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[Sorcerer]

.

Also Nintendo is more of a threat than valve will ever be in this space. I think it's likely that sonys own mismanagement and Nintendos evergreen consistency will kill Playstation off far more effectively than any Xbox or Steam Machine 2.

That being said I'd be open for a Steam machine 2 if we got another controller from valve

Actually if they just release Steam OS for desktop, that should be enough reason for them to make a new Steam controller, so that it can have parity with the Steam Deck.

Gardner Bryant seem to think that recent Steam dock updates regrading HDMI CEC hints a desktop console from Valve:

 

[BigLee74]

When your title is an outright lie, I won’t even bother reading your post. But I’ll still happily call you out for lying.

 

[64bitmodels]

When your title is an outright lie, I won’t even bother reading your post. But I’ll still happily call you out for lying.

sorry lil bro but Xbox is gone. Don't know what else to tell u

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

It's PC gaming in general. That why they are making a PS5 Pro that focuses on Ai upscaling and better ray-tracing, the two strongest points of PC right now, especially with Nvidia.

Ai upscaling and better RT are not "PC features" to copy or steal. They are just by-products of advancing tech. If the tech was there for Sony to use in 2019 when they finalized the PS5s design, Sony would have used it. But AMD was basically in their first-gen RT arch and even to this day has not yet made an AI-accelerated reconstructing GPU, and sony gets their chips from AMD.

"PC gaming" is not Sony's rival or competition. A clear indication of this, is that Sony releases games on the PC. You don't do that if you feel you are competing with them. It's also how we know MS has bowed out of the console race, the second MS starts making the majority of their games come to PS... a console, then that says they are not competing with Sony anymore and have accepted their fate.

A slower release cadence, not really even bothering to show new stuff to keep fans excited or informed, raising the price of the PS5, not being aggressive enough to drop the price of the PS5, trying to force PS+ membership on PC gamers (nothing wrong with requiring it, but the way they want about it was bad)....etc. These are all signs of arrogant Sony coming back. And that is their biggest threat.

 

[ahtlas7]

Probably something we haven’t seen yet.
But as others have pointed out: PS continues to be it’s own weakest link and time will tell how they continue to degrade.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

When your title is an outright lie, I won’t even bother reading your post. But I’ll still happily call you out for lying.

I am curious... and this is a serious question.

You really do not believe that MS is going third party?

If that is the case, I am really curious to hear your reasoning.

 

[64bitmodels]

A slower release cadence, not really even bothering to show new stuff to keep fans excited or informed, raising the price of the PS5, not being aggressive enough to drop the price of the PS5, trying to force PS+ membership on PC gamers (nothing wrong with requiring it, but the way they want about it was bad)....etc. These are all signs of arrogant Sony coming back. And that is their biggest threat.

Yes but also a currently peaking Nintendo also has a lot to do with it. Sony being more arrogant wouldn't be troubling if they didn't have a competitor currently getting ready to outsell their best selling console

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Yes but also a currently peaking Nintendo also has a lot to do with it. Sony being more arrogant wouldn't be troubling if they didn't have a competitor currently getting ready to outsell their best selling console

I dont Nintendo has not been a threat to Sony in a very, very, very long time. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. Especially if Nintendo keeps up its own business model.

And that is fine.

Neither Nintendo or Sony are threats to each other. You don't say you are not buying a Switch because you have a PS and/vice versa. They hardly share games in the same library, and that alone is the biggest indication of who you are competing with.

This is my opinion on that at least.

 

[SmokedMeat]

The biggest threat to Sony is the shrinking console market.

Not being able to release first party games that aren’t cross platform, four years in is also a problem. They need to open up to doing more AA games.

 

[gothmog]

Surely the biggest threat is still Microsoft?

They own enough studios now to destroy gaming through poor delivery and miss management.

Yep. If anything, Valve wants gaming and the developer ecosystem to thrive. Sony does as well.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

The threat is someone new with actual competency, show up as the competitor. Once Xbox fully exit the market, there will be oxygen for Amazon or Apple or Facebook to take a crack at it.

They had been waiting for Xbox to die for a decade now, they are getting impatient.

I doubt anyone jumps into console gaming at this junction. The barrier for entry is too low and the returns too few.

The only ones I could potentially see slipping in would be Apple or Meta, but I doubt either would have significant success at least without buying T2 or EA and you'd have to foreclose sports, which would probably end contracts.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think Steam could get into the hardware game and have success, but not at the expense of consoles, rather as marketing in the gaming PC space.

A lot of people look to buy gaming PCs and don't know what to buy. There is a market there for sure, but the market at large is people who either want to build their own PC or simply own a PC as a general purpose device.

 

[splattered]

Biggest threat Sony has is itself, and it will probably be it's own undoing.

 

[DJ12]

Sony without competition turns into arrogant Sony which will in time create a shitstorm.

Sony has only themself to fear

I too am beginning to expect and ultra arrogant sony shitstorm

This old chestnut.

Remind me again who had to sell consoles for a $200 loss per device and for what reason.

 

[SmokedMeat]

The threat is someone new with actual competency, show up as the competitor. Once Xbox fully exit the market, there will be oxygen for Amazon or Apple or Facebook to take a crack at it.

They had been waiting for Xbox to die for a decade now, they are getting impatient.

Facebook is Meta. They do the Quest. Amazon has Luna, which works very well. Apple makes way more money with no effort on iOS

Nobody is going to make a plastic box to connect to a TV, and lose hundreds of millions of dollars to try and get a foothold in a market that can’t support them.

 

[SmokedMeat]

This old chestnut.

Remind me again who had to sell consoles for a $200 loss per device and for what reason.

Was it $200? I don’t remember but Sony was reeling bigtime at the PS3 launch, scrambling to get their bearings.

 

[Rudius]

Ai upscaling and better RT are not "PC features" to copy or steal. They are just by-products of advancing tech. If the tech was there for Sony to use in 2019 when they finalized the PS5s design, Sony would have used it. But AMD was basically in their first-gen RT arch and even to this day has not yet made an AI-accelerated reconstructing GPU, and sony gets their chips from AMD.

"PC gaming" is not Sony's rival or competition. A clear indication of this, is that Sony releases games on the PC. You don't do that if you feel you are competing with them. It's also how we know MS has bowed out of the console race, the second MS starts making the majority of their games come to PS... a console, then that says they are not competing with Sony anymore and have accepted their fate.

A slower release cadence, not really even bothering to show new stuff to keep fans excited or informed, raising the price of the PS5, not being aggressive enough to drop the price of the PS5, trying to force PS+ membership on PC gamers (nothing wrong with requiring it, but the way they want about it was bad)....etc. These are all signs of arrogant Sony coming back. And that is their biggest threat.

They are trying to avoid loosing hardcores players to PC. And PC is their rival not so much in terms of exclusives, but in third party sales without that 30% cut they get on consoles.

 

[Bond007]

No one directly for the time being.
I think it would just be Sony Vs Nintendo metrics. More comparisons between the two despite the differences.

Will take me back to the PSX - N64 days.

 

[poppabk]

Way to jump the gun. But the biggest threat to Sony is that the market changes and the traditional console market slowly dwindles or the software market goes mainly subscription or streaming and they don't adapt. They have been hedging their bets so far and dipping their toes in both just in case so they should be able to pivot if they need to.

 

[BigLee74]

I am curious... and this is a serious question.

You really do not believe that MS is going third party?

If that is the case, I am really curious to hear your reasoning.

Until they come out and say it, it isn’t true and is all guess work. So to lead a topic with ‘Now MS is going 3rd party’ is telling little porkie pies, no?

Anyway, I think Xbox will have hardware next gen. I also think they’ll still have console exclusives. Is that really any more difficult to believe than they won’t?

My stance is clear. I reckon it won’t be long before all console makers start porting and releasing their games on all systems that exist at that time. Their big brand exclusives will likely remain exclusive for a limited time to ensure there is a reason for owning their machine, but that’s it

With current numbers, there is obviously much more reason for Xbox to want to sell games on Sonys platform. But, the Xbox series has sold 30+ million, and thats still a reasonably large market for Sony to tap into to.

Release an Uncharted collection and I am there!

 

[jwaxeman]

Until Xbox actually goes third party, you’re not discussing anything real or meaningful. I mean even if you do believe steam deck is a…. Threat(?) to PS5, it’s certainly not a bigger threat than Xbox is right now, considering Xbox still exists and is still selling hardware. And will be indefinitely.

 

[MALpractice311]

Sony is Sony's biggest threat. They've shown us that when they're #1, they get lazy and arrogant. And that's where they're at right now.

 

[Topher]

I don't see Steam as a threat in the console space at all. Console gamers want true consoles with all the conveniences. Think about the typical casual gamer. They want the console in the entertainment center hooked up to the TV with wireless controller that can do everything from turn it on/off, start games, etc.........all for $500. PC cannot give that to them. Valve could try the whole "Steam box" again, but they are not going to take the loss on hardware like console makers and that means they would price themselves out of the market.

For the console gamers who want to play Call of Duty, Madden, GTA 5, etc. there is really only PlayStation and Xbox and obviously PlayStation is dominating Xbox. So yeah.....folks like 64bitmodels saying Sony's only competition is Sony are pretty much dead on.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Steam box will never be able to compete with Sony on the power/price equation…not by a long shot. Sony is a hardware company and Valve is not

If anything Steam may actually have a storefront competitor if Sony makes their own and offers cross-buy/save with all first and 3P titles along with a slick UI and features

 

[Braag]

It's Nintendo. Especially if Nintendo's next system starts to rival PS5 specs.

 

[64bitmodels]

Steam box will never be able to compete with Sony on the power/price equation…not by a long shot. Sony is a hardware company and Valve is not

If anything Steam may actually have a storefront competitor if Sony makes their own and offers cross-buy/save with all first and 3P titles along with a slick UI and features

They'd have to have a robust UI with a really consumer friendly refund policy, free online and easy mod support if they even want to entertain the idea of competing with steam. PC gamers really want more than a storefront that hosts the games

Also, if valve could subsidize one of the most powerful pieces of handheld hardware to below 400 dollars they could definitely make a capable home version for 500. You say they aren't a hardware company but they very clearly are considering that they've been releasing more hardware than games, all of which are critically acclaimed (besides steam machines which was a decade ago)

Either way, this is all hypothetical since Sony are the ones putting their games on Valves platform. They probably wouldn't compete to begin with

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Also, if valve could subsidize one of the most powerful pieces of handheld hardware to below 400 dollars they could definitely make a capable home version for 500.

“Subsidize”

 

[K' Dash]

That would be themselves.

Sony even now is making stupid decisions constantly, they should be grateful of MS incompetence and that Nintendo is on their own category.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

OP, you could’ve just put “SteamBox” in the thread title and saved us all a click.

Can we ban stupid clickbait titles like this?

 

[64bitmodels]

OP, you could’ve just put “SteamBox” in the thread title and saved us all a click.

Can we ban stupid clickbait titles like this?

When they stop being effective lol. He got you and all of us whether you like it or not

 

[64bitmodels]

“Subsidize”

Am I missing something here

 

[twilo99]

Gen Z don’t care about consoles or who makes them

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Am I missing something here

When you have to heavily subsidize your hardware just to get close to price parity without Sony requiring subsidies (due to hardware expertise, in house components and manufacturing, as well as volume sales on vendor items), that’s not a recipe for success

The reason Steam did the Deck is because there wasn’t competition in that space

 

[onQ123]

IMO it would be the SteamBox.

Think about it, a more powerful mini-pc running a more powerful version of the SteamDeck OS connected to your TV.

Can play all the games on Steam which means no Sony exclusive game is beyond its reach.

So you can play any game that the PS can play ( some will be delayed and require a waiting period), but you can also play thousands of games that the PS can’t. Plus all your games you’ve previously bought on Steam carries over, and all your purchases will carry over to a more powerful gaming PC if in you decide to go that route later.

Honestly unless you’re one of those that must play Sony first party games day one, it would be a no brainer to buy the SteamBox at relatively competitive prices to a PlayStation.

Steambox & Steamdeck sell even less than Xbox consoles . Why not just say PC?

 

[XXL]

I love Steam, I primarily play games on there.

Neither the Steam Box or the Steam Deck were/are huge sellers.

Steam runs the PC market
Playstation runs the console market
Nintendo runs the handheld market

I think people need to start getting use to this reality.

The competition is over and the markets are set.

 

[aygomyownroad]

The Xbox is the closest thing we got to a successful steam machine.
If you had that but being able to run steam as well then you’d have a winner for third place behind Nintendo

 

[Fabieter]

When you have to heavily subsidize your hardware just to get close to price parity without Sony requiring subsidies (due to hardware expertise, in house components and manufacturing, as well as volume sales on vendor items), that’s not a recipe for success

The reason Steam did the Deck is because there wasn’t competition in that space

Its still a pc, it doesn't matter if its selling like a playstation but it's probably a good enough option for most console only folks.

 

[64bitmodels]

When you have to heavily subsidize your hardware just to get close to price parity without Sony requiring subsidies (due to hardware expertise, in house components and manufacturing, as well as volume sales on vendor items), that’s not a recipe for success

The reason Steam did the Deck is because there wasn’t competition in that space

Sony doesn't subsidize their hardware? I thought all console companies do?

Even if what you're saying is true Valve still got their product down to an affordable price, so they could do it again for a Steam machine 2.

 

[SHA]

Why it has to be our game should sell more on our console? Come on, you're better than this.

 

[yurinka]

IMO it would be the SteamBox.

Think about it, a more powerful mini-pc running a more powerful version of the SteamDeck OS connected to your TV.

Can play all the games on Steam which means no Sony exclusive game is beyond its reach.

So you can play any game that the PS can play ( some will be delayed and require a waiting period), but you can also play thousands of games that the PS can’t. Plus all your games you’ve previously bought on Steam carries over, and all your purchases will carry over to a more powerful gaming PC if in you decide to go that route later.

Honestly unless you’re one of those that must play Sony first party games day one, it would be a no brainer to buy the SteamBox at relatively competitive prices to a PlayStation.

I think not only potential future home console shaped PCs running PC stores (by MS or Valve), but also PC portables.

I think in the future Sony will release their PC handheld, which pretty likely will use Sony's PC store, which I assume will be also integrated with their home console store/ecosystem.

I think that the PS6 store may be the same one as the PC one, too. The idea behind that would be to appeal users and devs to support their PC store instead of Steam, using as weapon cross-buy + cross-save and the huge PSN userbase and personal librariers that users built there.

 

[Solidus_T]

Strictly in terms of quality and gaming, Sony shareholders are going to be their biggest threat. Just look at what shareholders did to Xbox Microsoft Gaming

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Sony doesn't subsidize their hardware? I thought all console companies do?

Even if what you're saying is true Valve still got their product down to an affordable price, so they could do it again for a Steam machine 2.

Sony doesn’t subsidize hardware over the lifecycle, but margins are razor thin. Sony will always be able to provide a cheaper and more powerful product unless Valve wants to incur heavy losses to gain share in Sony in this space and I don’t think they do

Steam Box may have a niche place if they decide to go that route but it’s not going to be selling anywhere close to Xbox let alone PlayStation, again it’s niche.

 

[Topher]

Steambox & Steamdeck sell even less than Xbox consoles . Why not just say PC?

They do initially but typically at some point they end up making a very slight profit.

 

[64bitmodels]

When you have to heavily subsidize your hardware just to get close to price parity without Sony requiring subsidies (due to hardware expertise, in house components and manufacturing, as well as volume sales on vendor items), that’s not a recipe for success

The reason Steam did the Deck is because there wasn’t competition in that space

You also say this ignoring the complete lack of price drops or official sales on Sonys side, they're intact raising them because inflation makes their system expensive to produce

Meanwhile Valve has official refurbished options for the steam deck and has reduced the price of their 256gb model. Whether or not Valve can't subsidize, their strategy seems to produce better prices for consumers in the end

 

[yurinka]

Strictly in terms of quality and gaming, Sony shareholders are going to be their biggest threat. Just look at what shareholders did to Xbox Microsoft Gaming

What did they do to MS? To force MS to give them $100B for gaming acquisitions they made in the last 10 years?

 

[SHA]

Closing studios is the worst thing that could ever happen, If I have to choose between playing on a potato while capcom making games or playing on a monster rig at the cost of closing that studio I'd definitely pick the first choice.

 

[Solidus_T]

What did they do to MS? To force MS to give them $100B for gaming acquisitions?

Are you pretending to not know why Tango Gameworks was closed?

 

[Last Hearth]

Steambox & Steamdeck sell even less than Xbox consoles . Why not just say PC?

Because they will run a much more efficient SteamOs rather than a bloated version of windows, thus optimizing it for the hardware design,. and optimized for gaming much more than a PC would be.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Nintendo is beating both sony and microsoft.

 

[yurinka]

Are you pretending to not know why Tango Gameworks was closed?

All the studios get closed for the same reason: not being profitable.

And shareholders can't tell them to shut down an specific studio: they may just tell them that after two decades being the last ones in the console race, having billions of loses every year in their gaming division and having spent $100B on acquisitions it's time to turn their gaming business into a profitable one. Which is common sense.

Nintendo is beating both sony and microsoft.

In portables yes, because they're the only ones there.

But in consoles in general no, Sony makes more revenue, market share and a bigger userbase than Nintendo. And well, this quarter also had more profit than Nintendo.