Steam machines official brochure

[Doppel]

It's actually kind of sad. IGN today reported Alienware says they will release a steam machine each year.

Remind me again what the point of this stupid project is. It seems more idiotic every day unless I'm just really entirely missing something.

Obviously the buy-prepackaged concept in consoles is completely thrown out the window, and its operating system is tremendously less capable than windows. I just don't see why anybody would get a steam machine right now.

 

[Red Storm]

Valve wants to move away from Windows. Frankly I don't blame them, it's a pretty good idea to not tie your multi-billion dollar business to the whims of another company. The dilemma is that you can't just snap your fingers and have Linux be a gaming platform equal to Windows, something like that takes time. Trying to establish a hardware base is just one step to solving that problem, with the end goal of convincing game developers to make their games for Linux as well.

For the bitchers and whiners, we get you don't understand and/or like it, but it's pretty obvious to see that Valve is simply trying to protect itself from where things may be headed in the future.

 

[Throckmorton]

Wow, I thought it was going to be awesome when that teardown came out... reasonably powerful, compact, and cheap. Now it seems we're getting a bunch of crappy no-name builders selling expensive HUGE boxes with no advantage over a Windows gaming PC. What the heck is "Webhallen"??

One of them has INTEL GRAPHICS.

 

[Throckmorton]

Valve wants to move away from Windows. Frankly I don't blame them, it's a pretty good idea to not tie your multi-billion dollar business to the whims of another company. The dilemma is that you can't just snap your fingers and have Linux be a gaming platform equal to Windows, something like that takes time. Trying to establish a hardware base is just one step to solving that problem, with the end goal of convincing game developers to make their games for Linux as well.

For the bitchers and whiners, we get you don't understand and/or like it, but it's pretty obvious to see that Valve is simply trying to protect itself from where things may be headed in the future.

Yet what they've really done is created a new proprietary OS, splintering the PC gaming market which is already in trouble, and letting every nerd in his mom's basement "design" a "Steam Machine" to "sell" with any random hardware. This is a disaster.

Gabe Newell needs some kind of reality check.

 

[Doppel]

Valve wants to move away from Windows. Frankly I don't blame them, it's a pretty good idea to not tie your multi-billion dollar business to the whims of another company.

Ideally, except in the corporate world many businesses are irreparably intertwined. In the grand scheme of things Valve is an irrelevant and tiny company. Imagine if a company like SAP just up an vanished overnight. Microsoft is a very strong company and isn't going anywhere. And frankly if Valve thinks they can push people in any significant numbers to an entirely new OS just to support Valve, they are close to overdosing on meds. PC games will still be playable on Microsoft many years from now as they have been for decades. Are PC gamers worried, or is Valve trying to recruit soldiers into a war they don't otherwise care about?

I think Steam machines made more (though still little) sense as a competitor to consoles. If they actually think it's going to be a way to push people wholesale away from their MS operating system to Steam OS, they're punching well above their weight.

One of them has INTEL GRAPHICS.

I'd lawl if it weren't so sad. Why not just get a pre-built "gaming" rig from Bestbuy for $450 with a bonafide version of Windows 8.

 

[sf101]

I own quite a few games on steam but not All my games are steam games Im sure most people are in the same boat as i am so i tend to wonder if this steam os is going to be just a FAD really.

I mean considering you can Have a windows Box for HTPC already with a decent cpu/board/gpu/mem and say a Wireless controller with a wireless kbd/mouse combo in which you can decide between a multitude of controllers even PS3 if you have bluetooth.

It seems odd people would limit their options game and hardware wise.

 

[Throckmorton]

I own quite a few games on steam but not All my games are steam games Im sure most people are in the same boat as i am so i tend to wonder if this steam os is going to be just a FAD really.

I mean considering you can Have a windows Box for HTPC already with a decent cpu/board/gpu/mem and say a Wireless controller with a wireless kbd/mouse combo in which you can decide between a multitude of controllers even PS3 if you have bluetooth.

It seems odd people would limit their options game and hardware wise.

Our Steam games won't even run on Steam OS units they're ported