“Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance,” Valve said in a press release today. Well, OK.
The much-anticipated living room PCs, which have been MIA since Valve officially announced them in early 2014, will officially launch this November alongside a special Steam controller and a device called the Steam Link that will allow for game streaming between multiple PCs or Steam Machines at 1080p/60HZ, according to the folks at Valve. The Steam Link and Steam Controller will each cost $US50.
The concept of the Steam Machine was always
At GDC in San Francisco this week, Valve is showing off Steam Machines from Alienware and Falcon Northwest, and they say they have got PCs from “a dozen other partners” launching in November, too. Says Valve: “Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs.”
Comments
23 responses to “Valve’s Steam Machines Will Officially Launch In November”
was always?
I need a new PC, debating whether it’s worth getting a Steam machine or not. Any word on how many games will be optimised for Steam OS yet, including the back catalogue?
DLC is also included in the list so a lot less than 1800
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=linux&page=1
Filter by games give me 991 for that search
I’m no expert, but isn’t the Steam OS Linux based? That would be my guess as to why so few games are compatible. Surely they’ll be working towards getting every Steam game working, otherwise what’s the point. I mean who’ll want Steam OS, or a Steam Box if it’ll only run a small portion of their catalogue.
Well, I don’t see all games ever running. Vavles simplified porting process, as far as I know, relies on a wrapper of sorts to convert DX into Open GL. If it were that easy/ desirable, I’m sure more publishers would have done it already as it’s been ‘available’ since Valve ported all their games to Linux. More evidence to this, I might say, would be the abysmal port of the Witcher 2 on Linux that, from my understanding, used a similar porting process.
I reckon unless Valve strike a licensing deal with MS for the use of DX, or essentially create an emulator (unlikely) I doubt we will see many older games make their way across.
Game developers will port to Linux (and by extension SteamOS) if they think there is a market for it and there is a channel available to sell to that market. The growing number of Linux games available on Steam seems to show that many developers think there is a market. If a sufficient number of SteamOS consoles get sold, then developers will want to target them irrespective of the underlying OS.
We’ll probably never see 100% coverage, which is why Valve is also pursuing local streaming. I disagree that anything short of 100% is pointless though. By that logic, Steam for MacOS is pointless because not all games have been ported, and Steam Big Picture mode is pointless because not all games support controllers.
Well… TBH, I’m not holding my breath about the back catalogue. They have had Linux support for years and we have seen a slow movement of games being ‘ported’. Old games have issues working on Windows, let alone Linux.
Actually, I’m not sure I see the point of a ‘stem machine’ over a PC. For me PC is about flexibility, upgradability, not thermal throttling, and, well, not being a console. Not that that’s stopping you from connecting a PC to your tv, with a controller, and booting into steam’s big picture mode instead of the windows desktop.
If it’s for you though, sure. Go ahead.
I thought the Steam machines were upgradable as well though? Either way, it’s really just a side thought to avoid researching the best components again. I’ll probably just build a new one again anyway. I can always stick Steam OS on it at a later point if it becomes worthwhile. My PC’s already hooked up to an HDTV though 😀
Tell me about it with older games. I have enough trouble getting GOG games working on my PC
I’m sure some will be upgradable, but still less flexible in terms of what you can throw into it because of size/ heat restrictions. IMHO building your won is always going to be the best option for price to performance because you can prioritize what’s important to you, maybe cheap out on the CPU and over indulge on the GPU know what I mean! And you don’t have to pay the middle man.
As for games; I recently got the Star Wars humble bundle…. Half of those games took ages to get kinda working. IDK why publishers put games on Steam that only really support operating systems from before Steam, I have some that really just don’t work any more haha.
Yeah, I’m struggling atm with my i5 though (Sandy Bridge). This time I won’t be cutting corners anywhere on parts. I might dabble with water cooling on my old pc though and see how comfortable I am with that kind of set up
Fallout 3’s always been the one that’s bugged me about not being compatible with Windows 7. It’s nothing a quick fix won’t, well, fix but it’s still annoying that a AAA developer won’t go back and fix support for a product that’s still played a fair bit
Lol, not sure I’d call a Sandy bridge i5 ‘cutting corners’ (Assuming you bought it a while ago), but I get what you’re saying.
always WHAT? always WHAT!!?!? For the love of God won’t somebody please tell me WHAT!!!?!?!!?
invisible?
The concept of the Steam Machine was always. An eternal dream by men upon which the future was built. With its arrival in the Physical all knew that the end had come, for concepts made manifest bring about the death of the dream. No longer restrained as an ideal in the minds of those who inhabit this world, the Steam Machine strode forth and smote the Console with righteous fury, ending its enslavement of mankind. Thus was the beginning of the eternal reign of the PC Master Race.
It’s too early for philosophical comments 😛
Was always, and ever will be,
yours.
So I own Steam machines :O
This is almost a definite wrong assumption but is this just a PC that only plays steam games??
Basically yes.
The core concept seems to be form factor and ease of setup. basically a PC that you can buy and plug into the TV, without having to worry about the scary setup a PC stuff. That also looks good and suits being in an entertainment unit along side they other devices without looking out of place
I don’t know if I’d want to sacrifice functionality for simplicity.
Doesn’t Steam Link destroy Steam Machine? The major feature of Steam Machine is now a $50 box.
That’s what I’m thinking. If you’ve got a PC already, why not just get a Steam Link. It’s like having a PS4 and a Vita TV instead of two PS4s. I don’t really think the console market is in any immediate danger from the Steam Machine.
Well. Yeah it does. I’ll just grab one of those.
Source 2 was also officially announced btw but didn’t seem to get picked up by Kotaku. No games announced with it, but it is free to content developers to use
I wonder how many will come with GDDR5 and a secondary low power CPU for background tasks?
Consoles are generally built for a set task, these machines are just cut down PCs