[dynamite-ready]

I suppose the missing part of the story is why they held back on pursuing this market.

At the time, the console market was wide open, with little innovation in terms of hardware, until Nintendo released the Switch.

Even now, I'd be quite happy to own a Valve branded, small form PC that plugs into a TV.

The Steam Link was a kop out to me.

[genewitch]

I still use my steam link all the time. I have it fiber back hauled to the computer that it runs off of. I'm thinking of buying a couple more. Give one to my kid and one put on a projector so I don't have to keep moving it back and forth.

Also, I think the device you're looking for is a deck because you can plug that into a television and use a wireless remote with it.

The steam link is the best remote display device I've ever used. No frame drops or artifacting, even on scenes that make the 3090 chug. It forwards controllers to the PC.

Now, the software, "big picture mode" and otherwise using a controller for PC input aren't the greatest, but you gotta figure it's me and like 2 other people still using this.

BTW airscreen/miracaat/screen mirroring/"wireless display" all suck. If your TV has smart bullt in that supports miracast, that in my limited experience is the second lowest latency, then firetv devices, and then roku and everything else. Roku only usable for presentation or digital signage, unless first party built in.

No idea why.

[catlikesshrimp]

I have used an old sony bravia tv to cast COD from an android phone. Every time I connected, latency varied from 100 - 200 ms to 10 seconds. I had to reconnect several times until the latency was satisfactory.

Conclusion: it has been technically possible to cast to a tv for some years.

[qwytw]

I guess Proton/Wine/Linux gaming wasn't mature enough back then. Also a handheld wasn't really an option because there weren't any powerful enough yet energy efficient and cheap x86 chips available either.

[yellowapple]

Proton didn't exist yet, IIRC. The Steam Boxen relied on devs/studios/publishers being able and willing to port their games to Linux natively. The result was a handful of AAA and indie games that put proper effort into ports that ran well, a modest but larger selection of AAA games sloppily ported (such that they often can't run on current distros without containerization or extensive library preloading shenanigans), and a deluge of indie shovelware / forever-in-early-access vaporware produced by clicking the "gib me Linux" button in Unity and calling it a day.

Unfortunately, while it was certainly a boom in the number of games Linux users could play (easily enough for me to ditch Windows entirely and game exclusively on Linux and consoles), it wasn't quite the critical mass needed for Steam Boxen to be a commercial success. Proton was the missing piece.