Its so easy to develop for the steam deck and steam devices. Just FYI it really is just another machine. Theres no “unlocking” or “side loading” or anything. Its just a computer. Thats it!
I don’t see how it will have any effect beyond what the Steam store already has on the indie market. Indies already flourish thanks to Steam’s use of discovery algorithms instead of human curation.
The Steam Machine isn’t going to compete with consoles. It’s not a replacement for a console and the target market for this machine is PC users not console users. Console gamers who don’t know what Steam is will not buy this machine like they didn’t buy Steam Decks instead of Nintendo Switches. The goal of Valve’s hardware push is to show that an alternative for Windows is possible. Valve wants to break Microsoft’s monopoly on the PC market. Since Microsoft is the biggest threat for Valve. The more anti-consumer Windows becomes the more it puts Valve’s business in danger, since a shitty Windows experience can push PC gamers towards consoles.
How common do you believe this is in 2025? It’s on every big game’s launch trailer, and Steam dwarfs any console player base. Network effects alone should make just about every console player (who’s old enough to read) aware of what Steam is.
I think the new device is good news. I can see what you’re saying - the benefit is if Steam Machines expand the PC games market with former console only players. But otherwise the threshold for PC development is already much lower than consoles; there are no dev kit fees, a wide choice of engines to target, relatively greater independence etc.
The steam machine may help somewhat in having a specific hardware profile to target, but the games are still on steam’s store so still have to be able to run widely on Windows or Linux. That’s always been the complexity of PC development - the steam machine doesn’t change that much. Although admittedly the Steam Verified benchmarks are useful for users to simplify understanding what their kit can actually run which will benefit indie devs.
In particular though, I loved my old Steam Controller, and hope this new one compares.
I’d still be using one now if they weren’t all bought by asshole scalpers and marked up 6000%..
Steam has been the primary indie platform for games for like 15 years. Xbox had a moment in the early Xbox love arcade but the time the Xbox One came out, it was Steam and it has been ever since especially after Greenlight and early access
I thank Xbox Live Arcade for introducing me to Trials HD. Even though the latest game wasn’t the greatest game ever created, the series as a whole has been a joy to experience.
I used to play the flash games of a trials theme and always thought a fleshed oit game would be really cool. i was right. :p
Finally, an arch distro where there’s a chance for some actual support and without a community that consists entirely of basement dwelling, self-righteous wankers, who have never learned social human interaction!
Seriously, Manjaro is kind of bad, but every time I’m tempted to install Arch, it takes minutes on the forums to convince me what a horrible idea that would be.
Idk, I wouldn’t really call Steam OS an Arch distro. It’s not quite as extreme as the relationship between PlayStation and FreeBSD, but it’s in that realm.
The user has very little control over the base system, which is distributed by Valve. Most of the user’s interaction is on the surface, such as through Flatpaks and whatnot, not w/ the package manager. It’s like other distros like Aeon (openSUSE) and Silverblue (Fedora) where the user doesn’t really interact w/ the distro itself.
it takes minutes on the forums to convince me what a horrible idea that would be.
The reason the forum is like that is because Arch is designed to be a system where you have the tools to solve problems yourself and not need to ask for help. That’s why the install process is so manual, the intention is that if you can make it through that, you probably won’t need much help from anyone else. The install process has gotten easier, but it’s still to a point where it generally discourages “casuals”, for lack of a better term.
I used Arch for about 5 years and I think I interacted w/ the forums like twice. If interacting w/ the forums is something that’s important to you, then Arch probably isn’t for you. Something like Debian or Fedora will probably be a better fit.
I really don’t get people’s fascination w/ Arch. It’s basically a LEGO-style Linux distro, and that’s not really what most seem to want. I switch from Arch to openSUSE because openSUSE had everything I liked from Arch (rolling release, mostly-vanilla packages, etc) and most of the reliability of a release-based distro. I still don’t recommend it for new users because the community is pretty small so getting help is a bit harder, but people are generally nicer than Arch users.
I believe Valve’s intention is to lay the foundation for third party devices, like how it went with Steam Deck. Their business model is to open up their storefront to more people - not to sell hardware.
If that’s the case, then Steam Machine will have little effect on indie development.
I think Steam already presents a large enough market to be enticing for indie devs.
A quick check shows that Steam likely has more monthly active users than Xbox, PS5, or Nintendo. I’m sure a large portion of those groups overlap too. So indie devs are likely to develop for PC first.
While I’m excited for what they just announced, I don’t think it will significantly change these numbers.
I was gonna say before reading your last sentence, the Steam Deck definitely could have accelerated this. It’s extremely accessible while doubling as a computer powerful enough for development. It’s pretty great they’re offering dev kits for the new Steam Frame, too. It’s really going to bust the scene wide open.
I wish this was a likely outcome but realistically steam hardware is too small a userbase. They are most likely to get performance profiles for their hardware due to the standardization and free steam marketing of compatibility, but windows users are still a supermajority.
Steam hardware has so far been pretty niche, though. If the user experience is smooth enough, a SM could replace many people’s xbox/playstation.
We’re like 5y into the PS5/XBSX, new games are jumping up to $70-100 each, and hardly any are platform exclusives. Msft have all but canceled the next Xbox, and if Sony tries to push the PS6 in a few years, I think there’s a world where a good chunk of people say nah.
And with the amount of attention Linux is getting from the win10 eol, we could be at the beginning of an historic inflection point in gaming.
Oh man, I booted it up like a month ago, I’ve just been too distracted with paradox games to finish lol. Yeah even way back when it came out I was hype to see the series ‘evolve’. Shame it didn’t go the way we wanted
That’s how I am with my grounded run of The Last of Us 2 and finishing Silent Hill f. I started a game of Stellaris and haven’t picked them back up in my free time.
The evolution was disappointing. I didn’t really care for origins but was happy others were enjoying it, and then the ball just got dropped
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