Steam Machines revealed

[Dungeoneer]

I love me some Steam. I've always been a PC gamer at heart, and Steam has brought many of the good things about console gaming to the PC. So I've been very interested in Valve's development of a 'Steam machine' for the living room.

This week at CES, Valve has officially unveiled not one, not two, but thirteen Steam Machines. You can take a look here.

Prices aren't announced for all the machines yet, but for those that are they are pretty much in line with what you'd expect to pay if you bought a gaming rig with moderate specs. Which seems fair, although I worry that people's point of comparison is not going to be so much a gaming rig as an XBox One.

What do you think?

 

[Janx]

I love me some Steam. I've always been a PC gamer at heart, and Steam has brought many of the good things about console gaming to the PC. So I've been very interested in Valve's development of a 'Steam machine' for the living room.

This week at CES, Valve has officially unveiled not one, not two, but thirteen Steam Machines. You can take a look here.

Prices aren't announced for all the machines yet, but for those that are they are pretty much in line with what you'd expect to pay if you bought a gaming rig with moderate specs. Which seems fair, although I worry that people's point of comparison is not going to be so much a gaming rig as an XBox One.

What do you think?

Yup. My point of comparison is with a gaming console's pricing. That's too dang much money for a video game machine.

 

[Deset Gled]

Yup. My point of comparison is with a gaming console's pricing. That's too dang much money for a video game machine.

Well, the low end ones are priced about the same as the newest consoles. But it's not just about the cost of the hardware. It's also the cost of the games. When you use you Steam Machine on TV, you bring your whole Steam library with you. It could be quite economical to spend an extra $500 on hardware if it gives you access to a $1000 backlog of games.

It's kinda the same thing that Apple and Android smartphones users are starting to run into: once you put enough money into the ecosystem, the cost of the hardware is minimal compared to what you already have invested.

Personally, my main concern is heat. If I were to buy one of these, the main requirement is that it would run in my closed media cabinet (safe from kids). That's one of the main reasons I decided to go with an Android box over an HTPC during my last upgrade.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Well, the low end ones are priced about the same as the newest consoles. But it's not just about the cost of the hardware. It's also the cost of the games. When you use you Steam Machine on TV, you bring your whole Steam library with you. It could be quite economical to spend an extra $500 on hardware if it gives you access to a $1000 backlog of games.

Not necessarily. Steam Boxes run the SteamOS, which is a fork of Linux. Very few games in the Steam library are currently compiled for Linux. That may change, but it's unlikely that you will instantly have access to your entire game library if you buy a Steambox.

 

[Deset Gled]

Not necessarily. Steam Boxes run the SteamOS, which is a fork of Linux. Very few games in the Steam library are currently compiled for Linux. That may change, but it's unlikely that you will instantly have access to your entire game library if you buy a Steambox.

Currently, no, but the more games that release SteamOS versions, the more valuable a Steambox will become. Contrast this to a traditional game system, where buying a new-gen version of an older game can cost a lot of money.

Of course, this is based on the assumption that when you purchase a Windows (or Mac or whatever) game on Steam, you would also gain access to the SteamOS version if it was later released (or already available). This may not be accurate; I haven't been paying that much attention.

 

[Janx]

Not necessarily. Steam Boxes run the SteamOS, which is a fork of Linux. Very few games in the Steam library are currently compiled for Linux. That may change, but it's unlikely that you will instantly have access to your entire game library if you buy a Steambox.

Thats one of the points I didn't have time to raise in my prior posts as well.

A Steam box running Windows with its shell locked into the Steam launcher would be "perfect"

Running linux, not so much as the linux quanity of titles is limited.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

You can also build your own.

I'm digging the SteamBox