Valve Announces "Steam Machines"

[Kristian Joensen]

So now we know that the third announcement is a controller

No, we don't KNOW any such thing. Soon could be before Friday or after Friday. There are plenty of things they mention we will get to know soon(specs, pricing info, etc). Sure controller info on Friday is one likely possibility. But it is just that a possibility.

[Pajn]

No, we don't KNOW any such thing. Soon could be before Friday or after Friday. There are plenty of things they mention we will get to know soon(specs, pricing info, etc). Sure controller info on Friday is one likely possibility. But it is just that a possibility.

The others are just "soon" controller is "very soon".

[sarmad]

aargh, I was hoping for more info, but here is the list of info we got from the announcement:
1- Steam machines are PCs, not consoles. You can build your own Steam machine and you can use a Valve steam machine as a regular PC.
2- You can use mouse/keyboard or game pads. So, again, it's still the PC you know.
3- Steam OS is open source. Not much info here, but it gives the indication that the amount of closed elements are minimal, at least, not more closed than a current Linux/Steam client configuration.
4- There will be multiple configurations.
5- At least some of those configurations are "powerful".
6- The release is next year, with prototypes coming out this year.

And here is what I'm guessing:
1- There will be Steam machines on the level of PS4 and XB1 with a similar, or lower, price points.
2- There will be Steam machines that will blow the PS4 out of the water in terms of power.
3- Steam machines will have Nvidia GPUs. Why do I think so? Because Nvidia made some statements earlier this year against consoles and that PCs are the way to go, which indicates that they could've had a deal with Valve. Nvidia also paid more attention to their Linux drivers lately and their surprise move few days ago to open their GPU documentations also points in this direction.

Overall, I think I'm gonna revert my decision to get a PS4. I might finally become a PC gamer.

[BreezeDM]

Friday will be about a controller because that is sure to be underwhelming to us tech news junkies(pessimism). I am hoping they drop a bomb on us and say HL3 confirmed with Source 2.

[Serge]

aargh, I was hoping for more info, but here is the list of info we got from the announcement:
1- Steam machines are PCs, not consoles. You can build your own Steam machine and you can use a Valve steam machine as a regular PC.
2- You can use mouse/keyboard or game pads. So, again, it's still the PC you know.
3- Steam OS is open source. Not much info here, but it gives the indication that the amount of closed elements are minimal, at least, not more closed than a current Linux/Steam client configuration.
4- There will be multiple configurations.
5- At least some of those configurations are "powerful".
6- The release is next year, with prototypes coming out this year.

And here is what I'm guessing:
1- There will be Steam machines on the level of PS4 and XB1 with a similar, or lower, price points.
2- There will be Steam machines that will blow the PS4 out of the water in terms of power.
3- Steam machines will have Nvidia GPUs. Why do I think so? Because Nvidia made some statements earlier this year against consoles and that PCs are the way to go, which indicates that they could've had a deal with Valve. Nvidia also paid more attention to their Linux drivers lately and their surprise move few days ago to open their GPU documentations also points in this direction.

Overall, I think I'm gonna revert my decision to get a PS4. I might finally become a PC gamer.

Why do you believe that Steam Machines will be performance-to-price competitive with the PS4 and XB1? Those consoles are being manufactured in massive scale. Do you really feel that the use of commodity hardware will be enough to overcome that advantage?

[BreezeDM]

Link to patent for controller by valve

[Guest]

3- Steam machines will have Nvidia GPUs. Why do I think so? Because Nvidia made some statements earlier this year against consoles and that PCs are the way to go, which indicates that they could've had a deal with Valve. Nvidia also paid more attention to their Linux drivers lately and their surprise move few days ago to open their GPU documentations also points in this direction.

This suggests there will be Intel (without additional graphic card) configurations as well: Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.

[Guest]

Why do you believe that Steam Machines will be performance-to-price competitive with the PS4 and XB1? Those consoles are being manufactured in massive scale. Do you really feel that the use of commodity hardware will be enough to overcome that advantage?

Does it matter so much? Steam Machines will be much more powerful, that's for sure. Steambox will unite the easiness of consoles and power of computers.

[sarmad]

Why do you believe that Steam Machines will be performance-to-price competitive with the PS4 and XB1? Those consoles are being manufactured in massive scale. Do you really feel that the use of commodity hardware will be enough to overcome that advantage?

No, but the price for PS4 and XB1 should also cover the investments MS and Sony make on their OSes, whereas Steam is picking up a free OS. Also, the use of commodity hardware should help reduce the price.

[sarmad]

This suggests there will be Intel (without additional graphic card) configurations as well: Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.

Agree. Intel is a good player in the open source world, so it's only logical for Valve to target them.