COULD STEAM MACHINES BE THE FUTURE OF PC GAMING?


http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/01/07/valve-announces-some-stuff/
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, Gabe Newell was blinded by a bright future as he revealed the manufacturers working with Valve to release this year's line of Steam Machines—living room PCs which will come equipped with Valve's free, Linux-based SteamOS. The current lineup includes Alienware, Materiel.Net, Alternate, Next, CyberPowerPC, Origin, Digital Storm, Scan Computers, Falcon Northwest, Webhallen, GigaByte, Zotac, iBuyPower, and Maingear.

Along with the Steam Machines, Valve will be producing and selling the notably owl-like Steam Controller. Regarding producing its own hardware in general—including Steam Machines, perhaps—Newell said, "We'll continue to make that decision as we go along."

I already have steam machine - it is my PC that has Steam installed.

Better question - is there any future in Steam Controller? I hope not, because unless you are playing side-scroller game K&M is much better solution.

FUTURE OF PC GAMING?

sounds more like a remake of an Xbox

PC's are not just games machines they may get upgraded for games
but they get used for every thing

Steam Machines have a lot of potential, they can still do the things a regular PC can do. Looking at future MS alternative.

With the rise of mobile and tablet apps, and mobile productivity it seems the psychological barrier for people regarding where and how they work has changed a lot. People now will be I think much more receptive to PCs in the living room, for games and other things.

For a long time this was a taboo. The failure of the Amiga, and other keyboard-toting pc/console type machines in the early 90's made it so console makers went to great lengths to separate their product from anything resembling a "PC". If you ever wondered why we never saw a KB/Mouse (even for MMOs), let alone any apps (even email) on the original Xbox this is why. Its not that MS was just lazy, they even explicitly forbid any third party from doing or making anything that might hint at the fact that the Xbox was a PC, lest it go the way of the Amiga, 3DO, etc.

Obviously times have changed, though MS is behind the curve Sony for once, and Valve are not.

It will take some time, but expect Steam Machines to start becoming a "thing" in 1-2 years, spearheaded by "Dota boxes" - inexpensive relatively low power machines at around $200 that play MOBAS, some MMOS, and non high-power FPS games. Expect various social and productivity apps to follow (where they dont already exist, and be sharpened up for ones that do), and expect Windows to have tanked in the home market in about 5 years.

I expect it will be optimized to run steam games, and I don't expect that it will be able to still do the things a regular PC can do. Run Xcel or Word? Those applications are joined at the hip with Windows, and lookalike applications have never done all that well.

If the only thing you do with your PC is game, surf the web, and send email, a steam machine might be a good idea. Unless I hear a whole lot different about what Steam Machines can do, I'll probably stick with my PC.

The big question is going to be is the SteamBox going to be sealed and integrated parts. If its a locked box and you can never upgrade or replace any components then the SteamBox is nothing but something built for the unwashed masses who aren't hardcore PC people anyways.

I already play steam on my HDLCD TV in my computer room when I don't want to sit at my computer chair and rather sit on the reclining leather love seat and chill the F out.

You can pry my PC off of my desk when my body is dead and cold or they don't make parts for PC rigs anymore.

Sheeple...

Depends on the particular box. Low wattage, low cost models are going to be sealed boxes most often. I consider those to be analogous to consoles/Rokus etc. Except they will do more.

SteamOS will run on anything though, so obviously many people will still build elite level gaming towers.

The thing is By cutting out Windows, that right there knocks $100 off the retail cost which becomes huge when you start talking about 2 and 3 hundred dollar boxes, plus there is a lot of driver and other optimization going on right now. So once all the common apps come out of the box, plus all the crossover and new entries like we have seen on iOS/Android markets...

Steambox will do everything, and dollar for dollar MS just wont be able to compete.

Even though I enjoy PC gaming. Much of the gaming industry focuses on consoles for development and optimization. Will this really make much of a difference?

When taking games, yes. PS4 and SteamOS development will actually be very similar process wise.

Steam has proven to make real money as well. It wont be a perfect world, but there will be plenty on Steam - SOS and Win64.

SteamOS will perform better on the same hardware for gaming and be far more cost effective dollar for dollar though.

Some of us legally don't pay for Windows. I know I am in the minute minority. I built a "DivX" machine in the early 2000's before there were really "home entertainment" boxes. I used Linux when I built it and for what it was, essentially a DoS EMU and Media center to play movies it was rock solid and pretty bullet proof. As time proceeded and the ability to build small array controllers as brain boxes hooked up to the "data centers" of HD cells where my movies/media is stored the old hard shell of the "DivX" box went to the wayside. I still play old DoS games on it and NES/SNES, TurboDuo, FamilyCom, and Atari titles on it, its just the large format of a 47 inch HD LCD isn't always amenable to it looking right.

I think the SteamOS box has potential for the non-hardcore PC gaming sector of the value stream. I think a lot of hobbyist will use the SteamOS but build there own box and mod there own controller. The problem is going to be in PC games that don't port well or weren't developed to support anything other then Windows or iOS.

Games already out that are Windows arent gonna get any love, with a few exceptions.

SOS/PS4 development being similar means that new games will likely get love in the future. People who still make just "Windows" games (no console version) have already been moving the Linux direction.

Multiplatform PC games are already ported from console to Windows most typically. Games will actually port easier and better from console to SOS, particularly PS4.

Plus Windows has accumulated too much internal bloat, same game on SOS will run much faster once the kinks are worked out. SOS will be closer to console performance for the same hardware.