no

There really is no reason to have one.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I play on PC because of the freedom it gives.

Valve can’t make exclusives to the console without pissing off PC users either. Even if they release the exclusives on PC, there would be 0 incentive to play on the console.

It’s a neat idea, maybe they can expand on it, but I don’t think it will work out in long run.

Vavle's current Linux efforts seem to be more focused on getting their existing Windows game library to run under Proton. Most likely for a Steam streaming service.

引用自 Fester：

There really is no reason to have one.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I play on PC because of the freedom it gives.

Valve can’t make exclusives to the console without pissing off PC users either. Even if they release the exclusives on PC, there would be 0 incentive to play on the console.

It’s a neat idea, maybe they can expand on it, but I don’t think it will work out in long run.

Don't need exclusives when the entire PC game library is available to you. These Steam machines are not consoles, they are just PCs running Linux. These Steam machines have more freedom then your Windows PC.

Steam Machines were sold a few years ago, but never caught on.

Google Steam machine and see how well that worked the last time Valve tried it. Do you see any now?

Steam machines are pcs in a console size. They ar the pcs we already use just in a very small case.

引用自 Suicidal Monkey：

Google Steam machine and see how well that worked the last time Valve tried it. Do you see any now?

At the time of release, there were fewer (Linux Only) games, poor value machines, lackluster Linux performance and a buggy OS. Alot of that has been resolved. I think if it has a smaller form factor and is sold at a cost, like the new xbox and ps5, it would see decent success.
Keeping in mind the competition are just closed down PCs, a steam machine could be a lot more. It will also encourage more developers to make games for linux, which is great to see.

引用自 saidemo：

Like the title says. I think this would be a perfect time to release a overpowered mini-pc running steamos. Proton has made great strides in building a decent linux game library and steamvr being compatible with steamos, I think a new steam machine would be quite competitive. Obviously the console would have to be sold at cost, but knowing valve, they probably have plenty of money to burn. They would have to update big picture mode and release an updated steam controller. A console that does more than just play games, just think about it.

So what do you guys think? Looking for a good discussion, also keep toxicity to a minimum. :)

• The PC market is different than the console market
  
• Valve already makes more money than God selling software to PC users with out personally producing the hardware to play that software.
  
• https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-steam-machines/ In comparison the Wii U, one of Nintendo's biggest flops and one of the bigger misses in console history (I liked mine) was a raging success.
  
• Nothing has really changed in the PC or console markets that says there's a significant demographic of people desperate for a non-Windows gaming prebuilt.
  
• The idea that a new Steam Machine would be a rival for consoles in anything but in name is optimistic, at best.
  
• And trying to position it as such would be a joke to anyone but people who have no clue what the current landscape is and believe being able to imagine a shakeup is the same as actually shaking things up.
  
• The Atari Jaguar had a better chance of dominating the console market than a Steam Machine in 2020 would have competing in it and not being an embarrassment.
  
• Valve being able to afford to do something pointless and fruitless doesn't make it a viable idea.

引用自 Brockenstein：

引用自 saidemo：

Like the title says. I think this would be a perfect time to release a overpowered mini-pc running steamos. Proton has made great strides in building a decent linux game library and steamvr being compatible with steamos, I think a new steam machine would be quite competitive. Obviously the console would have to be sold at cost, but knowing valve, they probably have plenty of money to burn. They would have to update big picture mode and release an updated steam controller. A console that does more than just play games, just think about it.

So what do you guys think? Looking for a good discussion, also keep toxicity to a minimum. :)

• The PC market is different than the console market
  
• Valve already makes more money than God selling software to PC users with out personally producing the hardware to play that software.
  
• https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-steam-machines/ In comparison the Wii U, one of Nintendo's biggest flops and one of the bigger misses in console history (I liked mine) was a raging success.
  
• Nothing has really changed in the PC or console markets that says there's a significant demographic of people desperate for a non-Windows gaming prebuilt.
  
• The idea that a new Steam Machine would be a rival for consoles in anything but in name is optimistic, at best.
  
• And trying to position it as such would be a joke to anyone but people who have no clue what the current landscape is and believe being able to imagine a shakeup is the same as actually shaking things up.
  
• The Atari Jaguar had a better chance of dominating the console market than a Steam Machine in 2020 would have competing in it and not being an embarrassment.
  
• Valve being able to afford to do something pointless and fruitless doesn't make it a viable idea.

Yes, Valve has a lot of money. But Valve can't be compared to most other corporations, Valve employees pretty much do whatever they want. All this money pretty much gives them an infinate pool of funds for their little experiments.

It doesn't need to be viable for it to be worked on by Valve.

Consoles are in fact PCs, but with locked bootloader, custom design and custom OS.
That said, the main selling point of consoles is price. Valve can make a powerful custom small PC with no restrictions if they want, but they can't afford selling it at a loss like Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo to compete with them. To be able to do that, they first have to make sure they have some software to sell to attract customers and make enough money to cover the losses and at least pay everyone involved in designing, manufacturing, selling their Steam machines etc. Sony always had some awesome exclusivity deals, from Crash Bandicoot on PS1 (btw don't ever call it PSX, people do that for some reason and that's wrong, PSX is a DVR with PS2 inside), to The Last of Us Part II which is about to release, so they're always covered and they will always make some profit. Microsoft, while having some exclusivity deals, don't actually care much if it's XBOX or PC - in both cases it's Windows+DirectX (for most people at least), so their software sells well either way. Nintendo have mastered the art of game developing, to a point where sound effect of Mario picking up a coin syncs with the music so it sounds like a beat, their games give way more fun than most of the other games, hence if they release some new great Pokemon game - they will get so much money for it they can afford buying Valve as a whole from those profits.
What do Valve have to cover their losses? Steam games are pretty cheap, they have amazing sells and deals all the time, so they don't make much money from games. Their games, while being extremely popular, are free, so they don't profit much from those either. If they release expensive Steam machines like they previously did - people won't like it. If they release a Steam machine that gives you no choice but to buy games from Steam - people won't like it. If they release a Steam machine that gives you all the PC freedom - people might as well just install their favourite OS and go buy games on Epic, or GOG, or stick to F2P. So, basically, the main reason why Steam machines are not a great idea, is the money. There are many things I don't like about Steam, but this is a great place to buy games, to have conversations like we have right now, etc. I don't want to see Valve going bankrupt and me losing all my games, cloud saves and this forum. Any big company is just a business, and the whole point of business is to make profit

Gotta be windows or it will fail. No one wants a new device thats running some weird, limited or incompatible os. Unless its something like ps4, in which case you accept it for the exclusives...

引用自 Andrius227：

Gotta be windows or it will fail. No one wants a new device thats running some weird, limited or incompatible os.

You're contradicting yourself here. Windows IS weird, limited and incompatible OS.

引用自 Andrius227：

Gotta be windows or it will fail. No one wants a new device thats running some weird, limited or incompatible os. Unless its something like ps4, in which case you accept it for the exclusives...

SteamOS is not limited, nor incompatible. It can litterally do anything and run pretty much anything, and the OS will not fight you when you try to do these things.

Litterally everything except the desktop PC runs the same OS family as Steam Machines do. And these devices can run Windows software through WINE and Proton.

This OS is called Linux. Or GNU/Linux if you want to be annoying.

引用自 Snow：

Consoles are in fact PCs, but with locked bootloader, custom design and custom OS.
That said, the main selling point of consoles is price. Valve can make a powerful custom small PC with no restrictions if they want, but they can't afford selling it at a loss like Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo to compete with them. To be able to do that, they first have to make sure they have some software to sell to attract customers and make enough money to cover the losses and at least pay everyone involved in designing, manufacturing, selling their Steam machines etc. Sony always had some awesome exclusivity deals, from Crash Bandicoot on PS1 (btw don't ever call it PSX, people do that for some reason and that's wrong, PSX is a DVR with PS2 inside), to The Last of Us Part II which is about to release, so they're always covered and they will always make some profit. Microsoft, while having some exclusivity deals, don't actually care much if it's XBOX or PC - in both cases it's Windows+DirectX (for most people at least), so their software sells well either way. Nintendo have mastered the art of game developing, to a point where sound effect of Mario picking up a coin syncs with the music so it sounds like a beat, their games give way more fun than most of the other games, hence if they release some new great Pokemon game - they will get so much money for it they can afford buying Valve as a whole from those profits.
What do Valve have to cover their losses? Steam games are pretty cheap, they have amazing sells and deals all the time, so they don't make much money from games. Their games, while being extremely popular, are free, so they don't profit much from those either. If they release expensive Steam machines like they previously did - people won't like it. If they release a Steam machine that gives you no choice but to buy games from Steam - people won't like it. If they release a Steam machine that gives you all the PC freedom - people might as well just install their favourite OS and go buy games on Epic, or GOG, or stick to F2P. So, basically, the main reason why Steam machines are not a great idea, is the money. There are many things I don't like about Steam, but this is a great place to buy games, to have conversations like we have right now, etc. I don't want to see Valve going bankrupt and me losing all my games, cloud saves and this forum. Any big company is just a business, and the whole point of business is to make profit

Most likely the only comparison of a console to a PC would be the processor. Even if you could get the hardware to boot a PC BIOS or UEFI you'd still run into hardware differences that would make it difficult to start a PC operating system. To boot Linux on a console means adapting the kernel and kernel modules to recognize, initialize, and utilize the components of the console.

Consoles usually have a partially to completely proprietary architecture built around a SoC (System on Chip) architecture, whereas the components of a PC, even if built as a SoC, are standardized and documented with logical interconnects like the PCI bus.

引用自 Crashed：

To boot Linux on a console means adapting the kernel and kernel modules to recognize, initialize, and utilize the components of the console.

To boot any OS on any hardware means adapting the kernel and kernel modules to recognise, initialise, and utilise the components of that hardware. What's your point? People are running custom OS on previous generations of consoles, which weren't even x86-64 based.