Steam Machines now available for pre-order

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Plenty of major manufactures seem to have some interest in the idea.

Wow, a $5k steam machine! I don't even understand ....

The main point of Steam machines, from Valve's point of view, is simply to free themselves from Microsoft. With the Windows Store, and now with increased XBone/Windows integration, they are showing signs of becoming a walled-garden, much like Apple's and Google's app stores. They could kill Steam off, and Valve doesn't like that possibility.

Steam machines are really just about turning Linux into solid gaming platform - so that people can have great gaming PCs without needing Windows. Within that, there will be as much variation from entry level to insane high end as there is with typical Windows PCs.

The prices are all over the place. Some of the machines are 100-200$ more expensive while being weaker in overall hardware. Some are just plain ugly and big, very little effort has been put into them.

Overall the 500$ versions are pretty weak and will have problems running games today, not to mention next year (these are supposed to be sold in Fall of 2015, hardware now will be 6+ months older), but XboxOne and PS4 is now less than 500$ already.

I see a bit uphill battle here. I would rather Valve made their own machine (in cooperation with anyone), made it cheaper on purpose and then took 1% more for sales of games for them.

Valve are playing the long game, I think. They know perfectly well that this will not be an overnight success. They will bide their time and slowly grow the platform. They want to develop a market for it, not compete with their own hardware partners. The market will shake out any poor-value boxes.

If they launched it as the Valve Machine, to compete directly with the consoles, I wouldn't fancy its chances right now. I think Valve has their eye on what comes next.

How would you not value their chances?! It would be stronger than consoles and offer more and better games with the superior controllers and same or similar price for device.
Now they will only offer more games but the price will be similar to standard PC and much more than consoles and they will not compete with either. Why would PC users buy it when you can probably make you own custom computer for less money and keep using Windows and WIn10 with DX12 that will work as well as SteamOS. Why would console players buy an super expensive machine and then buy AAA games as same price as for their fav console when they can get a cheaper console that already does what they want.

Only real market for them is the basic PC user that always just buys prebuild PCs and knows shit about building one. And they still need to chose to abandon all windows games that don't work on Steam OS.

It's a plain bad deal and it locks you in Valve's walled garden. No thanks, the PC is about freedom.

There is no way desktop goes away.

Archangel said:

How would you not value their chances?!

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Probably for the same reasons that Valve don't. I don't think they are stupid, and I don't think they are primarily interested in getting into the hardware or pseudo-console business. You must not underestimate the entrenched advantage of the big consoles, their inertia and wide recognition. I don't think a Linux-based mini PC would do well in a straight fight with them right now, and Valve knows it too.

What Valve really needs to achieve is to turn Linux into a viable OS for gamers - Steam machines are just a means to that end, and it's going to take a long time. Let's imagine that in a couple of years, all games are generally released for Linux. If you are self-builder, or a system vendor, you could pay for an OEM Windows licence for your gaming PCs, or you could install Linux at zero cost, and customise it to your liking. The cost of a Steam Linux system will always be lower on the same hardware, once the market settles down. The back catalogue of old, incompatible games becomes less and less significant over time.

With regard to Valve creating a walled garden, that's going to be very difficult with an open source platform under the GPL. SteamOS isn't even out of beta, and it's already been forked by users into Stephenson's Rocket OS. Expect to see full desktop distros that are SteamOS compatible.

The problem with this thread is we are PC gamers. I have been one for longer then I care to remember. We think our @#$% don't stink when it comes to games and the platform we play them on.

Whom am I to say we are wrong, I agree PC is the only way to play games. So how would this ever get a fair shake here.

CelticFrost said:

The problem with this thread is we are PC gamers. I have been one for longer then I care to remember. We think our @#$% don't stink when it comes to games and the platform we play them on.

Whom am I to say we are wrong, I agree PC is the only way to play games. So how would this ever get a fair shake here.

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Well, I should probably better explain my interest in this, as it is the future of the PC platform that interests me, too.

I agree wholeheartedly that the PC is about freedom and flexibility. But, the absolute monopoly of Microsoft's proprietary OS surely runs counter to those values. I want to see competition and choice - not just in hardware and applications, but in operating systems too.

Steam machines are not about an alternative to PCs - they are PCs. Valve has a strategy to use the promise of easy PC gaming in the living room to help develop a userbase and market for Linux, as an alternative to Windows. They want to ensure that no single company can ever have total control of the PC platform, and thus dictate their fate. Valve is not doing away with the desktop. In fact, SteamOS ships with a full desktop option - you just have to activate it in the settings.

I am no great fan of Steam, nor particularly interested in these pre-built Steam Machines, but Valve's objectives happen to be in line with mine, in this case. If mainstream Linux gaming becomes a reality (and it's already well underway), then I think this will improve the future of the PC platform, and PC gaming.

I guess it says something of my age that every time I see threads like this one I have to remind myself that, no, it's not that type of machinery I sometimes played with as a kid.

Pibbur who thinks that next thing may very well be playing with lego on computers.

pibbur who said:

I guess it says something of my age that every time I see threads like this one I have to remind myself that, no, it's not that type of machinery I sometimes played with as a kid.

Pibbur who thinks that next thing may very well be playing with lego on computers.

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I think it would have been great if Valve called them Steam Engines! Why wouldn't they?