They are anti-developer (though dev opinions differ), but most people aren't affected by the anti-consumer stuff. The only instances I know are censorship with niche visual novels and case gambling (and things like crashing CSGO economy sound like good things in that regard), unless there's more I don't know.
Contrast this to Nintendo just saying throwing lawsuits everywhere, among other things.
Has Epic become profitable yet? I vaguely remember the plan being for it to become profitable later, and that it was living off Fortnite money.
Steam could just charge at most 20% then though, I don't remember what the thresholds/conditions for different costs like 30% and 18% are.
I can see how banning might be controversial, but I sure wish they'd tax the hell out of them. Make that yacht not a million, but 10 or 100, a billion. Give that tax money to services like healthcare or UBI. I can see unique perks to yachts, if you genuinely want one as a dream I'm not gonna stop you, just commit to that being the dream you want.
In practise I can see how politicans would (or do) just use that money for themselves anyway...
There's a whole company/llm about doing that whose CEO gave a Ted talk about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-w4JrIxFZRA
After that, I actually had a pretty wild idea about someone using to replace dead/missing people in chats. Imagine the horror of finding out your friend died months ago, or got kidnapped. Horribly impractical but sounds like a good novel.
I was thinking that they might require a Steam account to order, the same way they stopped scalpers for Steam Deck, but there'd be ways around that.
It'd be hilarious if you needed something like "profile level 10" to order though.
I spent years living with off making about 400€ monthly as a student with a part time job (most of it going to food and housing with family), and now that I have 800€ monthly I find myself immediately overextending with plans. New furniture, console, TV, actual PC instead of a budget laptop. If I didn't live in a big city I'd consider saving up for a car.
It's easy to forget almost anything besides a roof, homemade food and healthcare is a luxury. (Or, sadly, even the last one, if you want good healthcare, or live in America)
Booted up E33 and it does pull stable 30 now, but last time I was fighting a boss with pretty cinematic attacks. I didn't have tearing on though and I'm still not sure if resolution needs to be set to low manually for upscaling, I did it now to be sure like someone suggested. Maybe it was also the constant speeding up and slowing down of attacks that messed with perception. A few UI bugs happen still. Don't worry, the difficulty is fine.
Reading all this and looking up Steam Boot ups does make me consider my own setup, true, but I'd just at most end up with a stronger and upgradable (and probably pricier) Steam Machine anyway. And if I only upgrade every 4-5 years or so, like I have up to this point, I might be starting from scratch anyways. (Had a gaming laptop around 2010, then budget laptop at 2020 that couldn't play PS4 games well anyway, then Steam Deck at around 2022)
The breaking point was Expedition 33, which even with optimization mods I can't get to stable 30fps in combat, which breaks at least one skill and seems to mess with parries. PS4 games at 60fps would be nice too though, Elden Ring is ~50 at ok settings.
My friend's problem was picking out parts, which was harder for him since besides playing STALKER 2 he wanted to potentially render videos in the future. The friends we asked also gave split opinions for things like futureproofing - apparently some Ram setups are harder to upgrade than others, or are related to picking PUs? Same with power supply, etc.
Also, I have a pretty tiny room. I have a TV for consoles that's there to stay, and shelves 13x13x13 inches below it the SM would fit in, while a desktop would have to be SFF (which, I only learned about now) or a small tower but I'm not sure about ventilation then. Without SteamOS it seems I'd need a keyboard/mouse out for every boot too. The desk always has a budget laptop for work on it, so among other crap there's little space for a desktop. No space below/besides desk either.
I'm also not knowledgable about specs, but I figured when, say, Borderlands 4 is not playable at 4K 60fps, then I could just deal with Full HD 30-40fps, which would be enough. Or if I decide to stream to Deck, not even Full HD.
Edit: The closest solution is PS5 Pro or PS6 when it comes out (and they fit on shelf, never checked size) but, no Steam library then. Or mods, emulation. All in all, it seems I'm in an extremely specific situation where buying SM seems optimal.
I was going to get a PS5 since Steam Deck is finally running out of steam for games I actually care about. (And after the hassle a friend building his PC had, desktops scare me)
But then Valve announced Gabecube anyway, so the only reason I'd want one is for maybe reselling physical games after beating them. And I already have a Switch 2 to do that with.
The thing is that since Steam Deck's release, a lot of competitors made handhelds, and it's mostly keeping up because of SteamOS. It sounds to me like Valve just needs the Steam Machine to once again offer software, convenience etc. above everyone else in the couch gaming market this is aiming for.
Then the only upgrade most users would want is from Valve themselves, but the same goes for Steam Deck - they said they might make a new one with a big enough generational leap, and then the old SD's become outdated too. We had emulation machines before Steam Deck - being able to play last gen games on it was still a big appeal.
Also, is constantly upgrading PCs better, when instead of selling off/scrapping the PUs and other parts every 5-10 years, you sell off/scrap PUs annually? I don't think people doing that are the target audience here anyway. I think some patient gamers would buy a used GabeCube 15 years from now for a low price.
Ah, I should keep an eye on that. I love Steam Deck but the 3DS is the best console I've ever had, and was hoping some replacements would be available in 20 years when it breaks and used are hard to find.
Why specifically $5M and not say $1M? Building a house should apparently cost you half of that, and I assume the rest is for investing into passive income?
I agree with the other guy, talk is cheap. I probably don't need a 4k TV or multiple consoles, but I immediately started planning and buying after a raise.