Valve's NEW Steam Machine...

DrezKill

DrezKill

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I gotta admit

Even though I know it won’t have the same level of horsepower… this is a very compelling option versus building another gaming-compatible PC

Maybe it won’t play with every option cranked to 11, but “don’t need to fiddle with it” console-like compatibly is starting to look very compelling - especially after dealing with Win10/11 crap for so long.

It is one nice thing about the Steam Deck - it operates a lot like a console…. But if you want to dig in, the option to boot to a Linux desktop and drop to root level is there.

Especially when GPUs alone will probably cost about as much as the entire Steam Machine likely.
 
Skillz said:
Ain't no way the Frame is going to be $300.
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Yeah, I think these are gonna be priced a bit more than I'd like, but that's kinda the way everything is priced since Covid came and went anymore.

Seems most folks are guessing around $600-1k for the Steam Box (depending on SSD size and such), and the Frame going for anywhere from $500 to $1k, Those prices make them... not instant purchases or impulse buys for me, to say the least.

If they are close to the prices @GodisanAtheist says, then yeah, they will fly off the shelves. And while I think Valve could afford to take that loss, they wouldn't do that for long - gotta sell a lot of games on Steam on those platforms to make up the difference, and the big console makers have moved away from letting their hardware be big loss leaders anymore.
 
Skillz said:
Ain't no way the Frame is going to be $300.
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-Meta has basically capped the mass market pricing for SOC headsets at $400.

Unless you really hate the idea of a Meta account, you already own a very functional $400 Quest 3 and have no reason to buy a Frame, but VR is already an ultra niche and just doing the same thing again (for more money) is not really a winning proposition.
 
GodisanAtheist said:
but VR is already an ultra niche
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What happened next will shock you! :p Worldwide shipments surpassed 50 million units for 2021-22 alone. Pandemic made VR explode in popularity and sales. The install base is over 100 million at present. Valve hopefully has learned from their experience. They only sold about 400K units of the Index and just this month ceased production. They must understand they have to be more price competitive this time around. Offering a primo experience did not suck in nearly enough users due to price. Personally, I never even considered it seriously as I need to be able to move completely freely when virtual boxing.

If they can't offer it for $600 or so, I think it'll be another low volume dud. I have the OG Quest and Quest 2. The OG was under $400 with games included. The Q2 the Mrs. won in a contest. The Frame has some neat features worth paying a bit of a premium for from the looks of it. But $700 and up is going to make way too many potential buyers fold, me thinks. I think $550 with no cables needed to access your Steam library will move product. Anything lower they will have trouble keeping it in stock.
 
They really need to come up with upgradable VR headsets. Like replace lenses and compute unit easily. It gets very old with multiple headsets lying around collecting dust. Seeing them lying around prevents you from buying one more which keeps you from getting a better VR experience.

^^^ Maybe that's just me. Who knows?
 
igor_kavinski said:
They really need to come up with upgradable VR headsets. Like replace lenses and compute unit easily.
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Like most consumer devices planned obsolescence is part of the strategy. You are expected to replace it not upgrade it.
igor_kavinski said:
It gets very old with multiple headsets lying around collecting dust.
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I use one to sweat in, one to watch media. Ain't no dust collecting. My OG's battery is dying, I need to hunt down a compatible battery pack headband like I have for the Q2.
igor_kavinski said:
Seeing them lying around prevents you from buying one more which keeps you from getting a better VR experience.
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I think it is much more often the opposite. Slaves to consumerism are always looking to drop money they don't have on the new hotness.
 
DAPUNISHER said:
What did those cost again? ;)
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I have no idea, but don't forget to account for inflation! I assume just about as many people are still regularly feeding their digital pets as are using their Oculus regularly. Perhaps a Venn diagram would show a lot of overlap there?

I have no scientific data to back that up, other than I vaguely know what a Venn diagram is.
 
Brian_B said:
I have no idea, but don't forget to account for inflation! I assume just about as many people are still regularly feeding their digital pets as are using their Oculus regularly. Perhaps a Venn diagram would show a lot of overlap there?

I have no scientific data to back that up, other than I vaguely know what a Venn diagram is.
Click to expand...

It's kind of like a Gantt Chart, except less linear. 😁
 
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