DosFreak wrote on 2025-11-13, 22:41:

There was an article recently about how most living rooms are setup to be so far away from the TV that the difference between 4k and 1080p is minimal.

I have a 4k TV but typically play stuff in 1080p. A lot of it has to do with playing older games or pixel art games where 4k resolution doesn't really matter much.

Whereas I have a 2k equivalent monitor for my main gaming PC, and play newer games in higher resolution on it.

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-13, 11:43:

All the people want is Half Life 3 on a normal PC , no consoles , no VR , nothing of this new stuff.

Totally agree with this!

I don't see any point to running games in 4K when you have to use upscalers to get a decent framerate.

Like the whole point of 4K as that the image is very sharp and detailed and all of it is lost when you use FSR/DLSS

st31276a wrote on 2025-11-14, 09:02:

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-13, 11:43:

All the people want is Half Life 3 on a normal PC , no consoles , no VR , nothing of this new stuff.

Totally agree with this!

*takes a rip from a hopium bong*
Maybe once the prices are announced, they'll go "and here is a game that will go great with this hardware!"

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-11-13, 00:03:

Today they announced a new Steam Controller, Steam Machine (PC), and Stream Frame (new VR headset).

I'd get in line if it was a gravity gun.... otherwise, good luck to them but nah

st31276a wrote on 2025-11-14, 09:02:

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-13, 11:43:

All the people want is Half Life 3 on a normal PC , no consoles , no VR , nothing of this new stuff.

Totally agree with this!

I'm not sure 'all' the people have the same view, i certainly would want HL3 on PC, but I'd understand others wanting VR, its come a long way since early times

Unless they make HL3 "exclusive" to a Steam branded device, or worse make Steam itself exclusive, I just don't see how a Steam Machine makes much sense.
No one is going to buy a somewhat lackluster underpowered PC, when they can just build one themselves, install Steam or SteamOS and call it a day.
I might have bought a Steam Deck instead of and ROG Ally had they not had such modest specs. I guess it's neat to have the option, but I can't imagine it being very successful.

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-14, 14:37:

No one is going to buy a somewhat lackluster underpowered PC, when they can just build one themselves, install Steam or SteamOS and call it a day.

I think it depends on how aggressively they price it.If they go the loss leader route to get people into the Steam ecosystem, it could be a very attractive option compared to buying an off-the-shelf or building a PC. Especially since not everyone is keen on doing the latter.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-11-14, 15:28:

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-14, 14:37:

No one is going to buy a somewhat lackluster underpowered PC, when they can just build one themselves, install Steam or SteamOS and call it a day.

I think it depends on how aggressively they price it.If they go the loss leader route to get people into the Steam ecosystem, it could be a very attractive option compared to buying an off-the-shelf or building a PC. Especially since not everyone is keen on doing the latter.

They won't do it for the Steam machine, they did it for the steam deck because of the very specific form factor, it's a gaming device that can't really be used for anything else.

If they sell the steam machine at a loss there is nothing preventing small corporations or whoever from buying it at a great price, installing a regular Windows/Linux image on it and using it as an office PC.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-11-14, 15:28:

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-14, 14:37:

No one is going to buy a somewhat lackluster underpowered PC, when they can just build one themselves, install Steam or SteamOS and call it a day.

I think it depends on how aggressively they price it.If they go the loss leader route to get people into the Steam ecosystem, it could be a very attractive option compared to buying an off-the-shelf or building a PC. Especially since not everyone is keen on doing the latter.

That is fair I guess. I mean maybe, but it would have to be very aggressively priced.
Most PC gamers, even new ones are at least aware that they could always just buy some OEM crap box and slap in a GPU/PSU upgrade and be off to the races.
But if Valve is willing to take a loss on the hardware to get more users on the platform it could be done.

But maybe I'm naive or ignorant. I barely use Steam.

For us enthusiasts its easy to forget that the majority of PC gamers do not actually build their own PCs. A "just works for all PC games" hassle-free standardized gaming PC for a good price has a lot of potential if Valve can resist those pesky profit margin urges.

Munx wrote on 2025-11-14, 17:44:

For us enthusiasts its easy to forget that the majority of PC gamers do not actually build their own PCs. A "just works for all PC games" hassle-free standardized gaming PC for a good price has a lot of potential if Valve can resist those pesky profit margin urges.

I think this is the case, if not also for all the console gamers who are getting frustrated with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. I feel like console gamers are accustomed to trading less performance for convenience and a relatively lower price. After all, console gamers are still simply demanding their games be running at 60fps.

If anything, the Steam Machine will likely be a good benchmark to determine possible interest in some kind of more powerful but bigger "Pro" model as it seems to have always been done in the industry. But even then, I'm not sure there would be much of a point because then they'd be going against all the existing PC builders. I really think this is aimed at the console market, not existing PC gamers.

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-14, 14:37:

Unless they make HL3 "exclusive" to a Steam branded device, or worse make Steam itself exclusive, I just don't see how a Steam Machine makes much sense.
No one is going to buy a somewhat lackluster underpowered PC, when they can just build one themselves, install Steam or SteamOS and call it a day.
I might have bought a Steam Deck instead of and ROG Ally had they not had such modest specs. I guess it's neat to have the option, but I can't imagine it being very successful.

if they make hl3 available on steam stuff ONLY, they will loose billions.

HL3 will generate billions , much more than vr , consoles or any other valve product combined.

the smart thing to do will be to make is so the game plays on new and old pc s. most people will buy a copy.

look at hl alyx. vr exclusive only , total flop as a game. 99% of people don t even know of it s existence.

Munx wrote on 2025-11-14, 17:44:

For us enthusiasts its easy to forget that the majority of PC gamers do not actually build their own PCs. A "just works for all PC games" hassle-free standardized gaming PC for a good price has a lot of potential if Valve can resist those pesky profit margin urges.

Exactly this. Some of the people I game with don't even know the specs of their own PCs. They just bought something that would allow to play the games they want without the hassle of speccing it themselves.

Munx wrote on 2025-11-14, 17:44:

For us enthusiasts its easy to forget that the majority of PC gamers do not actually build their own PCs. A "just works for all PC games" hassle-free standardized gaming PC for a good price has a lot of potential if Valve can resist those pesky profit margin urges.

IMO this is really it. You have 'Enthusiast' PC users chiming in, thinking they represent the majority of PC users when they are actually the high paying minority.

I have a Steam Deck and three other 'Steam OS' PCs I put together myself. Two are MiniPCs and the third is a compact build with a Ryzen 5600X and the RX 6400. The real appeal of these machines is that they bring my PC games anywhere I want to be. On the big desktop, handheld when I travel, and on my TVs played with a gamepad. A single game purchase runs on them all and many titles can cloud save between them.

There is a massive range of games on Steam now, including a lot of titles once limited to consoles but no longer. Steam OS makes Steam and PC gaming 'good' on TV. No matter what you kajigger with Windows, you'll eventually need to pull out your wireless keyboard because something borked or lost focus or you rebooted and Windows Update needs to beg you to use Onedrive before allowing you to log in again. Sure, you can also get to the Desktop mode in Steam OS but if you want to avoid it you can.

Finally, Steam OS is available now, I'm running it on other machines, it's hardware support keeps growing. What something more powerful than what Valve offers? Build your own! Valve isn't going to stop you.

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-15, 16:53:

look at hl alyx. vr exclusive only , total flop as a game. 99% of people don t even know of it s existence.

??????????????????

HL3 is a meme at this point. C'mon, it's been 18 years.

I know HL: Alyx exists, but, meh, I'm too old for this shit.

There are currently some rumors that HL3 will release together with the GabeCube™.

Not sure how much credence to put in that.

leileilol wrote on 2025-11-16, 04:11:

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-15, 16:53:

look at hl alyx. vr exclusive only , total flop as a game. 99% of people don t even know of it s existence.

??????????????????

Well , how many people are able to play Alyx? Can you imagine how many sales they lost by making it vr only. They lost millions of sales. 99.9% of people do not own a vr headset. Why would you make a game just for vr and loose on millions?

Munx wrote on 2025-11-14, 09:28:

Maybe once the prices are announced, they'll go "and here is a game that will go great with this hardware!"

"It's called Artifact 3.0 2.0 Episode 2"

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-17, 12:15:

Why would you make a game just for vr and loose on millions?

Because they were trying to foster adoption of VR.

Plus Steam is a money printing machine for Valve at this point. They can afford to take risks and lose money on ventures like Half Life Alyx.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-11-17, 12:33:

bitzu101 wrote on 2025-11-17, 12:15:

Why would you make a game just for vr and loose on millions?

Because they were trying to foster adoption of VR.

Plus Steam is a money printing machine for Valve at this point. They can afford to take risks and lose money on ventures like Half Life Alyx.

yea, but i do not own a vr , nor would i speand 800 quid on one. why count me out?

i bet you that alyx was more of a dissapointment for the fans and created frustration. ever though i like hl and own every game , i still would not spend the money on a vr headset just for 1 game.

basically , valve told me to bugger off because i do not own a vr thing. and it s little bit annoying. I want to play alyx , would love to play it actually. but to force me to buy a vr?

and how many did so? just a few people. but is it worth it? not many vr games , and certainly not many good vr games. more of a gimmick.