Does steambox need a killer app for mass appeal?

Steambox won't be for mass appeal

But pc gamers just build pc.

If Valve really believed in this product, they would have produced a machine of their own

In my opinion, yes,,, but Valve won't do it. Only they know what they are really trying to do with Steam Machines and what will be needed to make them famous..

it depends on what they are trying to promote.

if they are trying to get people to shift to steam OS then yes. its the only way to get people to move. something like a HL3 exclusive to steam OS would be needed to get people to budge.

although i would love to see steam OS (and gaming on linux) rise, i dont want to see it happen that way. that could get very nasty.

Nothing outside of HL3 will sell that junk. PC gamers laugh at it and everyone else is wondering what the **** it is.

If they made an exclusive game only for Steambox but not for Steam via PC, there'd be a BIG SHITSTORM that could do more damage to Steam/Valve's reputation than just letting the Steambox flounder, especially if it were Half-Life or Portal anything, they could be upsetting and alienating the Steam community to jump ship to other digital distributors as a result.

Let's face, Valve tried to scare people off of using Windows so they could benefit from it and failed. Suck it up and get back to focusing on game distribution. They're every bit as shallow as anybody else, especially since they let any indie junk shit get published these days.

Nothing will sell it to the masses like that.

It's doesn't need a killer app it needs a killer marketing campaign. It won't sell because the average person that buys consoles won't buy one because they don't know what it is. A GameStop kiosk isn't gonna do it they need a marketing campaign on the level of the Android robot or Apple to get brand recognition.

Fat Gabes face isn't gonna do it.

Half Life 3 wouldn't even push that garbage system,

Half Life 3 won't push Steamboxes. The console market doesn't care for Half Life.

Now if Valve launched Left 4 Dead 3 exclusive for Steam via Windows/Linux/Mac, then yes it will.

I dont think it does at all, just keep giving it Steam games and people will slowly keep buying it.

That doesn't make much sense seeing as they are FULLY backing the steamOS in it's development..

Agreed. You've got a tough hill to climb, marketing wise.

Man unless you wanted a PC with High Tech Graphics and Frames and Resolution there's nothing going to stop you from getting a Steam Machine BECAUSE THEY'RE JUST PRE-BUILT PCs!

Yeah, but they were going to make that without the machines anyway. They don't have faith in the machines

no because anything the steambox gets a pc can run it. I don't see the point of even getting one since PC gaming is dead. Just buy a surface

It depends on what you mean by 'mass appeal' - I can't imagine it selling as many as the Wii U, and people consider that console a failure... HL3 would easily give enough incentive to certain groups, but that can't be enough to make the system a world-beater. On the surface of it, I don't think there's anyway to sell the Steambox without some super incentive that would cost Valve too much to make it worthwhile.

what Steambox desperately needs it's for the crazy high prices for weaker systems than the PS4 to come down like way down.

Even a killer app couldn't save them. Valve has already screwed up by allowing so many different models to be made which is just going to confuse the mass audience and they will continue to stick with the simplicity of consoles . At this point there is no way that steam machines are not going to flop even if they had a killer app.

Silly name aside, the Steam box is a pc. Its not going to get its own exclusive killer title.

The concept of the of the Steam box is so unbelievably stupid and nonsensical. I don't understand why third party groups are going to make hardware, brandish the steam logo on it and probably give valve some sort of royalty (or at the very least, free advertising). If they felt there was a need or market for console-like PCs they should have just made it and sold it anyway without brandishing Steam's logo on the thing.

The people at Valve are clever bastards.....I can't say I feel the same way about the people looking to buy the hardware....much less the companies building and distributing the things.

But all cynicism aside, the closest thing a steam box would have to a killer app is if a developer decides to make a game exclusive to the platform. I can't think of a single reason why anyone would do that.

Does PC have a killer app?

I doubt PC devs will make games Linux/SteamOS exclusive unless Valve promotes and helps pay for it and I doubt about pay for it part. The best I can think of a killer app that would appeal to the masses would be L4D3 since that franchise is well known among console gamers and even sold more on Xbox 360. Other than that Killer apps would be some of the best/biggest PC games coming out that have linux versions like Unreal Tournament 4, XCOM 2, and Squadron 42.

Apparently the steam controller only works with steam games.

What part of Steambox is not a console you don't understand. It's a just simple prebuilt for peasants and noobs.

@The_Last_Ride: I think that goes against their vision of making an open platform that everyone can produce games for. And they've stated multiple times this is a long term goal not a way to get people to jump ship from windows, because at the end of the day, its just not feasible to get everyone onto steamos, Not all publishers are making linux ports yet so games like battlefront are a significant loss for the platform.

It's already got like a hundred of them.

i just think the whole concept is stupid

@The_Last_Ride: What concept, the entire gaming world relies heavily on M$/sony/nintendo. And would be nice to get another alternative for PC games in the mix. Also steam machines are a good idea. Right now there is nothing that comes close to the profile of a console. Say what you want but the alienware alpha is a pretty nice little box if you want to replace your xbox with a PC.

They're overpriced and i would say they're not worth the price

Basically will be a for sure success like pstv

Dedicated steamboxes are a joke, but gaming on Linux is not especially now Microsoft have gone full NSA spyware.

Steam Boxes are long term projects, just like Steam. It will take many years and as usual, Valve will take baby steps but will get enough people to use Steam OS someday. People always try to sound smart by bashing everything just like how they did with Steam back then, but Valve is more clever than what most people expect.

it will fail even if half life 3 is exclusive to steam os. there are far to many machines to pick from the everyday joe and jane that dont know anything about gaming will be scared off and pc gamers will just make their own. isnt this why the 3do failed?

Voted on "Even Valve has given up"

I'm convinced that the only way for the Steam Machine would sell is if Valve paid money for games that'd otherwise never get a PC version.

For Starters, Valve would have to fund Relic Entertainment's purchase of itself from Sega so that they can work on Dawn of War 3. Harmonix would also be a solid choice so as to give people a moddable Rock Band 4.

Additional bribes could go to Bandai Namco Studios because people still want Tales of Vesperia and Gunam VS Maxi Boost, and maybe Square-Enix so as to better persuade them into bringing FFXV and Kingdom Hearts 3 to PC/Linux.

Barring DoW3, the mentioned games would most likely be unplayable with a keyboard an mouse, so it wouldn't be a lie to say that a Steam Machine would provide the better experience compared to a Windows desktop. Unless that happens, the only people who will buy a Steam Machine would be the folks that have deluded themselves into thinking that Gabe Newell is a god.