I think Microsoft and Sony and the Deck are all instructive comparisons here:
even if a PS6 is $900-$1200 at launch, it is likely to be 4x as powerful as this thing, releasing within 18 months, which is like a generational difference
this is basically why every product released by Microsoft’s hardware division in the last decade with the exception of Xbox (but apparently to include Helix) has been a weirdly expensive prestige thing that is ostensibly there to motivate the software teams rather than actually do numbers since the build quality and usability and audience aren’t remotely there compared with Apple for Apple prices (see: most Surface computers); if you can’t make something good + affordable, you instead launch a high end expensive product to bootstrap an ecosystem
Valve did exactly this with their previous VR product and then actually achieved good + affordable with the Deck because there was a good market opening because compute is currently too expensive when it isn’t usefully constrained by portability (I’m expecting them to do a decent job with the Frame still too). trying to bridge console + PC at cost just kind of sucks especially now; I don’t think they had a good way to slice it and I think the compromises they landed on here aren’t really good enough (even though I’m a big supporter of their ecosystem moves)
yeah but this is less power than a PS5 for double the price. yes games on average are a little cheaper, I guess that helps, but you’re also locked into steam to get any of the benefits so it’s nearly as closed
This is middling laptop hardware in a cute form factor. It is priced like a premium laptop because it’s a luxury product. You can’t compare it to computers that are twice as big and use twice as much power. It’s a luxury product. It’s a Lexus compared to Sony’s Toyota. It’s definitely not a Ford.
Discussing compute value is wild. Valve is barely considering value. And, to be honest, valve wants to promote more games on cheap hardware. A luxury sub PS5 tier PC just shows off that people with money will be buying sub PS5 tier games.
Mostly I’m making this post out of hopes of destroying the performance arms race. I want a games console that just does fun games. I don’t care how much it costs? If you’re cheap… you can still do that even if the steam box is eight bazillion dollars - you just need the steam box to also only be able to play shit games
There’s never been a better time to get one of those weird PS5 APU crypto cards and hack it to run Bazzite and have the $50 PSU everyone recommends for it melt the power cables.
Next year I’m playing that game where you play as a cat exploring a plant cell but yeah I could see myself stretching this out forever. Computers are starting to make me sad. I only play old shit on them half the time now anyway…
and the initial pitch was that it was an affordable entry level product. if you have something that was being pitched that way and now it’s priced as a luxury product, that’s just a shit product.
it is true that the PS5 doesn’t have games, but at the compute level that requires a PS5 it’s more or less at parity with a PC since there are so few of those games in general now. if you’re playing games in niche PC genres that require higher level performance, then you’re not going to be playing those on your couch, which I guess was part of the initial pitch here. if you’re being sensible and mostly playing games that will run on anything, which is where any PC has a big edge on a PS5, then, well, again, one thousand US dollars. at that point even the currently fuck you price-hiked deck is a better deal as a docked switch style setup. to say nothing of just, like, buying any random laptop or whatever you can throw together. looking like a gamecube gonna have to do a lot of heavy lifting.
all a PS5 does is be a better PS4, play some other games and not support Dolby Vision a thing I’m totally not angry at all about
I think they were smart about it, they used the hardware survey data to pinpoint a “this spec is better than 50-60% of computers using Steam”, engineered a mini PC that fits that spec and targeted a pretty sane price
and then the AI industry kamikazed consumer electronics
and it’s still the most powerful gaming-forward mini PC at a thousand bucks
and hey, they’re also releasing SteamOS as a stand alone now so you can fucking do whatever dumb shit you want to have a working computer without an Nvidia GPU and still have a Steam Machine
personally I think you should buy a gaming laptop with a broken display and run it “headless”
Like… you still have the option to build a jank ass PC for $600. The luxury product is small form factor gaming. It’s not for everyone? Valve is still releasing SteamOS for everyone. And that does save everyone $20-$100. For free.
I just don’t get people complaining without feeling weirdly entitled
I think this was probably the correct answer, they aimed at a window that disappeared due to outside factors and while there are probably enough diehards to sell through the initial amount they now probably lose the goodwill to make a run at said affordable entry steam machine under this branding should said window open up again. At their size eating the initial losses probably made the most sense.
