Steam Boxes announced!

[dlf]

Wonder of those that into the 'beta' what the system specs would be compared to the final.

[beebskadoo]

Don't call it steambox. That name was coined by journalists. Different hardware vendors will be free to put what hardware they want into it, and they will brand it with different names. How else can they differentiate? I think Valve will just certify that it's gaming grade to ensure consumers don't get duped into buying low end stuff.

Hopefully it's all great hardware and decently specd. I don't want to see i7 with a GT 620 or anything idiotic like that.

[Damikiller37]

An EVGA branded and custom built Steam Box would be really cool. I would love to see Steams prototype. Also does anyone know if the Steam Box hardware will all be the same to all the manufacturers because I think that could be a really good idea for an optimization standpoint. Later on though you could just upgrade the Steam Box to hardware that was specified for the Steam Box that way optimizations would be less fragmented but hardware could still be upgraded. I will personally stick with my desktop with Windows unless a SteamOS Desktop 64 bit Edition comes out and I will get that in an instant.

Just as you mentioned the fact that the hardware will be upgradeable I realized that through out the page Valve keeps saying that they are announcing "Steam Machines" which may potentially suggest that they may be working on different sized machines allowing the users to pick their own favorite. If that will be the case it sure will be a nice touch since for some the idea of a living room sized machine may vary compared to someone else, that way they could satisfy a larger audience and also PC gamers that wouldn't mind the machine to be slightly bigger but at the same time giving them more space to work and upgrade upon.

[Humbug]

Wonder of those that into the 'beta' what the system specs would be compared to the final.

I don't even think Valve will have a final product. Seems like they are only making their own hardware as a prototype, like a reference design. Don't think they are interested in selling PCs....

[themodernagenb]

More questions... Is there going to be one reference console from Valve? What are their target specs? Close to or better than PS4/XB1? How will they price it competitively with the opposition? Sony and MS use custom components because they can guarantee LARGE volumes. Can Valve promise the same - can they make a deal and have the money to create custom parts? Or are they going to use consumer grade components to allow for upgrading? Wouldn't that mean they have to pay more for each component? How will that translate to their pricing? Sony and MS are huge companies and can afford to sell at a loss? Valve is a billion dollar company but a small billion dollar company. Can they afford losing money on a console? Will their pricing be cheaper that the OEM's? If so how will they feel about that - who will buy something from them when they can buy the same thing for cheaper with Valve?

[kuddlesworth9419]

Don't call it steambox. That name was coined by journalists. Different hardware vendors will be free to put what hardware they want into it, and they will brand it with different names. How else can they differentiate? I think Valve will just certify that it's gaming grade to ensure consumers don't get duped into buying low end stuff.

The problem with that is the vendor hardware will cause the Steam OS to become fragmented if there needs to be quite a bit of optimization unless these Steam consoles are really powerful (eg. they have 760 performance), otherwise they will need optimization which will be different if all the hardware is different. Maybe if Steam sets a minimum spec requirement that way the low end stuff will get optimizations the most and the more beefier Steam Boxes will get less but have better overall performance. I am just speculation what would be a good idea. We don't want the Steam OS to turn into Android where there is only one vendor that dominates over all the others because that isn't good for anyone.

[Humbug]

Just as you mentioned the fact that the hardware will be upgradeable I realized that through out the page Valve keeps saying that they are announcing "Steam Machines" which may potentially suggest that they may be working on different sized machines allowing the users to pick their own favorite. If that will be the case it sure will be a nice touch since for some the idea of a living room sized machine may vary compared to someone else, that way they could satisfy a larger audience and also PC gamers that wouldn't mind the machine to be slightly bigger but at the same time giving them more space to work and upgrade upon.

Yes and also catering for different budgets. They need machines to compete against consoles directly, but they also need more expensive high end rigs for people who can afford it.

[Humbug]

More questions... Is there going to be one reference console from Valve? What are their target specs? Close to or better than PS4/XB1? How will they price it competitively with the opposition? Sony and MS use custom components because they can guarantee LARGE volumes. Can Valve promise the same - can they make a deal and have the money to create custom parts? Or are they going to use consumer grade components to allow for upgrading? Wouldn't that mean they have to pay more for each component? How will that translate to their pricing? Sony and MS are huge companies and can afford to sell at a loss? Valve is a billion dollar company but a small billion dollar company. Can they afford losing money on a console? Will their pricing be cheaper that the OEM's? If so how will they feel about that - who will buy something from them when they can buy the same thing for cheaper with Valve?

Valve will not sell these PCs. Theirs is just a prototype to run a beta program and test the new operating system. There will be a variety of target specs depending on budget, size etc.

 

Your points about pricing are valid, but they apply to the PC vendors not to Valve.

[Ramzez]

I would rather read Damikiller37's post because his news is usually actual official news with his own opinion and insight added in which is what the news section is supposed to be about in the first place.

 

Some other people in the news section like to talk about rumors and then make wild speculation about things. Any speculation in this specific thread is educated speculation based on some sort of evidence.

 

The guessing is not just, "OMG I HOPEZ THEY DO A STEAMBOX LOLZ!" This guessing is more like, "Based on the evidence, A will lead to B" and Damikiller37 seems to be good at getting you the actual story with evidence based guessing.

 

It is like with news journalism on those 24 hour news networks. Everyone wants to report first so they will give you half assed information and then say something like, "You heard it here first folks, Mitt Romney is the PResident of the United States." Just so they could be the ones to break the story.

 

Damikiller37 isn't the first one to give us the news, but his news has more QUALITY than the other posts on the same topic.

 

I'm not disagreeing that Damikiller is doing a bad job but if you read this topic the first time it was posted, there was NO information whatsoever. There were dozens of topics stating nothing, because everyone tried to be the first one to post news about the Steam machines. Everyone just edited their topics later on and many just posted a link and call it a day. Damikiller did the best job and actually wrote his own opinions but even he ended up trying to be the first one.

 

Of course this is really off topic and it doesn't really bother be. I just find funny these multiple simultaneous news about the same thing.

[Humbug]

The problem with that is the vendor hardware will cause the Steam OS to become fragmented if there needs to be quite a bit of optimization unless these Steam consoles are really powerful (eg. they have 760 performance), otherwise they will need optimization which will be different if all the hardware is different. Maybe if Steam sets a minimum spec requirement that way the low end stuff will get optimizations the most and the more beefier Steam Boxes will get less but have better overall performance. I am just speculation what would be a good idea. We don't want the Steam OS to turn into Android where there is only one vendor that dominates over all the others because that isn't good for anyone.

I'm sure Valve will set the minimum baseline to make sure nobody starts trying to sell stuff with dual core processors and Intel HD graphics. As long as they make sure it's decent hardware things will be ok. We don't need everyone using the same stuff. This is still an open PC environment, not a console. Maybe Valve will certify it or something let's see... There is a lot of fragmentation even in windows based PC gaming but everyone who has decent hardware can still play games just fine, you don't need high end stuff. This will be no different.

[Damikiller37]

I'm not disagreeing that Damikiller is doing a bad job but if you read this topic the first time it was posted, there was NO information whatsoever. There were dozens of topics stating nothing, because everyone tried to be the first one to post news about the Steam machines. Everyone just edited their topics later on and many just posted a link and call it a day. Damikiller did the best job and actually wrote his own opinions but even he ended up trying to be the first one.

 

Of course this is really off topic and it doesn't really bother be. I just find funny these multiple simultaneous news about the same thing.

That is true. How I do these threads is I fill in as much information as I possibly can the second I know what is announced (e.g. title, in post info, source, etc) and instantly go and start getting all of the images and writing up the article so that in the following few minutes the people that visit the thread have as much key information I can summaries for them and if they wish they can proceed to the source page and then save the changes. 

[Gunzkewl]

IF you are interested in participating on the beta, here is a Link http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/

If you don't have 10+ friends, feel free to add me Cyrokewl

[Ramzez]

That is true. How I do these threads is I fill in as much information as I possibly can the second I know what is announced (e.g. title, in post info, source, etc) and instantly go and start getting all of the images and writing up the article so that in the following few minutes the people that visit the thread have as much key information I can summaries for them and if they wish they can proceed to the source page and then save the changes. 

 

Yeah, you have done a great job and actually have made an effort in order to make the news article more informative. Same cannot be said of everyone. I'm just hoping that people who post these news are more concerned about the actual content itself and bring good insight regarding the matter, rather than just try to be the first one to post about it.

[rashdanml]

More questions... Is there going to be one reference console from Valve? What are their target specs? Close to or better than PS4/XB1? How will they price it competitively with the opposition? Sony and MS use custom components because they can guarantee LARGE volumes. Can Valve promise the same - can they make a deal and have the money to create custom parts? Or are they going to use consumer grade components to allow for upgrading? Wouldn't that mean they have to pay more for each component? How will that translate to their pricing? Sony and MS are huge companies and can afford to sell at a loss? Valve is a billion dollar company but a small billion dollar company. Can they afford losing money on a console? Will their pricing be cheaper that the OEM's? If so how will they feel about that - who will buy something from them when they can buy the same thing for cheaper with Valve?

1) There's going to be multiple, possibly targeted at different pricepoints from different hardware vendors. Valve's own design would be a prototype for beta testers. Pricing would depend on config. 

2) Most likely consumer grade parts which consumers can add to their own machine or upgrade. The hardware of the Steam Machine is fully upgradeable (most likely). 

3) Multiple hardware vendors will be making it themselves using the free OS. They probably won't lose any money at all, considering it's up to the hardware vendors to decide that. Valve won't be making the Steam Machines themselves, afaik. 

 

Looks like a wonderful concept. Signed up for the beta. 

 

To address an issue that some people were having about game compatibility:

1) Future games, to be released, will most likely take full advantage of Valve's tools to have a native Linux version running on launch. They're planning on releasing a list of AAA developers who'll be doing that starting in 2014. 

 

2) Older games may or may not be ported to Linux - that depends on the developer. Valve has offered to perform the porting themselves using their tools - they did create a set of tools that'll make it easier to port from DirectX -> OpenGL (which seems logical). Perfecting the porting process (which they've done with L4D2 and a large number of Source titles which were VERY rapidly ported after L4D2) is essential. Once that's done, we'll see a large influx of AAA games running on Linux (released in the last little while). 

 

3) The absolute worst case scenario where the developer doesn't want to take advantage of Valve's methods for the porting, the games will run through in-house streaming over the local network - latency shouldn't be any worse than the Shield's performance. This will also allow for playing non-steam games through SteamOS - until such a time as EA/Ubisoft decide they can't compete with Steam and simply put up their games on Steam. 

 

I'm glad Valve is going through with it and are aggressively setting the stage for Linux gaming. Who knows, this will most probably trigger improvements for Linux on all sides: specifically, productivity software (which has improved a lot over the years, but can see much more improvement).

[Nicktrance]

Now I wonder what the O + O means?

[rashdanml]

Now I wonder what the O + O means?

Something that ties SteamOS and Steam Machines together. 

A controller of some sort may be likely, along with. 

[Nicktrance]

Something that ties SteamOS and Steam Machines together. 

A controller of some sort may be likely, along with.

 

Since they're using O to represent OS, maybe it's a very non-techie friendly utility to dual boot kinda like bootcamp?

 

Also they wrote this on the Steam Machine page: 

 

Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?

If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though – we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.

 

Could just mean they'll release some more info about Steam machines regarding input or it could have something to do with the third announcement.

Also there's the rumoured Steam goggles which the O+O could represent...

[Guest]

Merged most of them. 

[threadysparrow]

I love the post, but I have a question, why is god in one of the tags? :lol:

[DLM_012]

I'm glad to see that someone actually knows how to post news. The majority of the time people slap a link and a sentence in a thread.