Most PC gamers are aware of the upcoming Steam Boxes, and most are fascinated with Alienware’s, because a certain YouTube gaming channel showed their interest in it without knowing any of the specs. Well, I’m very interested in it as well. Not because of the specs though, rather because of the new information surrounding it.
Dell is known for their laptops in the gaming PC market, so they have some room to play around since a very devoted group of people will buy their Steam Box no matter what. So they took a leap of faith into the Steam Boxes target market, the console players, similar to the steam controller’s recent redesign (which I am not happy about).
An Iteractive Approach
PC gaming is always evolving; that’s why it’s ahead consoles right now (notice how I worded that) the basis of that evolution is the sheer amount of customization and build options that PC rigs have.
Alienware’s Steam Box is un-upgradeable, making the box more console-like. ReviewTechUsa said if they really wanted console players, they shouldn’t be making all these models of Steam Boxes with these ridiculous prices.
They should just make one base model, on which every single game made for Steam OS and even ported to is playable on the highest settings. I think what PC gamer nerds like me should be mad about is that you won’t be able to max out all these games with 100+ FPS–but just be glad that we’re not getting the same type of thing we already have.
This is for people who want to get into PC gaming but think it’s too expensive. I genuinely do not believe that Alienware’s price tag will be low. They’re known for sometimes overpricing things, but the iBuyPower and CyberPC Steam Boxes are both $500–the same prices as the Xbox One, which their target audience probably already has.
This will stop non-PC gamers from getting confused about all these different PC components, which they don’t even know how to compare.
How do you guys feel about this one? Do you think Alienware is killing their fanbase? Or do you think that this is a good step forward to getting Steam Boxes in living rooms alongside the PS4 and Xbox?
UPDATE: Even though everything in this article still stands, Alienware will actually allow upgrades–but still I think all games should be able to work on the base hardware. Console gamers won’t want to upgrade, and if there’s a new one every year, why would they?
Check out my personal blog for more info on Steam Boxes and much more.
