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[BradleyLove]

SteamOS is not a walled garden.
It is engineered as a piece of software so that not only is it not a walled garden, it never can be a walled garden.
Describing it in terms of "walled gardens" is ignorant to the point of being disinformation.

So please don't do that.

Hmmm, I don't recall calling SteamOS a walled garden. Providing the layman with a box that boots automatically into the Steam ecosystem is, for all intents and purposes, a walled garden. Or at the very least, is promoting the illusion of being a walled garden.

A truly open system wouldn't do that; instead it would present the layman with choice.

 

[Death2494]

..are you saying that the Windows Pc isn't an open platform? even as a comparative to consoles?

Do we just invent meanings for words now to prove arguments? because that's just purple.

nothing was cryptic about my response to his desire for such a platform so how could you possibly misinterpret that? I was simply stating that what he wanted already existed.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Providing the layman with a box that boots automatically into the Steam ecosystem is, for all intents and purposes, a walled garden. Or at the very least, is promoting the illusion of being a walled garden.

Sorry, but this is incorrect. There are many ways to buying games to include in one's Steam account. Many of them (all outside of buying from Steam itself) involves no royalty payments to Valve.

On the true walled garden platforms, the 1st party gets a cut of every dollar.

It's a significant difference.

You're missing my point. Originally I wrote "walled-garden", not walled-garden. There's a difference there.

It's the absurdity of the statement: "I'm against walled-gardens and am all about open platforms. To show the benefit of open platforms to the layman, I will present to them a system that looks like a walled-garden."

Thanks for the explanation... I'm clearly not tracking the conversation correctly. =(

 

[BradleyLove]

Sorry, but this is incorrect. There are many ways to buying games to include in one's Steam account. Many of them (all outside of buying from Steam itself) involves no royalty payments to Valve.

On the true walled garden platforms, the 1st party gets a cut of every dollar.

It's a significant difference.

You're missing my point. Originally I wrote "walled-garden", not walled-garden. There's a difference there.

It's the absurdity of the statement: "I'm against walled-gardens and am all about open platforms. To show the benefit of open platforms to the layman, I will present to them a system that looks like a walled-garden."

 

[mo60]

Just gonna pop in and say that 110 million XBO/PS4 by end of 2019 is extremely conservative. The PS4 alone, with price drops and big software, in my opinion will most likely be around that number by itself after 6 holiday seasons (end of 2019). It's only had two thus far, and at $399, and it's around 25 million already. After this holiday season, most likely sitting around 40 million with price drops and much software still to come. These consoles are not loss leaders either, so I don't think it's a stretch to assume a $199 price for both by 2018, possibly earlier.

Not going to happen even with a price drop and software releases. I don't think the PS4 will sell about 22 million this year. It's most likely going to sell anywere between 15 and 17 million this year. Even the Wii did not have that large of a boost YOY when it was selling well. I can see the PS4 selling at least 35, but I think it will be between 33 and 35 million by the end of the year.

 

[Javin98]

Well... yeah. Obviously. Do we really have to preface everything we say with "it's only my personal opinion guys, if you don't like it that's cool too"? I want that because I believe it will be better for everyone. Obviously some will disagree. Isn't that why forums are for? The exchange of opinions?

The way you keep phrasing your posts makes it feel like these are facts. But whatever, keep on dreaming. Steam Machines are likely not going to take off anyway.

 

[Shmuely Bully]

I disagree. So long as the processes you've talked about are as simple as they are on smartphones (and I'm thinking specifically of iPhones) I doubt people are tely that bothered by installation & firmware updates.

The instant gratification of cartridge-based gaming isn't coming back.

It's a matter of degrees though. How often are smartphones pushed new OS versions? Generally they also provide significant improvements or new features, which often isn't the case for consoles.

The same is true for installing games off of disc. Cartridges aren't coming back for many good reasons, but we have had games running directly off of discs with relatively minimal load times for several generations before this one. This is the first generation I've seen where game installs are if not universal, extremely common and that can take several to tens of minutes to do.

That pick up and play factor isn't there nearly as much as it used to be.

 

[RexNovis]

It's a matter of degrees though. How often are smartphones pushed new OS versions? Generally they also provide significant improvements or new features, which often isn't the case for consoles.

The same is true for installing games off of disc. Cartridges aren't coming back for many good reasons, but we have had games running directly off of discs with relatively minimal load times for several generations before this one. This is the first generation I've seen where game installs are if not universal, extremely common and that can take several to tens of minutes to do.

That pick up and play factor isn't there nearly as much as it used to be.

You are absolutely right on this and I miss it dearly. Consoles should not be a perpetual parade of progress bars.

 

[unapersson]

..are you saying that the Windows Pc isn't an open platform? even as a comparative to consoles?

Do we just invent meanings for words now to prove arguments? because that's just purple.

As far as I'm concerned an OS you have to get permission to use (activation) every time you change your hardware is a closed OS. Though I think Alexandros' perfect opening gaming platform would be running SteamOS rather than Windows anyway.

 

[unapersson]

You are absolutely right on this and I miss it dearly. Consoles should not be a perpetual parade of progress bars.

The PS4 OS gets the balance right, an unobtrusive quite installation of the game when you put the disk in (even if you're doing something else at the time) and an option to skip any updates and just play the game. I think the bigger problem is the cult of the day one patch (ship it when it's nearly done). It's as though they're skipping the last release candidate and just calling it a day.

Still that period you miss didn't really exist for me, I can remember waiting half an hour (literally) to load some games from tape. And you had to do that every time you wanted to play the game.

 

[Sean*O]

I can remember waiting half an hour (literally) to load some games from tape. And you had to do that every time you wanted to play the game.

I once had a copy of Frogger on tape for my old Atari 800, I remember the long wait each time to play. The day we got the floppy disk drive everything changed

However, I still miss the speed of hardware based (cartridge) games that would just go when you plugged them in. I know that's not economically viable with the scope of today's games but I wish it were.

 

[alexandros]

"I'm against walled-gardens and am all about open platforms. To show the benefit of open platforms to the layman, I will present to them a system that looks like a walled-garden."

That's the idea. To present the average consumer with a system that looks exactly like the familiar console experience, which is necessary in order to not scare him away, but one that is actually based on an open platform. What you find absurd is actually the perfect way to transition the mainstream audience to a new type of console, an open one and, in my opinion, a better one.