Just like there is a market for high end cars, with the "community" aspect being sold as part of the package where you connect with owners of the same brand, there really should be a market for high end multiplayer gaming. Maybe Steam Frame will be that. Way fewer players, higher game cost, but experiences tailored to appeal to people who have the lifestyle that lets them afford a $10k headset + indoor space to play with it, rather than the high school broccoli heads that are high off their vapes most of the time.
The Steam Machine is nothing special either and it’s being sold at a ridiculously price. I wouldn’t hold my breath on the Frame being affordable by any stretch of the imagination.
Yeah, the Steam Machine is pretty tough to justify against something like the Minisforum AtomMan G1 Pro, or indeed a smaller much cheaper mini PC that’s closer
to Steam Deck performance.
I think it’ll sell well though because of the form factor, Steam OS simplicity (and the size of many people’s Steam libraries), and the fact there are not actually many options with the living room friendly form factor and someway reasonable modern gaming performance.
The Frame on the other hand has no competition. I know I’m buying one. I hope it’s more reasonable but it could be a worse deal than a Steam Machine and… yeah.
As long as you're running Zuck's spyware OS. The frame is a a linux box with fancy packaging and peripherals. You will be able to put arch on the frame and turn your new singular hobby into building drivers.
My quest is currently sitting in a drawer because it refuses to play the games I already bought unless I "verify" my "meta account" - which they demanded I create in order to use the oculus locally - by uploading my drivers license. Which I, of course, refuse to do.
Last I checked you needed either a developer account or a jailbreak to load "whatever apk you want" onto the quest, and there didn't seem to be any jailbreaks around.
If this state of things has changed, please do share! I would love to be able to actually use the hardware I already paid for.