>>1958929 Any news? >it's really that pricing combined with the specs my thoughts exactly

Since RAM has skyrocketed in price, there might be a market for the smugbox now.

>>1959065 Problem is that RAM prices have only spiked - but it's unknown if they will remain high. Basically, RAM manufacturers were sitting on a ton of stock that they usually hold onto for emergencies in order to keep the market stable in case of drought or earthquakes or communist incursions. But because of the surplus, fabrication plants were in kind of low-power mode and it'll take time for them to kick out extra production. Meanwhile, Sam Altman comes around and buys up nearly 50% of everything available on the market - emergency stock or no. So a lot will depend on whether or not these companies can get back to full production in a timely manner. If Steam prices the GabeCube to match a minor hickup in the market, then they're going to be eating shit for the rest of it's lifespan. Yet if they price it while ignoring the spike in prices, they could end up eating shit if the market doesn't stabilize. So that's why we're all waiting. Apparently, Sony was sitting on a bunch of RAM so PS5 prices shouldn't be affected right away - but Xbox and maybe Nintendo is probably going to be raising prices very shortly.

>>1959086 Theyll remain high for as long as someone doesnt whip those dram faggots into shape like it happened 7 years ago

With the tariffs, AI bubble, and RAM shortages, Valve really picked the worst time to launch a console. McVicker and others said this was meant to launch years away, they were all surprised it was announced now. My guess is they're trying to get ahead of Xbox's PC-console hybrid.

>>1959086 >Sony was sitting on a bunch of RAM so PS5 prices shouldn't be affected right away It's Sony, they'll raise prices just because everyone else doing it.

>>1959065 I really hope Valve secured those contracts.

>>1958929 >third pic I want a nude version.

>>1959181 I didn't know you were into black chicks, anon.

Here is a reminder of when Valve first announced the Steam Machines (and the controller) in 2013: https://archive.is/uMEFl The whole push for a console-like experience without Windows nor some other closed and overwhelmingly proprietary OS was over a decade ago. Steam Big Picture Mode was the first step when it was released around the end of 2012, and the later steps were SteamOS, the Steam Machines, and the Steam Controller (which were all failures until the Steam Deck changed everything). I think the CPUs and GPUs released around the time of release weren't as popular compared to today for a variety of reasons. I'm glad that it's back, but I'm hoping that other computer companies make their own Steam Machines like before. It might end up being just another gimped prebuilt PC like those Optiplex or Pavilion desktops but without Windows

>>1958929 I already have a Corsair desktop hooked up to my TV. It is still high end despite being a couple years old. If I had no desktop PC, this would interest me. Other than that, it is a good business decision.

>>1960026 The issue is the pricing, this is made to be an entry tier PC for consolefags. If it's much more expensive, they won't ever touch it and it will be exclusively be bought by brand loyal Valvedrones.

>>1959680 It's on a much better moment now comparatively speaking, as the linux ecosystem is a lot more mature for gaming nowadays than it was when the Steam Machine was pushing for itself. Not to mention that consoles are hyper stagnated on the same generation since forever and wangblows is shitting itself on AI bullshit and bloat to the point that even retards are annoyed at it. No doubt the worst thing for it right now is how it's just impossible to estimate how much it'll cost because of the current RAM price spike.

>>1960054 >this is made to be an entry tier PC for consolefags That might be an erroneous assumption. If they were targeting consolefags, then making them sign up for a Steam Account just to be able to purchase it would be a huge barrier to entry. It seems simple to anyone with half a brain cell to spare, but these are consolefags - it's going to be a bunch of extra steps beyond just going to a store and buying a thing - then setting up the account later. 90% of making a sale is just getting people in your store to begin with, so the process should be as retardedly simple as humanly possible. And so far as I know, Valve has zero plans to sell these things either at retail or through third party online vendors. Also, most consolefags already exist outside of Steam's ecosystem - so it would make more sense for them to subsidize them through game sales if that was who they were targeting - new people who still have an entire library to build up. I think Steam's target audience isn't consolefags at all - but Steam Deck owners who want something a bit more powerful to put under their TVs instead of just a video-out dock, as well as people who are still trying to game on GTX1650/RX580's and below - who make up the bulk of their userbase. Since those are already existing customers who have established libraries, and obviously don't care enough to keep up with the latest gAAAy games - their earnings potential from new game sales is limited, making subsidizing them a retarded move. Marketing it (and streamlining the OS) to be more console like is sending mixed messages, I think - but remember that they're targeting potato users, not power users, so we're talking people who are PC users - but too stupid, too poor, or too uninterested in desk gaming to build their own machine to a decent spec. So it's more a nod to them, rather than to PS5 or Xbox fags. Makes sense looking at the specs too - since it's entirely unimpressive for a "console" competitor - but for a potato baker, it's a nice upgrade for probably less than they spent on their collage laptop back in 2013. There's a good chunk of that which is also intended to being geared towards being a side-kick for the Steam Frame. Specs are still a bit anemic for a headset with those kinds of panels though, old as they are. I still run into games I can't max out settings or resolution on with my old Reverb G2 even with my 4070. Though for the most part, VR games TEND to primarily be developed for headsets like Meta Quest which are dogshit graphically anyhow. It won't take much to out-compete them, even with their next-gen headsets on the horizon. I'd be willing to bet that they're planning to raise their prices per unit to a healthy profit margin, but primarily so that they can sell them in bundles for near cost. Maybe sell a whole suite of all four devices for $1500-$1800, and if you already bought a Steam Deck - it would still apply to your discount, sort of how like how they factor games and DLC you already "own" into game bundles.

>>1960135 current day consoles demand that you connect to internet and make an x platform account though, especially since no disc consoles are taking off this gen

>>1960140 Right, but actually buying them is as simple as walking into a Costco (or breaking a window, if you're a nigger). Once you have the console in your home, the initial bootup hand-holds you through the account creation process... which you HAVE to go through or else you just bought a $600 brick. In the case of Valve, you have to make the account before you have the sunk-cost of already purchasing the unit - which gives a lot of retards ample time to get confused and walk the fuck away.

>>1960143 Oh right, i forgot about the having an active steam account before buying the thing part of the deal

>>1960143 Aren't normalfags buying shit from Amazon in droved Creating a Steam account is easy as shit

>>1960143 A counter argument would be Amazon, as that also requires you having an account, before buying anything, yet that didn't stop tens, maybe even hundreds of millions of normalfags from using it. On the other hand, it seems like you can buy a Steam Deck now with just a guest account, which just requires an email address, and the shipping information.

>>1960180 I know a normalfag who I ended up having to buy the Steam Deck for, because he couldn't wrap his head around account creation on the Steam App. I'm sure he could have muddled through the process if he really wanted, and even though he really wanted the Steam Deck - he was an Xbox player. Had been since the original, and has a decent sized digital and disk library for them. For him, the idea of "leaving that ecosystem" was a weight around his ankles that kept him from going out of his way and really putting in the effort to do it himself. He was out of his comfort zone and needed someone else to actually do it for him, like an instructor pushing skydiving newbies out of the plane. That's something that can be overcome with impulse buying at a brick and mortar store much more easily than having to go through the steps of making an account. >>1960186 Amazon has a hell of a lot more utility than a game console though (and we're talking people who will treat it as a game console rather than a PC)... and Amazon doesn't split you away from 10-20 years worth of friends lists, game libraries, and just general comfort zone. The Xbox fag I was mentioning earlier still barely even uses the Steam Deck I bought for him because it's not the comfortable Xbox environment he's been conditioned into. The only games he owns are shit I've given him via spare keys from bundles or $2 classics I find on sale. Everything else he's tried has been free-to-play garbage, half of which doesn't work because they still haven't figured out anti-cheat. I just don't think going after consolefags is going to be a fruitful market for Valve to target, at least not for the first generation. Maybe if OEM partners start putting more powerful units onto actual store shelves/Amazon, but even casually watching consolefags talk about the Steam Machine on Youtube (or even Xbox Magnus going PC) is enough to convince me that the vast majority of them haven't wrapped their brain around the idea of what it actually means for these devices to be HTPCs. They might acknowledge some of the devices PC advantages, but the way they put 2 and 2 together in an analysis betrays how much they still think of it in terms of a being just another game console box going up against Sony and Microsoft. I think a lot of consolefags buying into the hype are going to be sorely disappointed, of the machines they buy will be grossly underutilized.

>>1960234 Unless Valve does some license jewery no Linux machine will ever be a functional HTPC because they will never support dolby vision, atmos, and the ability to use high bitrate streaming options. 99% of people would be better off having a main PC at their desk and just streaming their games off of it using an Nvidia shield.

>>1961617 >dolby That company, or really home theater software in general, deserves more scrutiny because there's hardly much support for the gaming consoles. I understand that turning gaming consoles into home TV/theater boxes was a mistake years ago, but the new Steam Machine can change this since it's mainly a gaming PC that could double as a competitive media center. I really want Valve to at least force Dolby or DTS or whatever to get better Linux support. So far, the only other software that has full support for Dolby Atmos/Vision that I can easily recall is mostly macOS and Android TV.

>>1960143 >or breaking a window, if you're a nigger Anon really wants that Steam Machine, but there's no windows to break for him :(

>>1961617 Are there no loonix surround sound and hdr solutions?

>>1961919 Linux famously has audio problems. It's gotten better since PulseAudio was phased out but PipeWire wasn't designed with eight speaker home theatre setups in mind.

>>1961919 wayland supports HDR, and has been a major driving factor towards widespread adoption of it in spite of the stupid issues it has I'm no audiophile and never bothered with surround sound, so I can't offer any greater insight than a quick web search, but it seems surround sound was doable with just ALSA. >>1961924 For all the years I've used linux the only time I ever had audio issues was when initially setting up ALSA and not configuring it properly, and for a very long time after pulseaudio came about I refused to install it, only eventually being forced to because applications were updating to only look for pulseaudio and would no longer just use ALSA, so without pulseaudio I lost sound in games and web browsers, and Poettering forced my hand.

anyone ready to make a price infographic that compares the gabecube's price to other consoles+how much of their online one has to buy to equate the gabecube, as well as an an asterisk denoting that the price for the consoles will obviously be higher than that if you pay for even more online?, i recommend a graph, if just to drive home the fact that for the gabecube it's just a flat line

>>1962817 something like pic related but accurate and not shit

Anecdotally, everyone I've spoken to about the Steam Machine is interested, a lot of them like the idea of having a gaming PC they can travel with

>>1962703 >wayland supports HDR Yet Proton doesn't officially support Wayland.

>>1962834 They messed up by not putting a handle on it but maybe they were afraid of the GC comparisons.

>>1961617 Ironically, the only way for the SM to be a decent HTPC is to just fucking pirate everything.

Am I the only one who wants this fucking thing? I just have big hands man

>>1963025 Nope, I'm gonna get it too when I also get the Gabecube

>>1963035 I really couldn't give less of a shit about the Gapecube, I just really like the different bulky design of the gamepad.

>>1963025 No, I like the deck's layout better than any other controller I've tried. Having the sticks, dpad and buttons all "high" on the controller is really comfortable.

>>1963025 Not really, I want the Steam Frame to replace my Reverb G2. A Steam Controller would be nice, but I've got a bunch of perfectly functional controllers already. The Steam Machine might be an option, but not if the price is going to be retarded. I'll just continue using my laptop's HDMI out to play games on the TV, and stream from my desktop whatever my laptop can't handle. I'll have plenty of room for it once I get my Xbox One out of there, but until Microsoft brings OG/360 compatibility to the Xbox App on Windows or Xenia gets a biiiit better - it's not going anywhere for the time being.

>>1963025 Day zero for me, even though I don't think I can comfortably afford it at the moment, especially as the bitches at Valve don't sell directly in my region.

>>1963025 It's like a mix of the Duke, DualShock, and the original Steam Controller 1. I think it's somewhat disappointing Valve didn't try to be as bold and original as the Steam Controller 1 was. The two trackpads will still make it easier to actually play PC focused games on controller, RTS and 4X will be much easier on this compared to any other controller. Fun fact: The Steam Deck developed out of this controller. You can see a lot of DNA between the two.

>>1962834 So kind of like a laptop?

Valve backed themselves into a corner imo thanks to AI hogging all the pc parts market. >>1959171 Future releases are fucked anyway.

>>1963125 He's not a licensed proctologist, though. I get health care insurance is expensive, but he can't even prescribe any medications if he finds something wrong.

>>1963025 I want one along with that Hyperkin Duke controller, it looks so kingly.

>>1963025 Day one for me, been looking for a controller made for PC, rather than working from a Switch Pro or Xbone.

>>1963261 Third parties have been better than official console gamepads since 8th Gen anon. You're better off cutting off the middleman and getting chinkshit straight from the source with better tech and a better pricepoint.

>>1963268 But Steam is literally third party, also American, fuck those chinks.

>>1963125 Accurate description of this thread's population

>>1963322 Nobody tell this patriot where most of his electronics are made in.

>>1959680 When they did it, Proton didn't exist and there were way, way less native Linux ports. I don't know what they were thinking.

>>1962834 >a lot of them like the idea of having a gaming PC they can travel with >>1963025 How large is it horizontally compared to something like a dualshock? Im interested in something a tad bit wider

>>1963598 >pic related Anon, the Machine is multiple times more powerful than the Deck. Many would find the extra performance worthwhile.

>>1963451 Ah yeah. Fuck.

>>1963451 Taiwan? The part of Japanese China the US conquered after WWII?

It's just a mini pc. Who cares? I can guarantee you once this comes out there will be better mini pcs for less money. The only reason why this pc is receiving any attention at all is because valve is making it

>>1963827 >once this comes out there will be better mini pcs for less money. By now, it should become obvious that that's Valve's plan, to create the "gaming mPCs" market. Just like with the Steam Deck and the handheld market.

>>1963827 Most mini pcs available are igpu only, to have something with a proper card youd need to build it yourself and even then the itx sff shit is more expensive than atx variants of the same hardware

>>1963818 Read a book nigger, holy shit.

>>1963025 >>1963598 I'm going to preorder it ASAP. Maybe even a limited edition color if possible. As for the size, you shouldn't worry since the controller seems to be about the same size as that Xbone Series controller, unless your big hands find that uncomfortable. Even then, there may likely be hardware mods and accessories aside from changing the shell color and buttons. I'm curious if there will be any third-party copycat controllers like those from Gamesir or 8BitDo. There's been plenty of similar Xbox-style gamepads and mods but with TMR, gyroscopes, and extra buttons.

>>1963025 I feel like those pads are going to worn out with the friction with the thumb base, especially the left.

>>1963025 >Am I the only one who wants this fucking thing? No, but out of the 3 new hardwares, the controller places last, even behind the VR headset. I'm glad to see that VR isn't dead.

>>1963852 >Most mini pcs available are igpu only There have been pre-built SFF PC's with GPU's in them for at least the better part of a decade.

>>1963827 >The only reason why this pc is receiving any attention at all is because valve is making it And there being an easy alternative to Microshit while having someone else handling all the bullshit that keeps people away from Linux. >>1964126 >I'm glad to see that VR isn't dead What makes you think it isn't? Hardware is just hardware.

>>1964126 I just hope the price isn't insane.

>>1963085 Is this the evolution of that trio of dancing robots? The smugness seems familiar.

>>1963827 generally agree, and I also think that controller can't be comfortable and still cannot see the point of the trackpads, however, you're missing the point Windows fucking sucks and has become increasingly unusable iOS can't do gaming so there's a considerable demand for Linux support right now it's like when WoW pissed off all of its players for the 900th time and they decided en masse to move over to FFXIV for 3 months, it wasn't necessarily because FFXIV is a good MMORPG (it really isn't an MMORPG at all lol) it's just that WoW had become unbearable. The deck is just fucking retarded boomer gadget-chasing bugman bait, it's the worst possible form factor between a desktop and a handheld and inferior to a laptop in every way. Still deserves support just for pushing gaming on Linux, just because the alternative right now is Windows 11, and nobody wants Windows 11. This one, I might have considered buying if there was an option with stronger hardware and more focus on productivity as well. I don't need it to be fist-sized, I need it to work well.

>>1968754 >I also think that controller can't be comfortable You have tiny baby hands that's why

>>1968937 it's smaller than an xbox controller lol it just has a bunch of retarded extra buttons covering every inch of it, what the fuck am I ever gonna do with 4 extra triggers where my ring and pinky are wrapping around?

>>1963939 The 360 chat pad was a game changer. I used it all the time to text with friends. using the touch pads on the steam controller to type is going to be a big deal for me!

I played games with extensive keyboard input such as System Shock Enhanced Edition and Thief The Dark Project and they played brilliantly with the Steam Deck's touchpads and back buttons. The community layout feature is genuinely a game changer. The anon either never tried playing on a Deck and/or is retarded.

>>1968952 >Why do you need 2 analogs? >Why do you need triggers? >Why do you need paddles? >Why do you need 4 face buttons? >Why do you need analog buttons? >Why do you need gyro? Because you're a nigger

>>1969132 >The 360 chat pad was a game changer. I'll one up you. NGC didn't even have voice chat, so everyone was stuck using the OSK unless you imported one of these big fuckers so that you could just lay into motherfuckers like a drill sergeant and all they could do is is weakly reply with "fuk u" repeatedly. I can't find an image of it, but the Xbox 360 had a chat adapter from Sega specifically for Phantasy Star Universe which used the goddamned analog sticks to select letters. There was an indicator sticker ring you had to place on the controller with all 26 goddamned letters around the right analog stick - as well as common punctuation. There was some button combination you had to press, and then flick the stick VERY CAREFULLY to the letters you wanted to "type" out. Never used one myself, though. I guess retards never realized that you could just plug a USB Keyboard into the 360. I played it at a desk with my PC monitor, but you could easily get a USB extension cable for living room play.

>>1969317 That sounds atrocious.

>>1969532 Not sure why you say this when a steam deck is about the same size as that

>>1969554 If you move your mouse over the big black box up above, you'll find that there's more text hidden underneath.

>>1969132 Trackpad typing on the Deck is even better, imo. You become pretty fast with it once you get used to it.

>>1969317 This thing? I didn't have USB keyboards until the early tens and I was done with consoles by then

>>1969267 >>Why do you need 2 analogs? to move both camera and character in a comfortable way >>Why do you need triggers? Index and middle fingers >>Why do you need paddles? I don't >>Why do you need 4 face buttons? for 4+ different actions, to hit with my thumb or index >>Why do you need analog buttons? my thumb is already on the stick so why not, usually camera control or lock on >>Why do you need gyro? small aim adjustments in FPS, to use combined with analog, but people aren't ready for that + MKB is just better so nobody bothers other than people who play Splatoon one massive problem with gyro adoption is that it robs you of being able to hodl your controller in a relaxed manner, you have to tense up or your aim goes to shit. Very niche, honestly wouldn't say I need it. my turn: why do you need 4 more triggers at the back of the controller where your ring and pinky rest? Name a use case and don't say FFXIV cause I don't believe you

>>1970082 No... If I remember right it was an inline unit that sat between the controller cord and the USB breakaway. It wasn't part of the controller itself - you just had a sticker ring you had to apply to the thumb stick to indicate what letters you were selecting. I'll try to find a picture when I sober up.

I'm not jewish so if it's 200 bucks overpriced I don't care, also I am jewish so I make enough money to not care about 200 bucks.

I could have sworn I had a picture of it saved. I know it was on PSOworld, but it looks like a lot of their archived images have been purged and CoPilot and Gemini are both shitting their pants trying to find it elsewise.

>>1970292 Pay piggy

>>1963827 The question then is will they sell upgrades that can be swapped out in the future, or will they sell entire units with better specs as sequels?

>>1973295 I assume the latter, but itll take a long time for a successor to come out

>>1968952 Wait until you see whatever abomination Mad Catz comes out for it will look like

>>1963827 For linux users it's an exciting premise of maybe gaining much better general support from developers getting strong-armed into finally leaving pajeetOS. For the average user it's a nice easy way to escape the constant enshitification without having to learn a whole lot. and provides a small tv top setup with a low profile that can be used in entertainment centers without taking up the space a traditional desktop would. For enthusiasts it represents a baseline for developers to easily optimizes for, which can have a knock on effect in making more powerful setups run better. But yes, for fanboys it's just cause it has valve's name stuck to it. >>1973295 Chances are their going to just let other companies make future prebuilds with steamOS branding similar to handheld PCs. More inline with how the original steammachine's were invisioned, it's just this time they actually got games.

>>1963025 I already own the first one. The 2nd one looks cool but for how i've gotten used to the first i'm personally not that excited for dual joysticks since i already adapted heavily to using gyro and the touchpads. I'm not happy to see they replaced to clicky flippers with the back buttons of the deck. Thats been the one thing i disliked the most about the steamdeck being that the buttons are far to harsh to push and in an akward position where you don't have nearly as much leverage. I think i'd have perfered they release the steamframe controllers as a standalone thing.

>>1973370 >I think i'd have perfered they release the steamframe controllers as a standalone thing What makes you think they won't?

>>1973477 The fact it uses camera IR like other mix reality headset like the oculus. That kind of points to it being a strictly a bundled thing. Plus neither the knuckles or vive wands work indipendently of the headset and need steamVR running. I'd be amazed if they could work standalone, but i doubt it.

>>1973548 Damn, VR is far more of a dead end than I knew. You'd think they'd be pushing for replacement controller sales or just controllers for people who found they enjoy controlling with a two piece controller but I guess they really want that full unit sale for the people actually invested in it

>>1970082 I still have my 360 controller keyboard. I also still have my controller keyboard for the PS3.

>>1973295 They, as in Steam, will almost certainly not sell upgrade kits - but there's nothing preventing a third party from selling them. Problem is that 90% of the cost of the unit is soldered directly to the main board, so it doesn't really make any sense to sell an upgrade over a whole new unit. Same reason that HP or ASUS doesn't sell "laptop" upgrades despite having a built-in monitor that could save users some cash by not having to buy again. The savings to the customer are marginal compared to the costs of engineering, producing, and warehousing a bunch of upgrade kits.

>>1963025 I do. It has incredible potential I'm gonna preorder when possible. My 8bitdo ultimate 2c makes my hands fall asleep when ever I use it for more than a hour and a half and I tried holding it different ways. >DS PSVita PS4 PS3 Switch emulation >Trackpads useful in okami Nioh >Native back button configuration in Linux <configuration required in most titles if you plan to use it as anything but a basic xbox pad The only way this controller would be unlikely to get sales is if they overprice it anything above $60 is going to be a hard sell for anyone who doesn't already own a controller or multiple that already has most of the same functionality.

how well will the steam machine run blinx?

>>2083507 It'll run 1080p 30 fps at least. not that it would benefit from actually being in HD since it's a game made for 480p fake hd crt tvs and shitty old lcds.

With the RAM shortages and GPU price hikes, this thing is fucked isn't it?

>>2083574 It's fucked Dave.. >What about Sony? They're fucked Dave. >And Microsoft? They're fucked Dave >What about Nintendo? They're fucked Dave >Valve? Yes they're fucked Dave. Everything is fucked Dave. Everything is completed fucking fucked Dave.

>>1959106 Xbox should have become a software brand a decade ago.

>>1973574 The valve frame is impressive, because they are shipping it with x86 emulation. It's a strike against not only windows, but Intel and AMD as well.

>>2083574 Gabe bought that boat company to build vessels for an invasion of korea and taiwan, hardware will be made cheap after the campaign

>>2083613 Microsoft cannot code or make games not even when they have billions on the line and guns at the developers heads

>>2083623 You just laid out why they can't make games. Billions of investors dollars on the line means they can't take any risks. Developers who are part of a faceless machine don't have any passion and know they'll probably be fired and replaced the second their game is done.

>>2083662 they took plenty of risks and sank billions into the ground with the xbox only to kill it after 4 iterations

>>2083681 They took a shotgun barrel to conker's head and thought it was a good idea. Assume aliens run the company because they're not thinking about it from a human pov at all.

>>2083681 The Xbox served it's purpose for Microsoft, though. The console only ever existed because Microsoft was afraid that Sony was going to put a Linux box in everybody's livingroom, and they had to get out ahead of it. Once Sony stopped offering Linux distributions to Playstation owners, and once smart phones/mobile devices replaced dedicated computers and set-top boxes in the mass market, there was no point in keeping Xbox around. There was a schism in leadership over whether or not to just spin the entire Xbox division off into it's own separate company even while the 360 was still trading blows toe to toe with PS3. Xbox as it stands today is just a garbage brand that occasionally gets used to further some other projects - like Cloud computing, AI development, and shilling services like GamePass. The only reason it hasn't been completely abandoned yet is because if, for any reason, Microsoft does need that brand in the future - it's going to be near impossible to re-enter the market successfully. Xbox One was a flop because Microsoft had no idea what the fuck to do with it - so they made it into a multimedia box running a windows kernel that could be streamlined and have those optimizations and features back-ported to Windows, just like Bill Gates wanted before Seamus Blackly and his team fucked up (in his eyes) by making a game console. And as it turns out - they do need it again now that Valve has successfully decoupled Windows applications from Windows itself. They need something there to compete, and retain users within the Microsoft ecosystem - and merging Xbox with Windows is going to be that hook. If Xbox One was just Microsoft's attempt to repurpose the brand into something useful, then SeriesX/S is just a placeholder while they continue work to merge the platforms. The Steam Deck and release of Proton just lit a bit of a fire under their asses to get things finished up. I suspect they're going to push the next-generation Xbox a lot harder - but on the back end, they're also going to reducing costs by drawing back on a lot of their hardware production to rely on OEMs while they provide the software. They'll still have a reference model, I'm sure, but don't expect it to be pushed to retailers the way older generations of their hardware was. That's why you're seeing empty shelves now. Microsoft is cutting off the agreements to reserves shelf space while liquidating inventory since they won't really be needing them, and they'll likely be replaced by just advertising retail PCs as having Xbox functionality. In a less foreseen way, these RAM price spikes could really end up fucking Microsoft because it's likely to push next generation back a year or two, meanwhile their production lines are closing down and Microsoft has nothing on the market when they had planned to release Magnus late in 26 or early 27. Sure, they can just release the Xbox update for Windows 11 anytime, but they're going to miss their opportunity for a synchronous launch with "console" hardware that will deflate their marketing by quite a bit. It'll look to consumers as less like a merger of two core pillars of Microsoft and more like they just gutted Xbox and made it tack-on to PC. Consider whether or not SteamOS/Proton would have made nearly as much of a splash in the market if they had just released it as a download, rather than having it tied to Steam Deck hardware that was geared towards really showcasing everything it had to offer?

>>2083918 >The Xbox served it's purpose for Microsoft, though. The console only ever existed because Microsoft was afraid that Sony was going to put a Linux box in everybody's livingroom, And by freak mistake they did it anyways this year. Either way the average person is too stupid for Linux anyways even if it were preinstalled.

>>2083918 sony was never serious about the whole linux computer thing, it was a failed attempt at skirting taxes in europe and dropped midway through ps3s lifespan valve is way more of a threat to microsoft in this regard because theyre pushing their own streamlined linux version and pouring lots of cash into cross OS and cross ISA game compatbility even then the steam deck sold only a few million units, significantly less than other famous console flops

>>2083943 >sony was never serious about the whole linux computer thing, it was a failed attempt at skirting taxes in europe and dropped midway through ps3s lifespan Right, but Microsoft didn't know that - and even if they suspected that, would they want to take the risk? >valve is way more of a threat to microsoft in this regard Yes, and I'm sure Microsoft also had an inkling as to what Valve was up to even back when they released the first Steam Machines. Part of the reason why the Xbox is even still alive as a brand - but I don't think they anticipated just how successful Valve would be with Proton compatibility until the Steam Deck provided commercial proof of concept. >even then the steam deck sold only a few million units, significantly less than other famous console flops Right, but it's not about console sales - it's about operating systems and compatibility. Valve's goal isn't to make money with hardware - it's ensuring that Microsoft doesn't pull a dumb fucking move like UWP and trying to turn the open ecosystem of the PC into a closed mobile platform. It's a threat to Valve's business model for the reason why you can't buy mobile games for your phone and tablet through Steam - everything goes through the "trusted" marketplace, with no room for third parties. If Valve could just sit back and collect all the money just being a store, I'm sure they'd love to - because hardware takes investment, engineering, warehousing, advertising, manufacturing, etc. It's expensive and risky business. But they needed a lifeboat away from Windows, and the hardware helped IMMENSELY to demo the capabilities of Proton. It created a niche, but very vocal core fanbase that would evangelize it through blogs and twitter and jewtube videos. The word is out now, and even most casuals know Linux is a viable platform - even if they're too dumb to even use the stripped down consolized version of it. That's the kind of marketing that Microsoft is going to miss out on if they don't release a hardware unit along with the Windows 11 Xbox update due to market related delays. And it's not like the ROG Ally X got them off on a good foot because their first impression in the market with an Xbox branded PC was a half-baked Xbox App overlay on an exorbitantly expensive handheld. The biggest impression it ended up making was highlighting just how much performance you lose by using bloated shitty Windows spyware. All the weaknesses of modern windows, without the benefit of being affordable or functional.

>>2084034 >Right, but it's not about console sales - it's about operating systems and compatibility. Right now they've only released steam os for the deck and that one other handheld someone else made, unless steam machine steamos is generally compatible the best you'll have is bazzite, a fan made steam os version >And it's not like the ROG Ally X got them off on a good foot because their first impression in the market with an Xbox branded PC was a half-baked Xbox App overlay on an exorbitantly expensive handheld. all of the new x86 handhelds besides the deck are ridiculously expensive, (I guess with LCD deck gone it's stepped into the fray) mostly because they keep tight with those shitty predesigned very CPU heavy and graphics weak socs that amd and Intel shit out, handheld space needs more gpu heavier and cpu lighter systems rather than vega 8 tier igpus with 2 hours of battery life