Sony Says It Will Keep an Eye on Valve's SteamOS

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Sony has nothing to worry about, PS4 will be a huge hit, and last just as long as the PS3. Consumers love simplicity, and that will be what the PS4 provides besides a ton of gaming and media features all in a nice package for only 400 dollars.
 
After reading this I have to wonder.. Did the Sony UK boss channel his inner Palpatine with that last line? lol

Valve is a very impressive company, and obviously we're going to be watching what they do with great interest
 
SteamOS sounds to be linux based, this is likely going to be limited tonjust games built with openGL and/or ported to linux. This would be a much larger threat if it supported any windows based game (opengl/directx) without any need for conversion/porting. This platform choice will likely limit SteamOS game library. Regular steam running in big box mode sitting in your entertainment center would be a much bigger threat to Microsoft and Sony.
 
I wonder how upgradeable the steam box will be, the size seems to point so design changes such as custom cooling solutions and overall the thermal limits, (eg upgradeable GPU's on the old alienware laptops failed because it was difficult to get new and faster GPU's that match the thermal limits of the old GPU, and thus, upgrades were minute and expensive.

For the steam box to be successful, I should be able to buy any component that is upgradeable from a normal computer parts store, eg I should be able to go to newegg and buy a GTX 770 and install it into the steam box and have it work.

Other than that, I can see the steam box being used for convenient PC gaming for novice users. for example, if there are different tiers of steam box (allowing for different price points but same or similar hardware at each price point, then steam can have special profiles (kinda like how the crappy nvidia geforce experience works, but actually work correctly) . Steam can test each game and go through all of the settings and from a humans perspective, create custom settings that balances the best looks with acceptable frame rates. (most game presets now will not balance the settings properly (eg on limited hardware, on some games, the medium preset may offer 50FPS but look like crap, but a user using a mixture of low, medium, and high settings will maintain the same frame rate, but have the game look much better where it counts.)
 
Seriously, Sony you need not worry. You guys just spoiled the party for xBox.

While for gaming PC would always be better, but the PS4 provides awesome features and performance for $400 and at a budget the PS4 would always be better just because it is Awesome for the price and way ahead of what it is competing with (yes, Microsoft, it is you.)

Anyways, continue the awesomeness, you guys are pretty good at yhe stuff.
 
Kevin, Piston is crap, why are you even mentioning it in the article? You are making a laughing stock of yourself. Just compare it to the specs of the test machines to be distributed by Valve - none of them have integrated graphics as Piston.
 
I'm not sure why everyone is making such a big deal about the fact that the Steambox doesn't play Windows games. Do the other consoles play Windows games? No. In fact, the Steamboxes will come with a larger library of games on day 1 than any console. Since all of the systems are x86, porting games really shouldn't be that difficult. In fact, the PS4 OS is very similar to Linux already.

I'm not sure if it's the fault of Valve or the press, but this thing is getting marketed as an alternative to the Windows PC, and not the consoles which it competes more closely with. Think of this as a console that you can customize and build to your own tastes, not a PC. It's targeted at your couch and the living room.
 


Well, with a price tag of a 1000$ for a PC that's equipped with an AMD APU, it ain't gonna sell itself you know!
 
For double the cost of a console, I would hope I am stuck with the same hardware for all that time, because if I needed to upgrade at an extra expense I might as well build my own gaming PC for half the cost and upgrade along the way
 
Seriously is Xi3 paying Kevin Parrish to mention the piston in every vaguely connected story as part of their deceptive marketing? It doesn't "pack a punch" and isn't suitable for gaming, particularly at that price. Please stop exaggerating it's performance and linking it to Valve's steam machines when we don't even know if it is one.
 


JD, my personal issue is this... When you buy a console, you more or less get at least the promise of exclusive games distinct from what you can get on a PC. Currently, does the Steambox do *anything* that a PC running Steam can't already do, other than skip the licensing fee for Windows an play a small fraction of Steam's actual games? It has no exclusive titles to differentiate it unless Valve does something crazy like making HL3 SteamOS exclusive.

 
The steam systems discussed so far seem either less powerful than a PS4 (piston) or like nothing except a full sized PC with same cost and energy use. In the USA running two PCs might be viable (but still wasteful) but in much of the world energy costs more and you would be looking at 4-500 dollars a year to run it..... On top of that you are only saving 125 dollars or so by using Linux instead of Windows 8....

In either case the cost is hundreds more than a console.... But possibly without many of the controllers which make consoles a success to start with....

While I wouldn't write this off entirely, I do not see it being widely adopted. Maybe if some other big players get on board, then it would be more interesting (such as Google bringing full Android support to the x86)
 


I think that remains to be seen. We don't know if it will carry exclusives or not. I think this argument falls back into the idea of console vs PC. The only thing that makes this any different from the PS4 or Xbone is the fact that it is user customizable, which now doesn't seem like that big of an advantage but wait a couple years when the consoles are showing their age.

What this offers is console stability and to some degree optimization without the drawbacks that normally come with owning a console such as being a lot less powerful than the gaming PC after a few years. )

If Valve can offer a Steambox that offers compatible performance to the new consoles for $500-600, this thing will win. If not, it might bust. I think it can be done though.
 


You are right, it does remain to be seen. Seeing as the main selling point is the running of Steam though, and the massive installed base of Steam on the PC, I wouldn't be much surprised if they skipped acquiring "console" exclusive type games and just stuck with releasing games. Who knows - there may be SteamOS exclusives. I'm rather surprised that they hadn't mentioned this with their initial announcement, because it was a pretty comprehensive announcement.

Console stability... It has it in one sense, yes, but another part of "console stability" is the ability of a console to run any game released for said console. If you bought a PS3 or XBOX 360 on day one of its life cycle, it could run Grand Theft Auto V. With a few very minor exceptions - things like the memory pack in the N64 - this is a staple of console games, and something many console gamers expect. Will this be true of a Steambox? Possible, if there will be "generations" of Steamboxes. Is that likely though, seeing as they already seem upgradeable? And therein lies both a detriment and a boon. I could buy the best Steambox released on day one and, six years from now, would it run every game released for the OS? I wouldn't hold my breath even four years from now, and three years from now it would probably be on life support. That's assuming I bought the one with the Titan in it and, how much is that going to cost do you figure?

Simply put, hardware uniformity is both a strength and a weakness of a console, but it plays into one of the greatest strengths of the console - the "no hassle" element of it. You tell some snot-nosed teenager who doesn't really like fiddling with computers that Steambox will always be the best if he installs new hardware in it like he would do on a PC and... Is that going to appeal to him or her?

We'll see all around. There is a lot of speculation on this line of products and this OS at this point. I could see it being a notable success or an astounding failure. I could also see - as you know - it becoming a Trojan horse for turning PC gaming into a walled garden environment if it is limited to Steam games and it really picks up. I'm hopeful but skeptical.... I may finally find a compelling reason to dual boot my machine for more than a few weeks of fiddling.
 
I don't expect SteamOS to really change jack **** in the overall scheme of things. Linux has always been available, but never gained heavy gaming traction over Windows. SteamOS is just another Linux and while it's novel idea I have my doubt it'll kill of consoles nor Microsoft's Directx Windows monopoly stronghold. That being said I'd love to be completely wrong.
 
I'm more concerned about how VALVe nails the DRM thing. The PC platform was neglected this gen because PC had a high rate of piracy.
PC piracy might not be a problem in the USA but there are a lot of developing countries out there who pirate a lot.
Many AAA developers moved on to consoles and the PC platform was neglected.
Crytek shifted to consoles because of PC piracy and it screwed the Crysis franchise(if u design a game with console style gameplay that was supposed to be a PC game then it will definitely screw the game - Crysis 3)
PS3 was hard to crack and because of it , it had the highest amount of singleplayer exclusives than any other system.
Sony designed a console that was hard to crack and have singleplayer games because these developing countries also have bad internet services.
X360 had more of multiplayer oriented games and it sold more in USA since it has better internet services.
X360 was easier to crack but since it had multiplayer oriented games , very few people pirated.
But the PC its too easy to crack than any of these, and with VALVe saying that steam machine and OS is completely hackable, i don't know if AAA developers are going to support it.
I seriously do not want indie games even though i like some of them.

The only thing that has impressed me till now is the steam controller.



Well, that's what i meant.
 
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