Steam machine competitor? I think I'll stick with gabe on this one...Someone who actually takes their customers into account before their profit.
At least compared to Xbox as of late. But who knows, they have hit bottom in many ways, maybe this is their chance to reach surface and improve.
Every PC and Console in existence is a "Steam machine competitor".
My Legion Go 2 is a "Steam machine competitor." There is nothing really unique about the Steam machine; you can build or buy one right now and install SteamOS and get a similar or superior experience. Project Helix will likely be unique in allowing you to carry over all your Xbox game purchases. This is why the original Steam Machine failed, people talk about a lack of exclusives; the Steam machine literally has no exclusives.
What makes the Steam Machine attractive is the hope that it will offer performance at a better price point than normal PC alternatives. That is up in the air right now as current rumors put it at a pretty high price point for it's specs. I have hope though, as the Steam deck is reasonably priced for what it offers and Valve has the money to subsidize the device.
The biggest problem with the Steam Machine is SteamOS and it's incompatibility with games that utilize kernel level anti-cheat. Current games that utilize kernel-level anti-cheat also happen to be some of the most popular games on the market. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to dual-boot Windows 11 on it though in order to play those if you wanted.
Xbox literally has a service that allows you to play their first party releases day and date without having to pay full price. You can even buy limited edition upgrades and not even buy the actual game and still play them early release. Xbox, unlike Steam, also let's you share your library between two consoles without kicking one of your out of the library. You can even play the same game purchased one time or on Game Pass on two different Xbox's with two different accounts. They also added backwards compatible games with automatic resolution upgrades for no cost. Xbox One games were also upgraded in framerate and resolution for not cost to Xbox Series X.
I don't know how this is "Profit over customers".
Valve has done a lot of great things for customers and deserve all the credit they've earned but Xbox has been extremely consumer friendly this generation. My personal problem with Valve is their entire lack of first party games output even while releasing hardware. We've been waiting over a decade for Half Life 3.
I already have a device that plays Xbox and PC games... it's called a laptop.
Consoles sell largely on the basis of two things:
1. Price (being lower than that of a PC).
2. Simplicity (plug and play).
Project Helix has to be competitively priced otherwise people will just buy a regular PC instead.
Personally, I've spent the last 5 years building up a good library of Xbox games to play on my console. I'm starting to wonder whether I should have just bought a laptop earlier than I did (end of last year) and filled out my library on Steam instead. I'm hoping they will prove my fears unfounded, but I've not heard anything yet that tells me otherwise.
At the moment, the most likely scenario for me is that I upgrade from my Series S to Series X (maybe) and play my existing Xbox library on there, and that will be my last Xbox machine.
A laptop with similar performance specs to the rumored Project Helix would like cost around $2500-$3000+.
Also, a normal PC would not have access to all your Xbox game purchases and backward compatible Xbox games.
There's more doubts than excitement haha
Maybe that means that FH6 is the one of the first games of the new Xbox, with an enhanced version.
I truly hope that Microsoft stand with quality against Sony, we need more good (and tough, like in the 90's) competition.
It wouldn't need enhancements, you just play the PC version and put it on the settings you want.
doesn't have 100% access to all your Xbox games. If Xbox embraces full PC support and access then it will have a massive advantage over Sony if they do not follow.
Xbox would have access to every PC game storefront while Playstation, who has already released 90% of their "exclusives" on PC would not.
I’m super not in the market for this. I have a PS5Pro, a Switch 2 and a Series X and feel like I’m set for the next couple of years.
This thing will likely be 1K+ and have 0 exclusives.
Nah.
Other than the Switch 2, almost no console truly has many exclusives anymore. PC has Last of Us franchise, Uncharted franchise, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman franchise, God of War franchise, Little Big Planet, Returnal, Horizon Zero Dawn franchise, Until Dawn, Ghosts of Tusushima, Days Gone, and more. (Final Fantasy Remake is also no longer exclusive.)
Project Helix would be able to play any game on Steam, GOG, Epic, or any other PC storefront.
That means almost the entire catalogue of Sony's releases. You wouldn't buy it for exclusives, you'd be buying it to get the performance of a $2k+ PC for the price of a $1k console/pc. There is already heavy rumors that 3rd hardware companies will make similar devices that will be cheaper.
