The SteamOS Console Reveal: Mid Specs, Big Questions - Error Code Show

0:05 Time valve decides to announce anything. It's ginormous humongous ginormous news And so yesterday we actually got a giant announcement out of valve Not the first one in this kind of lie, but the first one made by valve They still can't count to fucking three But the long -running rumors are true. They are putting out a steam home console we do have some basic technical specs on it they're like it's six times more powerful than a steam deck right um it's an amd zen 4 it's a custom gpu from amd 16 gigs of ddr5 and 8 gigs of gddr6 vram there's two models one with a 512 gigabyte hard drive and one with a 2 terabyte drive both ssds right why you would have the 512 with a steam deck Considering steam machine considering how big video games are you're gonna load like four games on there and it's gonna be gone Internal power supply it's got a display port 4k to 48k at 60 Hertz sports HDR free sync daisy chaining HDMI 2 .0 for type USB a ports to USB 3 in the front 2 in the rear It works with other controllers and PC peripherals It'll wake up with the steam controller and they showed the controller and I'm gonna put this on the screen Like it because it looks absolutely freaking stupid I don't I'm

1:41 trying to figure out I Feel like those little touch pads below the the sticks are gonna do something Right. Yeah, and I feel like I'm gonna be holding it and my hands are going to brush the touchpads and something's going to go wrong. And I, I really, I don't like the controller. I hate to say it, but I still like the basic, like 360 style Xbox controller. So far this and the PlayStation to like kind of a toss up. But yeah, that controller looks terrible. The. Thing itself basically looks like a box. It doesn't look like anything. Apparently that front plate is removable, so you could put like custom shit on the front plate here. I'm sure they'll sell that. Aside from that, it's a small form factor.

2:44 So that's what we know so far. The only thing that they haven't talked about is how much the damn thing is going to cost. Right. And that's where I'm I'm this is where I am on this this thing. So toss it over to you for a second, Jay. You heard about this. You saw the specs. You know quite a bit about PCs and things. What is your first like initial impression of what they're putting out here? Yes. So my very professional technical review is that everything is dumb. It's stupid. It sucks. The design sucks. You're not Apple. What the fuck are you doing? The controller is ugly. Like are the bottom touchpads like supposed to be like rubbing your nipples. What is that?

3:34 Like what is going on? And also it's just Yeah, my gaming PC is like way better like I don't know what did they say six times better than a steam deck steam deck. So yeah, I don't know. My gaming PC is probably six times better than this like box of shit. So. I'm hungry, so. I will do an honest review. This is my honest review. We're going to edit that first part out. It fucking sucks. That's my first initial. What what are your thoughts, Alex? I mean, it's it's a mid tier gaming PC. That's really what it's a mid tier game PC in a small form factor. Here's so again, it's a semi custom GPU. Tough to say whether that's going to be good. Apparently, the RAM slots are upgradable. There's some certain things that are upgradable, but the GPU and the CPU, I don't think are. And so. You're locked in it's it's again mid -tier The two things that I'll say is if you couldn't use other controllers with it, I would say it's a piece of garbage, right? I'm gonna use whatever controller I want with it if I get it because that controller looks terrible That being said again, I don't know why you're coming out with a 512 gigabyte version.

5:03 It makes no sense to me that's not big enough to do anything with. I know because of the issues that I've got with my gaming PC and what I have to unload and reload and re -download and change when I get new games. Two terabytes is kind of the minimum right now. The upside to this is this. There has been many times in my life where I've been like, man, I would love to play my Steam library on my giant TV in my living room. Right. And I've thought that that would be nice to be able to play the games that I only own on Steam in my living room. Right. I just your computer downstairs now. And again, this is it.

5:50 One is move the computer. And this is a smaller form factor. If I want to leave something in my living room, aesthetically, this is just nicer to have around. Right. So I'm. Very met on this. Here's what's going to turn it for me. I'm betting right now and let's let's open our little envelopes and somebody come back later when they release the price on this. I think the 512 gigabyte one is 799. And I think the two terabyte one is 1099.

6:30 And this is where I. This is where I think they're going to fall down because even with the expanse of how much a PS five is right now. Right. I don't think you can get it into the range of the other console prices. I don't think you're going to get it down with those specifications to five forty nine. And so I think you are going to severely limit your market of I have an extensive steam library. And I really want to be able to play in my living room without moving my fucking PC. That's really the market here. Right. So that's that's why I think this is a problem for them is I don't think so. What did I just say?

7:20 Seven ninety nine for the five twelve and ten ninety nine for the for the two terabyte at best at best. OK. And I won't be surprised if the two terabyte version is closer to 1199 or 1299 when they launch it. I mean, do you do you see any flaw in my logic there? So the only thing I could think of is. So. They they have to be going into this understanding that. If they're going to be competitive. They have to not make money on this console period because Xbox does not make money off their console. They lose money on their console. They make money on accessories and all the games and everything like that. So the only thing the only way that you can get into the console market in my opinion is bringing your PC like you said. Play your PC games on the TV. So or you want to get into PC gaming, but you don't want to build your own PC. It's a very convenient. You have this stupid little box like I don't know Hellraiser cube. And then you can play all the PC games that everyone else can play, but they have to be willing to lose

8:50 money on the console. And I I don't know if they're going to take that route with it. I generally agree with you. And so this is the other problem that they've got somebody in the YouTube chats bringing this up right now. Do they have an exclusive game for launch? You can't have an exclusive game. It's not possible. It runs on Steam OS, which means any game you put on it is on Steam. It's on PC. So it's literally impossible. Now. That being said. That being said. One of the things that's been bandied about the last 24 hours is Will Valve finally learn to count to three? Could you launch this with Half Life 3 with like a cool faceplate cover for Half Life 3 and maybe a specialized Half Life 3 controller?

9:45 And maybe if you buy a steam. Console, you get some cool in -game shit. For Half -Life 3 Do I see them? Possibly doing that Yes, and with that buoy the initial sale of these consoles it absolutely would But and exclusively again I'm trying I could probably be convinced to buy this if it was Less than $700 Right Yeah, but I don't think it's gonna be Even if you even if we go with your theory that they have to lose money on this console They're gonna lose 50 bucks on each unit Okay, but they're gonna make it up with steam games, right? Yeah And we already know what steams cut is it's it's big. Okay sure Maybe right But I don't think it's gonna be 700 I think it's gonna be closer to To eight nine or a thousand and I think that right there especially in this economy. I Think you've priced everybody out Yeah, yeah Yeah, I'm at 700 and lower smart

11:20 above 700 I don't see them Surviving in this or like I guess breaking into this market like I don't Know see like the steam deck when they release that that at least made some sense, right? I want to be able to play my steam games on the go and with cloud saves and everything else I can be playing cyberpunk 2077 on my PC Sink my cloud save to my steam deck and then I get on the bus and play cyberpunk Right that actually makes a certain amount of sense, right? It's the portability of the steam deck Makes you go.

12:03 Okay, I get why you did this right and I've had a lot of people tell me they really like their steam decks right But again, I'm trying to see who the market for this is Yeah console players who who can't play PC exclusive games that are only out on PC But then I would urge you Because it's not hard. I would urge you just watch a YouTube video and build your own PC Like yes, it's gonna be larger than the hell razor cube I agree but you can upgrade it whenever you want like I don't buy it. If it's above seven hundred, don't buy it. Not with these specs. No. I mean, that's the thing. I want to know more. Twenty eight CUs, two point four or five gigahertz GPU max sustained clock. Poor gaming at 60 FPS with FSR. I want to see somebody who's going to have to run some crazy benchmarks once this thing comes out. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm really curious. Really, it's it's again, it's going

13:34 to be all about the price, especially that two terabyte model, which is the only one I think is worth buying. Yeah. That's it, you know Also and here see I there's see there's so many things I keep running into Steam OS Does it have I got to look this up. Does it have discord? Because or or something like that Yeah The problem is that for like multiplayer games, everybody plays on Discord or they used to play invented things like that. The fact of the matter is. How are you going to do multiplayer with the steam. Console, right, where people want to talk to each other, like, is there going to be integrated voice chat?

14:36 I mean, there have to be. You know Yeah, I I can I love valve I think they're a great company. They're a super smart company. I I don't I don't know who the market this is I don't know who this is for I really don't Okay, well That's all we got to say on this topic. Let us know what you think down in the comments below. Are you planning on picking up this new Steam console? What do you think of that weird looking controller?