I haven't seen much about them since their launch. I can't seem to find their sales anywhere? Do you think valve will push out a second wave of steam machine and do better?
I think the steam boxes were always doomed to fail. However, a nice side effect of the whole project is how many games are now playable on linux through steam.
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Agreed, I also feel like it brought Linux to the common person's (talking about Americans) attention as something that wasn't only for hackers or hardcore nerds.
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Not enough retail SKUs maybe? How else were they suppose to compete in the console space if they didn't have retail SKUs? Plus, low-level API was still just being talked about at that time so for Steam Machines to compete in the same price bracket as the consoles was just not fissible. However, with Vulkan and DX12 in the mindset of not just developers, but also gamers I think now would've been a good time. Plus, I think Steam shifted their focus on VR instead.
They died. They were stupid to begin with and there was no need for them to exist.
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A few reasons steam machine failed...
1. The costumers confusion.
You go to buy gaming thing. You choose - Xbox that you know, PlayStation that you know and 17 different steam machines, that you don't understand... Yeah, I'm sticking with PlayStation thank you.
2. Pricing and availability.
You had machines from 500$ to 2000$ and you can buy this from Steam? Are you kidding me? If I am on Steam I already have a PC, capable of playing games.
3. Media... My favorite...
Everything I have heard from regular media about steam machine was negative. Then someone did some benchmarks and here we go, more negativity, and then tech community jumped on, etc...
I think Steam have now as requirement that if you want to sell your shit on Steam, your shit must run on Linux. Oh, you don't want to make it run on Linux? Sell it somewhere else... And good luck selling more than 100 copies...
The thing with the Steam Machines is it suffered the same problems Linux currently deals with.
It didn't offer anything better than a Windows PC or even an actual console from a GAMING perspective
the steam controller required a massive learning curve (and wasn't great for certain games)
Drivers were finicky depending on what GPU you had
Let's not get into the lack of games on the Linux side of the Steam Market.
Which begs the question and we already know the answer to it.. Will Linux be a viable alternative for Windows in the gaming space? absolutely not. and the steam machine concept and the OS was proof enough.
What happened?
Hardware vendors didn't have Windows level driver performance, basically only people with high end NVIDIA cards could use them. On top of MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR titles not hitting SteamOS, where is my Fallout4/Witcher3/GTA5 on Linux? didn't happen, that's enough to kill a platform short term.
Maybe in 5years time SteamOS will make a resurgence with Vulkan API as more developers realize they can easily make ports for Linux with it (gonna take some time).
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And I beautiful day that will be, but until then ... I will play my games on Windows when I must and games on Linux where I can.
Two games I WISH were on Linux are Witcher3 and Fallout4... that be so awesome.. sooo awesome.awesome.awesome.... Nope that didn't work.
Ya I agree, I think that valve has to do MUCH more planning and preparation. My plan if I were Valve. First, wait until Wayland/Mir come out, Vulkan is widely supported, and Linux drivers are great. Then, make one or an absolute maximum of two variations of a steam machine. Make them both official, you can let manufacturers do there own thing with cooling and maybe put their logo somewhere on it but make sure they don't affect performance or compatibility. They don't have to be very powerful, just enough to keep up with modern consoles. Then, make SteamOS and the games on it are designed to run perfectly on your steam machine. Have every steam game tested on a Steam Machine. Make sure it is playable at a minimum of 30 FPS and doesn't crash and make sure it has controller support. If it isn't compatible, don't make it view-able on the store for Steam Machine users. Next up, invest in marketing, the first wave of steam machines had little to no marketing to anyone outside of the PC space. Put up TV ads when the next console generation is coming out so that console gamers will be able to find out about it. I am not sure about this, but I would advertise it as a competent cheaper alternative to other consoles.
The four people that wanted one bought it. Market Saturated.
I don't think it really has a place in today's world. And if they're going to launch a another steam machine it's going to be something wildly different. Maybe one that can handle VR out of the box?
Maybe, although my personal opinion is that, for gaming atleast, VR is a gimick
Was there an actual launch? The main Steam Machines were supposed to launch from Valve when Steam OS was considered mature enough. It just that SteamOS development is still on going. The 3rd party machines were not supposed hold the whole market (and many of them were badly thought off)....
It is not that they failed because they never truly launched yet and Valve seem to have put the paradigm on hold and focused more on Vulkan and streaming hardware...
I think Dual boot guaranteed their death.
No PC gamer wants a console and no console gamer wants a PC hence the steam machines dying.
Actually many PC gamers would like that...Its just that you can do that using a SteamLink and be done with it...There is no need to buy a new machine for that.
SteamMachines were supposed to target the console crowd.
So in otherwords .. PC gamers don't want a console? :P
I think the problem was that it was filling too small of a niche. Its basically the legal budget couch PC. People that want to traditionally pc game with linux instead of windows can't use it. If you already have a copy of windows or are ok pirating windows or would rather shell out a little money so your couch system is compatible with a wider library of games and easily played with the OS you're already comfortable with, then there is no need to get the linux OS on your couch system. Also, frankly, using big picture mode on PC is horrible, it needs to be dramatically refined.
The biggest surprise would've been if it actually had broken the bank, it's still considered early alpha on every aspect. But it's already shaping the future.