Hacker News Reader

Comment by haunter | Hacker News Reader

>pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy.

I wish the Steam Machines didn't fail, they were pretty much this https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.ste...

One can say the Steam Deck is a better successor but I think mostly because of Proton itself became mature through the years (compared to 2016)

View on HN

My bold prediction is that as consoles become more and more architecturally similar to home computers and MS & Sony continue to port more titles to PC, we will eventually see a unification of sorts where games are by default available on PC, with consoles serving as essentially a consistent and well-tested PC configuration for people who don't want to futz around with PC building. That's the role Steam Machines were supposed to play. They were a little too early IMO but the concept seems solid.

Game companies don't just want consistent and well-tested, they often want to also prevent user tampering. Consoles + iPhone security have long put extra effort into that, and streaming is looking like a viable replacement. Not a good solution for people extremely into video games, but they've got gaming PCs anyway.

And they want walled garden, subscription fee for network access, etc.

Yeah now anti-cheat (and lack of moddability) is the most significant difference for PC vs console. Steam Deck is interesting that they want to be a console like experience but it's flexible unlike traditional consoles.

There is Steam for ChromeOS in the Beta channel right now. It's working surprisingly well, running inside a VM with virgl acceleration.

I could imagine a gaming Chromebox or Chromebook with dedicated graphics in the future.

What could be a wonderful asset would be a streaming service for games. Google would just have to make a credible, consistent commitment to such a service, commit to it through its initial wilderness period and not shut it down on a reflex, so customers would have the confidence that their time learning the platform wouldn't be wasted.

Then, with something like this launch event for 2x faster Chromebooks, it could emerge as a mature offering whose moment as come. All it would take is discipline not to instantly give up and a willingness to have a vision extending beyond quarter-at-a-time release cycles.

This is painful to read. Too soon.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com