←back to thread

Steam Machine

(store.steampowered.com)
1173 points davikr | 1 comments | 12 Nov 25 17:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
Show context
thot_experiment ◴[12 Nov 25 18:34 UTC] No.45903980[source]▶
> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

i'm having a hard time describing the feelings this makes me feel. like i've been stressed, bedraggled and worn down, and suddenly there's a moment where i can just rest

it's nice to be excited about something for once instead of the baseline expectation of a horrible adversarial experience, which is the case for most tech in 2025

it is somewhat depressing that it's this novel to expect a piece of hardware to actually exist to make my life nicer vs the default of being an abomination that tries constantly to extract money and information from me like a fucking vampire

(and i guess, not having used this yet, this also speaks to valve being one of the last companies that i have any trust in to be capable of making a business decision that makes them less money in the short run in order to deliver a better product)

replies(6): >>45904143 #>>45904622 #>>45905351 #>>45905491 #>>45906301 #>>45908345 #
keyringlight ◴[12 Nov 25 18:45 UTC] No.45904143[source]▶
An ongoing 'background noise' concern I've had for a while is how PC gaming seems to be centralizing around steam. There's reasons why that happened, but it'd be real nice if 'infrastructure' was able to decouple from their store. It feels like practically requiring steam for PC gaming on windows and certainly on linux isn't a mile away from requiring MS windows, is it much freedom to pick which Seattle based company you run software from?
replies(5): >>45904298 #>>45904299 #>>45904328 #>>45905988 #>>45906965 #
1. Sohcahtoa82 ◴[12 Nov 25 20:23 UTC] No.45905988[source]▶
> There's reasons why that happened

Steam's near-monopoly was earned by simply being the best store. Other stores like Epic don't even include basic features like a shopping cart to buy multiple games at once.

I could go on and on about why Steam is so much better than any other store, but this isn't the place.

That said, I can understand being nervous. Steam is great because it's privately owned and GabeN is happy with the money he makes from it and doesn't feel the need to enshittify it in order to get more money. But eventually he will die or retire, and someone else will be given control. Supposedly, he's already vetted some people to take the job, but what's to say they weren't merely playing the part and will take it public as soon as they can?