Valve Announces "Steam Machines"

[yogi_berra]

It's amazing to see that many Linux users now think that Valve actually owes them something that they didn't know existed 3 days ago...

It's genius marketing on Valve's part. They hype a "console" that will act as a remote client to a windows box, barely mentioning that fact. I can't wait until it's released and people are whining about the "lag" on their 54Mbps network.

[AJSB]

It doesn't sound like it's going to be an NVIDIA exclusive. Valve made it sound more like they're going to have a whole bunch of different stuff.

I didn't said that, i'm sure there will be 3rd party SB with AMD APUs and we ourselves can do whatever we want.

I'm only referring to the one "made" by Valve itself.

[johnc]

I didn't said that, i'm sure there will be 3rd party SB with AMD APUs and we ourselves can do whatever we want.

I'm only referring to the one "made" by Valve itself.

I guess I was just misinterpreting this:


What are the specs of the Valve prototype?
We'll tell you more about it soon. Remember, there will ultimately be several boxes to choose from, with an array of specifications, price, and performance.


To mean that they had a variety of different vendors being sourced.

But I think it's more likely that you're right about NVIDIA being the go-to GPU solution.

[AJSB]

It's genius marketing on Valve's part. They hype a "console" that will act as a remote client to a windows box, barely mentioning that fact. I can't wait until it's released and people are whining about the "lag" on their 54Mbps network.

Well, i have ZERO interest in streaming, be it local like in SB or via Net like in a PS4.
If i can install WINE in SteamOS for non-native games, fine, if not, dual boot will solve problem of legacy games.

...and in this case dual boot doesn't mean necessarily SteamOS + Window$...
...might be SteamOS + Insert_name_of_Linux_distro_that_can_use_WINE.

[mike4]

So now we know that the third announcement is a controller

baah I was hoping for some new titles in the last announcement. Half live 3, cs go etc.

[johnc]

Tom's Hardware claims that they know what the third announcement is and that it's not Source 2.

So who knows what that means.

But a new game release would seem to imply a Source 2 announcement. So it's unlikely a game announcement.

[JulFX]

Don?t guess here, there are facts available: (in german... sorry)
http://www.golem.de/news/playstation-4-dank-guenstiger-bauteile-nur-60-dollar-verlust-pro-konsole-1309-101716.html

in short:
- MS sells it with a win of unknown height
- Sony at a loss of about 60$
- sony bases its console on FreeBSD (thats a Unix, similar to linux)
- MS bases its console on the windows kernel + a new xbox kernel + hypervisor

so both and valve should have similar developement costs for the operating systems. it will come down to the hardware. valve may subsidise it as sony or sell it at a higher price as MS. we?ll see

I don't read German, but other expert seems to think that they are making profit from start on PS4:

"I think they are almost certainly making a profit there," industry analyst Michael Pachter explained. "A $399 retail price tag is about $370-375 at wholesale... our add up on the costs of materials is about $325, so I think they make a little bit of money, $25-55. And I think Sony has to make a profit, the corporation is not doing well financially, I don't think there'd be any tolerance internally to sell anything at a loss."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-09-19-sony-sets-ps4-sales-target-of-5-million-units-by-march-2014

[Greijoan]

According to this "leak":

http://rowango.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/valve-news.jpg

it will be Source2 plus Left 4 Dead 3.

"Proof" for L4D3: http://imgur.com/a/b5dIf/noscript on the "Valve changelog history?" photo.

Also, I agree - this is info from 4chan. Not exactly a trustworthy source! And who am I to know what the real truth is? Nobody. So I can't assure anything.

[Kamikaze]

But I think it's more likely that you're right about NVIDIA being the go-to GPU solution.

This isn't directly targeted at you johnc but just continuing on with your train of thought.

Everyone knows already that Valve is trying to make sure they have an alternative platform for Steam to run on, where they won't have to worry about being locked out due to software restrictions imposed by say, the Windows Store, in the future.

So far this seems like a genius way of ensuring hardware manufacturers increase their driver support for GNU/Linux by way of the SteamMachine. By making SteamOS completely open and encouraging other hardware companies to produce their own implementations of the SteamMachine, it means that there's more incentive for AMD, NVIDIA and Intel - not to mention all the other hardware peripheral companies - to invest more heavily in Linux.

This seems like an awesome move by Valve...

[BreezeDM]

o = steamOS
[o ] = steambox
[o+o] = steamOS + mantle(or Nvidia flavor low level API)

If they aren't announcing Source 2, then maybe they are announcing support for Mantle or another low level hardware api with nvidia or possibly both.