Steam has reached a new milestone that underscores the accelerating momentum behind global PC gaming. Data from SteamDB shows Valve's digital distribution platform recently surpassed 41.6 million...
Oh. I am referencing the AMD NUC because I straight up have one under my TV and it is WONDERFUL. Run Silksong natively, stream Clair Obscur or Dynasty Warriors so that I have my desktop proper driving those.
But if it were my only/strongest gaming device? Okay, if I were smart I would actually do that and save a lot of money and power since the vast majority of what I play is indie or a decade or more old. But I wouldn’t want to.
And that is the problem. It is a lot easier to sell someone on a second device if it is a handheld. But a proper console is going to be very much threading the needle on people who have a gaming PC and want a support device or who don’t want to play “new stuff” on their 4k TVs.
Which… was kind of the problem with Steam Machines a decade ago or whenever Valve tried. Yeah, Proton makes it MUCH more viable but it is still the same problem of “So… I am spending 800 dollars and FInal Fantasy won’t look as good as a 1000 dollar PS6?” and so forth.
I DO think it gets a lot more viable in 2027 when Liberation Day consoles are hitting the 1000 or more price point and normalizing it because… they are already basically just computers anyway. But then you run into the problem that AMD is what keeps that price feasible and… AMD and HDMI 2.1 doesn’t work.
That said: Hey GabeN, I know you are obviously reading this. Dedicate Valve’s might to a Display Port->HDMI dongle that actually works and I will give you a hundred fucking bucks for just that alone. Maybe even 150.
Oh. I am referencing the AMD NUC because I straight up have one under my TV and it is WONDERFUL. Run Silksong natively, stream Clair Obscur or Dynasty Warriors so that I have my desktop proper driving those.
But if it were my only/strongest gaming device? Okay, if I were smart I would actually do that and save a lot of money and power since the vast majority of what I play is indie or a decade or more old. But I wouldn’t want to.
And that is the problem. It is a lot easier to sell someone on a second device if it is a handheld. But a proper console is going to be very much threading the needle on people who have a gaming PC and want a support device or who don’t want to play “new stuff” on their 4k TVs.
Which… was kind of the problem with Steam Machines a decade ago or whenever Valve tried. Yeah, Proton makes it MUCH more viable but it is still the same problem of “So… I am spending 800 dollars and FInal Fantasy won’t look as good as a 1000 dollar PS6?” and so forth.
I DO think it gets a lot more viable in 2027 when Liberation Day consoles are hitting the 1000 or more price point and normalizing it because… they are already basically just computers anyway. But then you run into the problem that AMD is what keeps that price feasible and… AMD and HDMI 2.1 doesn’t work.
That said: Hey GabeN, I know you are obviously reading this. Dedicate Valve’s might to a Display Port->HDMI dongle that actually works and I will give you a hundred fucking bucks for just that alone. Maybe even 150.