Valve's Steam Machine beta systems are shipped

Opinions?


I figure they're a bit... overpowered. They crammed a 4th gen high end i5 in there, along with a GTX 780. Seems like they could've gotten along just fine with a 760.
That alone sets that box to be extremely expensive, and supposedly some come with a Titan.
I'll give them props on releasing a very good looking case and a custom, possibly very usable controller. Oh, and that wooden shipping crate- neat!

If this is what they're planning on selling, I see no point in getting one- it's an extremely expensive console with limited upgrade options running the "Big Picture".

Can anyone tell me a benefit to this other than just building a high end gaming PC and installing SteamOS on it?

 

I think the benefit is to people who are too lazy or inexperienced to build a machine themselves. It comes pre-built, and ready to plug into a TV and play just like a game console. For those of us who build PCs ourselves, there's really no benefit. Also, just because the beta units are shipping with 780s, that doesn't mean the final product will be like that. They said that they're going to license out SteamOS and the Steam Machine name to other manufacturers, so you can probably expect to see mid- and low-end machines as well.

 

I think it's mainly meant to benefit the would-be developers.
It gives them one target platform instead of a zillion possible configurations.
If you build yourself and choose different components or other distros and them games don't run properly, Valve can resort to: "well that's your problem".

 

You can call it overpowered now, but 6 months from now? 2 years from now? 4 years from now?

 

Unfortunately their approach of giving manufacturers the freedom to configure the machines doesn't really save developers all that much and breaks from the traditional console model (i.e. a homogeneous hardware configuration with a fixed set of capabilities and performance characteristics). There are still infinitely many possible hardware configurations (including a variety of CPU/GPU/memory architectures); it's just another OS to target.

 

I understand that configurations are possible, but what I was trying to get at was that these specific models are running 780s for a reason I can't quite grasp.

I guess they've got money to burn, then.

 

I wish Valve, and their steam BOX good luck. But at the same time I am seeing its future as the MSX and the 3DO. Not that I am a pessimist, it just reminds me of that kind of stunt. And no I am still not thinking pessimistic about the dream. That happened in the ancient thread called "A Modern 2D Console". Cause in fact I saw some kind of reality in a positive way there. But this on the other hand.. well I don't know .

 

Thats still a small list of sanctioned machines all running the same distribution versus the full scale chaos that is IBM compatible + linux.

For some reason Valve decided to establish linux as a gaming platform ( at least Gabe said so in an iterview iirc).
They need to rig the incentives of the parties involved. Linux as target platform for consumer software is a friggn nightmare - it's more like 20 targets, constantly on the move, that you are meant to hit with a single stone.
Meaning, it's more costly/infuriating to develop for, on top of neglectable market share.

They can release their own distro, but as shown in the other thread, still need to provide a reason for consumers to install it in the first place.

For me, the box looks like a try to break this stalemate of consumers waiting for content, to have a reason to use linux for gaming, and developers waiting for target platform that is attractive enough to produce content.

Second that.

Me too. At least they would be the first newcomer with arguably the largest network of third parties, before they even start. No?

I want to get one.
If only, so i can tell my grandchildren, that i did not sit idly when there was a chance for change.

 

I can see this growing huge in numbers. I really don't see a reason for it to fail.

Steam is cheaper than XBLA and PSN and most of the time has the same games.
PCs can do everything a console can do and do it better.
Better graphics.
Room for upgrades. Buy a new VGA and you have a whole new world of graphics.

I think we will see tons of changes in the world of games when the steam boxes become popular.

Really hopping at least for a price drop in the huge price tag on digital media.

 

I had the same thought, it's very similar to the 80s, how many computers were running Z80s, then? VDPs were all different obviously. But nowadays pretty much every mainstream non-portable system runs on x86 with variations of GPUs. The steam box is a good idea to get steam from the bedroom/office to the living room, but at an expensive price. I've seen some nice designs presented at CES, maybe the controller is worth trying. I would call the Steam Box a more personalise-able game console. Nice idea if I can make my own, I'd be interested maybe but when the last time, I used Steam...

 

I'd much rather they market that controller as much as the console. If it's as good as they say, it'd be nice to be able to buy just one of those.

 

Yeah, but I do wish them luck. It is just a bit like the olden days of the 80s with the Z80 CPUs, and so forth. Even though it was a smashing time/exciting time (electronically speaking). Both on the sound front and hardware front. Hell I still enjoy reading in my old electronic magazines, I bought some years ago. Which were from that era. And it is quite interesting reading the good articles about loudspeakers , and then the many "different" computers of the age. And their advertisement , of their "big" upgrades of ram and so forth.

 

I believe they are going to sell the controller separately. You don't have to have a Steam Machine to use it. I think.

 

Oh goody! It's like (a hypothetical, rumored) Christmas!

 

They want to dislodge the Xbox 360 controller as the de facto PC controller Hopefully the Steam controller won't cost a fortune...

 

I figure an $80 retail, especially with that touchscreen built in and those touchpads.

And oddly enough I can't stand the 360 controller for control. I use DS3.

 

On the official website about the Steam controller, it says that it'll work with any version of Steam, regardless of whether the system is a Steam Machine or not. In other words, it'll work with any PC. It doesn't explicitly state that they'll sell it separately, but why else would they make it compatible with all machines running Steam?

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamController/

 

OFC they'll sell it separately, what would you do for multiplayer? Buy two steamboxes?

That leads me to hope they re-implement stuff as splitscreen multiplayer, or even splitscreen two different games (at lower res/details) or two screens -> two games. Like two consoles in one! C'mon you know your lil' brother could use the wasted CPU cycles of your portal 2 game to play cstrike 1.6! Oddly enought that shouldn't be too hard to do, linux already support two x sessions at once on different screens and what not.

 

Mmmm, and let's enjoy our games in a glorious 8:9 aspect ratio. Or with massive letterboxing.

 

Same-screen split-screen => simply do it vertical split (one player left, the other right), on 16:9 TV it wouldn't that big of a deal (2x 8:9). That or rotate the screen 90 degrees so you get two 1080x960 9:8 screens! A tad more widescreen!

With two screens this would not be a problem. Picture the steambox in the living room with you playing whatever and your kid in his room playing whatever else, using the same box as long as you don't play both high resources games on ultra settings.

Or this: One SteamBox/pc, 4 screens/mouse/keyboard (using all possible output of videocard/motherboard/usb3 if required) => One old school lan! (cstrike/aoe2/starcraft)
Heck I'd try it on my laptop if I had more free time!