe in Steam Machines and sell at a slight loss).

Actually, CyberPowerPC has a $500 Steam Machine as well. And while definitive specs on iBuyPower's machine are currently hard to find, CyberPowerPC's two configs are supposedly:

CYBERPOWERPC Steam Machine A - $499

Case: CYBERPOWERPC Steam Machine Gaming Chassis
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5
Processor: AMD A6-6400K 3.90 GHz
Storage: 500GB SATA-III 7200 RPM HDD
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
Chipset: mITX motherboard w/ 802.11 WiFi + Bluetooth
Steam Controller
Steam OS

CYBERPOWERPC Steam Machine I - $699

Case: CYBERPOWERPC Steam Machine Gaming Chassis
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB GDDR5
Processor: Intel Core i3-4330 3.50 GHz
Storage: 500GB SATA-III 7200 RPM HDD
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory
Chipset: mITX motherboard w/ 802.11 AC WiFi + Bluetooth
Steam Controller
Steam OS

Videogamer via vg247.com [http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/06/cyberpowers-steam-machines-cost-499-699-full-spec-sheets-here/]

 

[balladbird]

6 grand.... 6 grand... no... I'm just not seeing it. Unless they crammed live leprechauns and unicorns into that box, I don't see what it's doing costing that much. O.O

at least I know if I ever become a billionaire, there'll be an overpriced piece of hardward to play on my 40,000 dollar 80 inch tv.

I am going by this link which if you max out the hardware it will cost $6,000 - http://steamdb.info/blog/

My guess is it would use dual GeForce Titans which are around a grand each and using multiple large Solid State Drives with some other really expensive tech that is bleeding edge. Its also made by Falcon Northwest, which I find to be expensive like Alienware was.

Huh, wish I'd seen the info earlier... I admit, that's a pretty sexy amount of power, but I don't think enough people will be that hardcore into the process to merit them selling it as a pre-assembled console. Hell, a PC with almost comparative specs could be assembled for less than a third of that.

 

[cikame]

You can't use a dedicated Steam Machine as a PC, therefore it has to be reasonably priced.

You also need to do research to see if it supports the games you want it to, get familiar with Linux releases, DICE announced a little while back that they would support Linux at some point, it's a little disappointing the Steam Machines arn't standardised because it means developers have to test for a large array of hardware like they already do with PC.

It's going to be hard for a special console like this to appeal, so it's going to have to do it with its price.

 

[Dire Trout]

Gamers willing and able to drop the coin on a multi-thousand-dollar Steam Machine are probably going to be more likely to just build their own custom rig and slap Steam on it.

At least someone gets it. Been thinking this every time we hear about another steam machine in the 4 digit price range.

Word. As far as I can tell, the iBuyPower Steam Box is the only one worth considering.

 

[Dire Trout]

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill.

Well, there's me. I'm the market niche they need to fill. I'm a lifelong console guy who'd like to play more PC games, but I can't justify replacing my perfectly-good current PC because it does everything else I need it to. Besides, I don't have the slightest clue how to build computers, and I don't have the time, money or interest required to learn how. I just want to buy a thing and play games on it. So I would totally get this.

 

[Raziel]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

Nope, not at all. Its a pc with a sticker on it. They will very widely as to what hardware is in them and so will still have the same issues as current pc games. With odd problems cropping up because they have a different graphics card or something and bleeding edge new games not playable on lower end machines.

Also steam OS only runs linux. Out of all the games on steam only like 260 run on linux. So for the VAST majority of steam games need to be sure your steambox also has a windows install. So yeah, just stick with your pc and just download steam os if you want to try it out, and you have the graphics card supported by steam oc.

 

[Vivi22]

So this is like a console that only runs Steam and all games on Steam right? That doesn't seem the most viable business strat i've heard considering all the multiplatform releases and y'know, Steam has been a PC only thing for ages now. Anyone who already uses Steam has a decent enough PC to run most of its games?

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill. I hate to say it, but just buy a PC if you want Steam.

You don't see the clear market niche because pretty much everything you said about the Steam Machines in your post is wrong.

They're not console's, they're PC's. They're meant to be a potential replacement for consoles in the living room, but they absolutely can still function as PC's. They'll run on the Steam OS which is a Valve developed Linux variant, and use of Steam won't even be required. If you want to install games outside of Steam, you can still do that. These are a cheap (in most cases) ready built, upgradeable living room PC. They're meant to make the process of getting into PC games easier for those who've never bothered, and more attractive by focusing on the living room.

There is also going to be the option to stream games from your main desktop PC instead of on the steambox, opening the door to some really cheap alternatives for those with a good PC who'd like to still play some games on the big screen.

And multiplatform releases probably won't be a problem since Valve is pushing heavily for Linux support, and they may be the only company out there that could actually grow that segment in gaming once they release these boxes and the Steam OS.

 

[Mr C]

I just don't see the clear market niche where Steam Machine is going to fill.

Well, there's me. I'm the market niche they need to fill. I'm a lifelong console guy who'd like to play more PC games, but I can't justify replacing my perfectly-good current PC because it does everything else I need it to. Besides, I don't have the slightest clue how to build computers, and I don't have the time, money or interest required to learn how. I just want to buy a thing and play games on it. So I would totally get this...

...if it was competitively priced.

Those are the only 5 words I'd add to your post. This product needs to be priced to compete with consoles. Otherwise it's pointless for PC folk and unattractive to console players. Unless they have some uber secret they are waiting to tell us, which seems highly unlikely.