Valve Reveals Steam Machines Program, Protoype Testing

[back_by_demand]

Steve, you have convinced me, if SteamOS is a walled garden and they drop Windows as a platform, forcing people to switch OS to game - that will kill PC gaming dead in less than a year

 

[stevejnb]

Meh, I may be overreacting, but... If Valve is proposing an OS in which gaming is solely tied to the Steam platform, this is *bad* for open gaming. That is, if it picks up well...

Steam is an awesome service. I use it because I can get a lot of games I want for it inexpensively and the DRM is not unobtrusive (though I've been bitching in the forums for YEARS that they make an invisible mode that lets me play games online without people seeing what I'm doing). The problem comes when it is the ONLY way to play games for a whole OS... If this is what they're planning, then the Steam service has essentially been a Trojan horse to get people liking the system so they can unobtrusively come in and tie PC gaming to their service.

It may seem not so bad since Steam does have a relatively open platform, but, I play games online like Magic the Gathering Online, and Uncharted Waters Online, and Tribal Wars, all of which have their own rather distinctive distribution methods which probably wouldn't gel with Steam. Or maybe they would - I don't know... But having all gaming software on a whole OS put under Valve's roof is *very* far from what the PC gaming I love is.

My hope is that this is just a console competitor, because it is very much creeping up on the console market scheme of having everything on the platform beholden to one company - be it MS, Sony, Nintendo, or Valve in the future. This is not the PC gaming where any guy with a vision and a computer can program something, stick it on a web page or a torrent file and have it spread around.

 

[cypeq]

@SteveJNB if steamOS will follow this black scenario, I for sure will not jump on it. If the performance gain claims will be true it's still valid option for games I run using steam.

On the black scenario steamOS is just steam console running PC architecture.

 

[stevejnb]

I will be curious to see whether it does. Reading the SteamOS webpage, it mentions several times about being "built around" Steam and centered on it. Simply put, we need more information, but I'm going to pay careful attention to just how they intend to deal with games for SteamOS that don't actually run through Steam.

As a, as you say, "Steam console running PC architecture" it could be great for a dual boot option or for a dedicated gaming machine. It would just be a travesty to PC gaming for it to overtake PC gaming as we know it now, if that's what it ends up being.

Very curious... With this overwhelmingly positive response though, I *really* hope that people take a step back and assess it carefully before they proclaim it the saviour of PC gaming. This thing may be a walled garden OS is sheep's clothing, so to speak. That is not what PC gaming is about.

 

[jrstriker12]

Oye, well, this is all based on incomplete knowledge on my part. The SteamOS website makes it *sound* like the whole thing is centered on Steam. If this is the case, how could any of you possibly believe this is going to "save" PC gaming or bring it forward in the spirit of what PC gaming has been for decades?

Since the internet hit a sweet spot of fast and cheap, we've seen some really incredible things happen in PC gaming. People focus so much on the loss of big AAA type developers from the 90's to consoles that they've missed that there is this massive and varied spectrum of PC gaming out there from dozens upon dozens of smaller companies and developers producing distributing, and publishing games in just about every way you can think of. From Indie games to weird Asian consortiums offering dozens of free to play MMO's to shockingly developed web browser games, PC gaming is a bustling mosaic of gaming not sitting under any single organizational body or set of rules. This is why it's great and why it offers something very distinct from the console or App Store type environment.

If SteamOS really is "Steam or nothing" this is exactly what I'd assumed PC gamers have been opposed to for years - the movement towards there being a unified service through which all games on the PC must be distributed through, all run by one company. These are the people who have been complaining about walled gardens from MS and Apple and whatnot and, to my shock and surprise, they are looking in at what may well be a Valve run walled garden that says "Yeah, we want to become PC gaming" and their reaction is to say "HUZZAH! Our saviours have arrived!" Steam is all good and fine when it is one service on an OS that allows for developers of all sorts to develop and distribute any way they want, but if it is built into an OS and is the only show in town on that OS? That is *horrible* for PC gaming as a truly open platform, if that OS were to ever get a stranglehold on PC gaming.

If SteamOS demands that every game on it be run through Steam, run for your lives. This is the step that MS has NEVER taken and I am shocked that anyone who actually gives a rat's arse about the PC as a truly open gaming platform would be so short sighted as to hope this thing actually makes a huge dent in the PC gaming world. This is a neat service that I doubt I'll avoid, but it if is a Steam only OS, I desperately hope that it never takes a majority of the PC gaming marketshare.

I will be curious to see whether it does. Reading the SteamOS webpage, it mentions several times about being "built around" Steam and centered on it. Simply put, we need more information, but I'm going to pay careful attention to just how they intend to deal with games for SteamOS that don't actually run through Steam.

As a, as you say, "Steam console running PC architecture" it could be great for a dual boot option or for a dedicated gaming machine. It would just be a travesty to PC gaming for it to overtake PC gaming as we know it now, if that's what it ends up being.

Very curious... With this overwhelmingly positive response though, I *really* hope that people take a step back and assess it carefully before they proclaim it the saviour of PC gaming. This thing may be a walled garden OS is sheep's clothing, so to speak. That is not what PC gaming is about.

Would Valve really totally cut out the windows community considering how much money they have made off of selling games to people running Windows PCs? Would they miss out on sales if some of the larger game publishers produce large games and don't offer SteamOS support?

At least initially, windows will still have a very big presence as steam machines and steam OS will have the ability to stream non-steamOS games from a windows PC to your TV.

As I said earlier in this thread, I'm not sold yet. I also don't see how having some sort of dual boot Win/SteamOS situation is going to be a very positive experience just to run steam games if I don't decide to spend more money on a other PC "aka Steam Machine" for my living room.

 

[stevejnb]

Jrstriker,

Take a look at the initial reaction from Tom's - and these are just a few of the many, many quotes of this like on the matter:

Anyway, a slap in Microsoft's face is welcome, they need to get out of the comfort zone and realise they can't take their main business for granted.

While this is something to look foward to, one has to wonder how much of it is actually true. If you work for the largest gaming distribution company and that company is trying to expand into Linux, it is expected that you should create some fuss about it.

Excellent I hope this is true! The main reason I run windows is for gaming.

Ditto that. As soon as someone comes out with a virtualized gaming GPU ill probably make the switch to linux and just keep a virtualized windows install for old games. Then i can keep windows locked in the dungeon like the gimp.

I want a world that uses Linux.
It would benefit everyone.

Seeing how Microsoft seem to have turned their back on PC gaming, why not!?

Have to find time to give it a try.

Sweet beans, I'm going to download it when I'm home tonight!

Gabe was talking linux but this... omg... wow... If this will be true ping and performance wise I am installing. Only thing that was stopping me from leaving windows for good were games. Go Go Gabe!

Is this the dawning of a new era?
Will opening a Linux floodgate help or hurt the economy?
Theres no way to put the genie back in the bottle but this seems like a wish come true!

Considering this reaction, well, the SteamOS website claims that they have over 50 million Steam users and that they have support from hardware and software companies getting hundreds of games running on SteamOS. If their sole goal was to create a sort of streaming service from Windows PC's, creating their own OS and getting all of that Linux compatibility support would not in any way be necessary, since they could just stick with games for Windows and focus on streaming. But they *have* gone so far as to make their OS and get Windows free support for hundreds of games, as is their website's claim...

You said it - "windows will still have a very big presence." Initially, wonderful... If SteamOS represents walled-garden PC gaming, where every single game that comes to the platform has to run on Steam, what happens after that initial period if SteamOS becomes a PC gaming standard? And again, look at the initial reaction. Not one concern for what PC gaming being tied to Steam could mean, and a lot of "ZOMG we must destroy Windows they have PC gaming!" mentality.

Sadly, Windows is the reason we have open PC gaming at the moment, continuing an OS philosophy carried from the DOS days and before. Depending on how Valve plays SteamOS, it is a *threat* to open PC gaming as we know it, because SteamOS might mean "Valve has control over all PC development." Wonderful if this basically becomes another brand of console, but if this actually infringes onto the realm of Steam free PC game development? That is not a good thing.

 

[back_by_demand]

Would Valve really totally cut out the windows community considering how much money they have made off of selling games to people running Windows PCs?

Gabe has made no bones about it, he is not very subtle, about trash talking Windows. He hasn't been very specific about what it is and people have filled in the blanks but his non-argument negativity looks rather childish. When people are unprofessional there is no telling what they are likely to do.

 

[urbanman2004]

I would be willing to purchase one of those Steam boxes since I'm mainly into PC gaming but for Valve to compete with consoles it's system is gonna have to be at a comparable price point against the next gen consoles with functionality to back it up (valuable to the end user).

 

[ricky_d]

ricky_d, it may be Linux but no details if you can get into it or if it uses Linux as a base for a front end that you can't modify - when we know more we can say more, but even if it is boxed off they should have some baked in add-ons to enable such as Hulu, Netflix, etc - something akin to XBMC would be perfect

It would be stupid not to.

 

[back_by_demand]

ricky_d, it may be Linux but no details if you can get into it or if it uses Linux as a base for a front end that you can't modify - when we know more we can say more, but even if it is boxed off they should have some baked in add-ons to enable such as Hulu, Netflix, etc - something akin to XBMC would be perfect

It would be stupid not to.

Yeah, that's kind of my point