steam machine more news

so is 13 or so different steam machines, many of them way overpriced and with variable specs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7uMjQpwEj8

I thought it was going to fail now I am not changing my mind for sure.

guys like time2die just like to buy a device and play, these are supposedbly marketed at him yet now he has to pick between 13+ different specs, unsure of which is right, they mostly overpriced for the spec and have a limited gaming OS. Plus I think most look a bit bulky.

thoughts?

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 07-Jan-14 18:31:27)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

so is 13 or so different steam machines, many of them way overpriced and with variable specs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7uMjQpwEj8

I thought it was going to fail now I am not changing my mind for sure.

guys like time2die just like to buy a device and play, these are supposedbly marketed at him yet now he has to pick between 13+ different specs, unsure of which is right, they mostly overpriced for the spec and have a limited gaming OS. Plus I think most look a bit bulky.

thoughts?

WRONG.....I'm Rich according to you so I Have loads of money ....look at my wads,loads of money

So I just buy all 13....; Simples...........how's that ?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

so is 13 or so different steam machines, many of them way overpriced and with variable specs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7uMjQpwEj8

I thought it was going to fail now I am not changing my mind for sure.

guys like time2die just like to buy a device and play, these are supposedbly marketed at him yet now he has to pick between 13+ different specs, unsure of which is right, they mostly overpriced for the spec and have a limited gaming OS. Plus I think most look a bit bulky.

thoughts?

Is there anything on this planet you are satisfied with or what ?

Or you could just buy two of the overpriced top spec ones Timey, one for you and one for me !!

That's that then matey....sorted ....tell me your shipping address and when they get released one will be winging its way to you on Rich Old Timey

Screenshotted and will be held as a legal document!!

There are some good looking machines there that could well appeal to many PC gamers who want a compact system and who don't want to build their own. I am not sure whether they will really make any substantial dent into the console market but only time will tell and much depends on Steam OS and the controller.

What excites me most about this is Steam OS, it will be fantastic if they get all Steam games running on Linux that will put a end to Microsoft's monopoly.

I want the most expensive one please.

And I'm comfortable asking because I know you're a philantthip.... philanthepit.... phelanthropic.... a rich tw*t.

Now make it happen.

The only way to do that would be under emulation. WINE is usually pretty good though.

I wonder if the requirement to have a Windows machine is still required for playing games on these machines ?

They do seem prohibitly expensive - any sensible person would just get a cheap machine from eBuyer, download the SteamOS ISO and install it themselves.

Edited by deleted (Wed 08-Jan-14 00:49:14)

Wish i understood the humour Nelly perhaps you can enlighten me as i don't get the joke on this one matey

I know its something of extreme humour but for the life of me I'm struggling with this wording

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

I want the most expensive one please.

And I'm comfortable asking because I know you're a philantthip.... philanthepit.... phelanthropic.... a rich tw*t.

Now make it happen.

not Gareth Gates take on Bo Selecta is it ?

They currently have 250 games running natively on SteamOS which sounds very impressive until I checked it and aside from the Half Life games and their mods etc there are only a handful of other games I have even heard of. Valve will need to have all the Steam games running on their OS otherwise it is pointless. The market for people who want to stream from their Windows PC to a Steambox must be very limited.

so you think 13 different consoles is a good thing?

buying a pc is easier.

250 is a drop in the ocean.

Will Valve manage to entice EA or Activision to the SteamOS Side, I wonder ? It will all come down to how well these machines sell, and according to those prices, it will only be the mega rich would will be able to afford them.

Current PC users wont need them; console users wont change with those prices - and that is the problem : Those prices need to be a top-level reference guide or if not, would need to come down substantially very quickly.

In reply to a post by MrTAToad2:

Will Valve manage to entice EA or Activision to the SteamOS Side, I wonder ? It will all come down to how well these machines sell, and according to those prices, it will only be the mega rich would will be able to afford them.

Current PC users wont need them; console users wont change with those prices - and that is the problem : Those prices need to be a top-level reference guide or if not, would need to come down substantially very quickly.

Thats me then

No i think its a complete joke,but what looney would buy 13 of the same thing ,you pick your specification and make your choice,after all they all are going to do the same thing.

And before you start presuming I'm buying one then at the moment i have very little to no interest and have way to much gaming equipment to keep me busy for ages as you have already told me in your roundabout way

Edited by time2die (Wed 08-Jan-14 15:59:22)

I have not checked the prices of all the machines but I read up a bit about the Alienware one as it caught my eye. They said it will be priced to compete with the PS4 and Xbox and that it will be their cheapest gaming system to date. Currently Alienware systems start at £599 in the UK. So their Steambox should be quite affordable at least.

If the OS works well and can play all the Steam games natively then it could be a attractive alternative to other gaming PC's.

I'm going to end up with a house full of Gaming Equipment and nowhere to sit

I'm going to need a To get a Custom Television Stand built about 10 foot long with at least 4 reinforced glass shelves.

I reckon there is about half a mile of cable at the back of my set already

Whilst games would be run through emulation, the stability and quality of the program could cause the user problems...

to try and stop you getting all eaten up by comment about you been rich was a joke and I am sorry if it offended you. If you are rich its cool I am not bothered by it.

I am of course serious on my views of these 13+ machines tho.

In reply to a post by MrTAToad2:

Will Valve manage to entice EA or Activision to the SteamOS Side, I wonder ? It will all come down to how well these machines sell, and according to those prices, it will only be the mega rich would will be able to afford them.

Current PC users wont need them; console users wont change with those prices - and that is the problem : Those prices need to be a top-level reference guide or if not, would need to come down substantially very quickly.

here is the problem.

sony and microsoft profits mainly come from software sales, they get a cut of every game sold for their devices, for that reason they can sell consoles with slim margins or even at a loss. The PS3 was loss making for many years.

The steam console manufacturers interest is only in the hardware, so they need a big margin to get their interest, this is why we are seeing uncompetitive pricing. Multiple manufacturers would have been ok but for the market steam are after I was expecting a lot less variance in specs, as even each individual machine has variable specs so there will be more than 13 combinations.

also is the problem most of the manufacturers dont fill me with confidence they will exist for long. If you buy a ps4 or xbox 1 you can be reasonably confident the devices will still be supported for years to come and neither microsoft or sony is going bust (even tho sony is struggling they are a bohemoth), the same cant be said for most of the steam machine makers.

Well for the record I'm not rich ok and have never claimed to be.

I think we'll see a lot of PC gamers switching to small form factor PCs. The idea kind of appeals to me. TV manufacturers have been given a massive kick up the bum with the release of the better consoles and with the major motherboard and case manufacturers embracing the ITX form factor we will see more users moving the PC to the living room.

You could argue that we have had shuttle computers for years, but we have only recently got "big box" on steam and while it still needs work to be totally compatible with the joypad, it is slowly getting there. I haven't yet tried the beta SteamOS but I will be doing when I have a bit more time.

I won't be paying a premium price for my steambox, as usual I will be building my own, probably with a budget of around £800, although I have a few spares knocking around already so that will make things a bit cheaper anyway.

Been looking at these Steam Machines and the choice is not only staggering so is the price point as Crysalis pointed out.

To be honest I think it's going to put of most console players of and even some of the PC Community with the ridiculous price structure and the amount of people assigned to making them.

Anybody that is a avid gamer and loves Games is not going to put up with some bog standard cheap thing but unless your loaded is not going to pay the price tag of in the region of $6000 for the top of the range.

I think the idea of a Steam machine in the living room is brilliant,but the manafacturing and price point to me says epic fail

If this had been a single stand alone unit made by a single company with May be a choice of graphic card and hard drive upgrade and was console priced I may be interested.

In its present state....No Thanks

Pictures of the steam machines

Edited by time2die (Fri 10-Jan-14 14:59:43)

In reply to a post by time2die:

I think the idea of a Steam machine in the living room is brilliant,but the manafacturing and price point to me says epic fail

If this had been a single stand alone unit made by a single company with May be a choice of graphic card and hard drive upgrade and was console priced I may be interested.

In its present state....No Thanks

Pictures of the steam machines

Yeah I agree, I thought Valve were going to make the steam machine themselves with say a few different configurations. Not have 14 different machines made by 3rd party manufacturers. I understand them not wanting to make them but they could have just partnered with one company like Alienware.

Funny you mentioned Alienware as they have already stated they will be making them.

It's nice to have choice but not this confusing amount,I can understand different bundles like consoles vary with added accessories and game bundles but this is pure madness.

Yes they showed the Alienware Steam machine at CES. Looks good and they are a well know and desirable PC manufacturer so it would have made sense to partner with them IMO.

I also have my doubts about the controller they have made... I can't imagine track pads being better than analogue sticks for FPS or TPS, maybe it would be good for RTS games ?

IGN hands on with the controller

I can�t imagine choosing to use this to play shooters, platformers, puzzlers, or even strategy games. So then, I ask again � who and what is this controller for?

=/

Another negative point then,and how you suppose to use a track pad when it's not sitting on a flat surface,I have a track pad for my IMac and it's a lovely bit of kit on a office desk .

Agreed but they are a little bit like Apple really and there prices are quite high given what you can get from other company's for the same amount of money.

I have heard many good things about them in the past but have never owned a Alienware product

I don't know but I think Valve like to take a backed off stance and let other people get on with it, to be the facilitators behind the scenes, the glue that holds everything together kinda thing.

But, it's a bad way to handle marketing and PR strategy, bombarding people with so many units from so many vendors all at once for sure.

I think Valve will want it that any individual or any company can install Steam OS to a wide range of ready built PCs, self-builds or things PCs they already have but like Timey says, if it's going to be in your lounge most people will want it to look good under the telly.

I expect there will be loads of issues for a white, it's a computer afterall. I guess it's gonna depend on driver support from nVidia and AMD for SteamOS. It's a good move though, I feel, and Valve put a lot of work in and have a good track record of ensuring things aren't half baked on release so problems are minor rather than major catastrophes.

The Valve control pad has me interested and I can imagine support for the Occulus Rift VR headset coming so that's quite exciting really.

I mean the two round track pads on the controller which you use with your thumbs. It actually looks comfortable to hold and use but I just can't see how that can be better than 2 analogue sticks.

I find SteamOS the most exciting part of all of this and I hope Valve are successful in bringing all the Steam games to the OS. It would end Microsofts dominance of being the only real option for a OS on a gaming PC and be a big boost to Linux

I am not sure about that oculus thing I think I'd feel a right [censored] strapping that onto my head

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

I am not sure about that oculus thing I think I'd feel a right [censored] strapping that onto my head

Yeah, in public for sure but in the comfort of your own home? Who cares?

Totally with you in hoping MS' OS dominance for the only real choice of gaming OS wanes with SteamOS. Complacency isn't good for innovation: Microsoft need some healthy competition so I hope Valve and Linux can give it to 'em.

I have firm hopes the Steam controller will be a success and feel confident in the future of haptic feedback though it remains to be seen if the two trackpads will be a good substitute for proper analogue stick controls. I'm sure they'll get their eventually - there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with force feedback*.

*Whoah nelly! Restrain yourself.

Like Dick

Haha. I do love how innovative the controller is and who knows maybe it will work well... exciting times in the world of gaming anyway that's for sure

Wonder how easy it will be to develop for - will Valve provide all the usual libraries (or access to them), or will those sort of things be off-limits...

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-Jan-14 00:53:11)

Couldn't open your link Timey, so apologies if this duplicates it, but more detailed info here.

The Alienware and CyberPowerPC ones look the best.

Edited by astateoftrance (Sun 12-Jan-14 11:21:01)

If Moore's law still applies then upgradable gaming machines is the only way to go as the xbone and PS4 are going to be out dated much faster than their predecessors

It worked just when i tried it Nelly

Don't personally think we will see another type console like the Playstation 4 or Xbox One as it will be all digitally downloaded and cloud based.

Only time will tell how successful these machines will be but a threat to Sony and Microsoft i don't think so based on the reveal and price point and structure offered so far.

That seems quite likely the way things are going...as we have seen at CES Sony will already be launching their game streaming service this year, unlikely it will be perfect yet but in 7+ years time it should be. Then it won't be a case of which console to go for but which company to subscribe to.

Yeah I agree Sony and Microsoft won't be worried, Valve have gone about it all wrong if they wanted to take on the consoles.

What happened to the little box you fitted to the rear wall mount bracket holes on the back of your TV? That was a neat plan, unlike all these set top box designs.

you agree with me now then that is the last proper console gen?

There will be another generation. I can't imagine the next 5-7 years seeing worldwide Internet connections changing to fast fibre. It was the same argument for disc based games disappearing, but I believe it is still too early from a global perspective. I also don't believe transmission technology in it's current form will ever "reliably" support streaming services. By reliably, I mean with low enough latency to satisfy hardcore gamers. Platforming maybe, which is what I think Sony are likely banking on for casual take up.

Who knows, there may be a revolution in technology next week, next month or next year, but economically I suspect mass coverage (and uptake) of super fast services will not be an overly high priority in much of Europe.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

What happened to the little box you fitted to the rear wall mount bracket holes on the back of your TV? That was a neat plan, unlike all these set top box designs.

I think you mean the Xi3 Piston. Really neat bit of kit I wouldn't mind one of those for a desktop computer. It's already available at $999. It's not a official Steambox but you can install SteamOS or any other OS you want on it.

I wonder why Valve didn't officially partner with them ?

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

What happened to the little box you fitted to the rear wall mount bracket holes on the back of your TV? That was a neat plan, unlike all these set top box designs.

I think you mean the Xi3 Piston. Really neat bit of kit I wouldn't mind one of those for a desktop computer. It's already available at $999. It's not a official Steambox but you can install SteamOS or any other OS you want on it.

I wonder why Valve didn't officially partner with them ?

Loving the look of that!!

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

I think you mean the Xi3 Piston. Really neat bit of kit I wouldn't mind one of those for a desktop computer. It's already available at $999. It's not a official Steambox but you can install SteamOS or any other OS you want on it.

I wonder why Valve didn't officially partner with them ?

The future of consoles has to be making them upgradable. It's rediculas to have hardware that you're going to be stuck with for maybe 7 years.
I imagine PS5 will be out in a couple of years otherwise Sony etc will be left behind

I disagree, a upgradable console would essentially be a PC. What makes them great is that you do not need to upgrade them and you know any game will run fine. All the specifications being the same also allows developers to maximise their potential, just look how amazing GTA 5 is on a 7 year old machine.

Exactly and the game that takes up all of Swanny Time ?

Imagine what we going to see in the next 12/18 months if not before

well cloud gaming doesnt need fast connections, there is no downloading gigs of data, it just needs reliable connectivity with decent latency.

Who knows where internet connections will be in 5-8 years time, but think how things have progressed since 2005 on connectivity.

It needs a minimum of 5Mbps. Then you will need to allow bandwidth for other users within the household. You can't have the game stuttering because somebody else is loading a content heavy website, so in real world terms 8Mbps would likely be a safer minimum.

But then our digital future will not only bring streaming game services, but also TV. My friend has 5Mbps in his little village. When his missus downloads a movie from Sky (only download, not stream) his connection is fooked and he starts warping all over the shop. So you need connections to be able to handle multiple streaming applications, which doesn't bode well for streaming gaming services for the masses. I would say a post contention 16Mbps is likely to be necessary. Doesn't BT promise not to drop below a minimum of 15 or 16Mbps on their normal fibre connections? That suggests to me their anticipated built in capacity for multiple streaming in modern homes.

And when I say "our" digital future, I mean of course Europe. Sony as a worldwide corporation is unlikely to ignore emerging markets. MS might (and almost did) because their predominant xbox markets are the US and UK.

I believe we have at least one more generation to come after this one, maybe ten years, before the cloud can realistically become the norm for hardware operations, rather than simply storage.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

I believe we have at least one more generation to come after this one,

I believe in Father Christmas

You were Father Christmas this year...

Tell me about it

Been thinking about this a while now and I think you are probably right that there will be another generation after this one. I also cannot see broadband coverage being good enough in this country let alone in other places. With the cost of developing games they really don't want to limit their audience.

To one little boy at least...

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

With the cost of developing games they really don't want to limit their audience.

That's very true! So, we should deduce that game makers will try and do the opposite... which I guess means a proliferation of platforms with more of a focus on opening up new markets on a range of devices: mobile, tv etc. It's all about the money...

And I still don't believe that reaction based gameplay will work on a streaming service for decades at least, competitive or not.

Remember that lag today manifests itself with innacurate results, due to the game running locally on the client machine. With streaming, the lag will surely manifest itself in terms of actions, i.e. input lag. It's one thing the scores/results not mimicking the on screen action, but obvious input lag would be a non starter for me. Unless you stopped playing games locally, how would you ever get used to the delay? It may be minimal, but if not consistent it would surely be very noticeable.

Contrary to recent trumpeting, I think it will be a long time before streaming establishes itself as a contender in the hardcore gaming market.

Or two.