• Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    The PS3 was using a rare CPU that you could only get from it or from some enterprise dealer at a much higher price. The Steam Machine is a standard x86 computer that can’t match the ubiquitous ThinkCentres in price/performance.

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      If it’s sold at a loss like a console it would beat the price/performance of any other x86 chip on the market, which is why they can’t sell it at a loss, ergo my point.

      • ObliviousEnlightenment@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Thry could absolutely do that. Valve makes a cut off every Steam game sold. If anything, it’d be MORE viable for them than any other console maker given the wider library

        • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          You’re completely missing the point. People can buy steam machines and use them as a PC without ever opening steam, or worse, use them as servers or parts of a cluster. If Steam Machines were sold at a loss they would , by definition, be cheaper than equivalent hardware, so companies would buy 10k of them to put into a warehouse to run stuff because it would be cheaper than buying the same thing from other places. This is what happened to the PS3, non-blocked systems can’t be sold at a loss because you can’t guarantee that whoever is buying it will use them for your intended purpose.

                • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Yes, but my whole point was that PCs have other uses, so Valve selling a PC at a loss can’t recover the money with games because people won’t necessarily play games on that machine. Saying “if you’re playing games” to that point is like someone explaining to you why seatbelts are needed in cars and you replying with “if you never crash they’re useless”, like OF COURSE that if we enter your hypothetical example everything works, the whole point is about the disaster that would happen if that wasn’t the case.

            • Glog78@digitalcourage.social
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              3 days ago

              @IzzyJ @Nibodhika

              I personally think, that if your are gaming on linux you should value valve alot for how much money they have put into the linux ecosystem and it’s not bad to buy at their store. On the other hand there is alot of gaming happing outside of steam (including things which won’t make it to steam).

              heretic showing epic store / gog and prime gaming showing itch io Showing lutris with humble / itch.io / ubisoft connect / amazon prime / battlenet and steam

              • ObliviousEnlightenment@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                I do absolutely celebrate the contributions they’ve made, Proton beats the shit out of every alternative and it’s not even close. Black hole vs mouse levels of curbstomp

                I also think people with bad values should suffer for those values. I am an ideologue