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Comment by brazzy | Hacker News Reader

I really don't think having a custom CPU and hardware architecture different from PCs is the defining property of a gaming console. Nobody cares about that except developers and hardware nerds.

A console is a computer purpose-built and streamlined for playing games. No more, no less.

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A game console is also locked down from the user, usually because the company is selling hardware at a loss, wants to maintain control, and wants to prevent cheating in online games. May also have exclusive games tied to the hardware.

And as a result, the PS5 is less than half the price of a Steam Machine with similar performance.

The line is far more blurred now. The Steam Machine is a purpose built device streamlined for playing games. Yet without any hardware modifications you can put it on your desk and load windows on it. So it's clearly a PC too.

The nitpicking on language here is entirely due to the fact the distinction is no longer clear like it once was.

Doesn't seem blurry to me, Steam Machine is just a PC.

What is the definition of a console then? At this point it’s just a pc that runs a locked down OS.

Back 20 years ago the distinction was just obvious.

Locked down OS and hardware, or not usable for general compute for some other reason. 20 years ago you could have a gaming PC with discs like a console, but again the console was locked down.

This just illustrates the article point. We have come to the point where a console is just a worse less useful version of a PC.

Steam OS will replicate the nice TV UX of consoles but not be locked down.

Maybe, idk, no horse in this race. My newest console is a GameCube, and my Mac can run approximately 2 games. Just saying there's a delineation between PC and console.

I'd say the opposite: Steam Machine is a console than can run Windows.

Windows PC can run Steam though

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