Comment by zubirus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zubirus | Hacker News Reader

Overall I love the Steam Machines idea. I have many games in my library and I can't wait to play them in the living room with my friends. I think that what Valve got wrong was just two topics:

- There is no game compatibility information. When I buy a console game, I know that the game will be compatible with my system. There is no such guaranty with Steam games. I would like to see a simplified benchmark tailored to pre-made Steam Machines so that consumers can understand how well they'll play their AAA games.

- They lost momentum with the SteamOS platform, and many developers are now skeptical of porting their games to Linux. The Steam Machines were supposed to be launched one year ago and with them their Linux platform. Some developers took a big investment to port their games to Linux and fight around subpar OpenGL drivers. When they were done there was no Steam Machines and they were met with a Linux userbase of just 1%. Now, I believe, we'll only see more Linux launches once the developers trust the Steam Machines as an established gaming platform.

Edit: formatting

> a Linux userbase of just 1%

My impression when it first came out was that Linux game sales quickly surpassed Mac ones. What actually is the case with Linux as gaming platform in terms of sales revenue rather than percentage of users.

For the game I have on Steam[1], a logical puzzle game, this just isn't the case. Mac sales are at about 10%, and Linux sales are at ~3%. However, the most outspoken fans of the game, and the ones from whom I get the most nice emails from, are mostly Linux users.

[1] - http://store.steampowered.com/app/386900

Does the second point matter any more? Most of the big engines I'm aware of make portability to all three (or even five) platforms effortless, so there's really no excuse to not having a version for each platform any more...

Many good games do not use unity/unreal, as whilst they are packed with features, they are at their core flawed. Many people build their engines tailored to their game, in order to get the best performance. In those cases it is 'effort' to port to Linux, as with any other platform. If steam machines don't flop then I expect Linux porting will become more mainstream and the process easier.

Increase in continuous integration infrastructure, additional testing scenarios, new deployment configurations, new driver issues to deal with,...

...whole new market...

It already exists, there are plenty of companies specialized in such porting action.

However, the question is the ROI in supporting the platform vs sales, even if the code doesn't need any major change.

If you already have a PC why not just use Steam's built in home streaming? Low powered box in living room, desktop pc accessed remotely

How much does the low powered box in the living room cost? The Steam Link is supposed to address this ($50) as most don't want to, or can't afford (or justify the expense) another PC for the living room.

Well, for me, $50, reused spare parts. Didn't know about the Link. So the Steam Machine is supposed to be for people without a desktop, to compete with consoles?

Or for people without a gaming desktop, but yeah, more or less. I imagine there are a lot of folks who have a computer running Windows already, but it's a 4 year old Dell with an Intel HD 3000. So they'll play a lot of the Indie games, but not the AAA graphical showpieces that advertise better. And IMO a lot of those indie games (Bastion, FTL, etc.) are better on iPads than computers/consoles anyway.

Outside of the tech crowd, actual GPUs that can compare to current-gen consoles aren't very common. Steam Machines are an attempt by Valve to widen their market and include more customers who want an off-the-shelf "it plays games" experience.

Steam Machine = console replacement

Steam Link - Stream your PC games from another Steam PC on the network

The former is several hundred dollars and competes directly with Xbox, Playstation - the other is only $50.

You still have to deal with trying to play games that were designed around a desk setting, with a keyboard and mouse, in a living room setting.

You can fix this with a decently sized dinner tray, like the kind you get in hospitals.

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