The next big thing in console gaming is the PC: Valve’s new OS and hardware explained.

Why the Steam box makes sense and how linux is a better fit for the big screen than android.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Oh puh-leeze. There are Nintendo fanboys, Sony fanboys, Microsoft fanboys, etc., but the worst are ValveDrones.

News flash: there's more to PC gaming than Steam. Valve Corp doesn't walk on water. They're hardly a game company any more. Now they're just a "services" company that repackages a community-made mod once in a while and calls it a new game.

SteamOS is not the Second Coming of gaming. It will be a slight blip. That's all.

[JonahNL]

Someone appears to be butthurt.

[allgamespc2012]

hahaha talk about being a fanboy, damn son, you mus tbe so butthurt its not even funny, reported, lets bring those bubbles down since you have nothing but shit to say

[jeffgoldwin]

Sounds like a ms/sonyfanboy is jealous that another cult has formed.

Just be happy there are more choices, and the optimist in me says, maybe it will be fresh and improved. Not need to be such a hater.

[dedicatedtogamers]

I've been a PC gamer since the MS-DOS days, but you're right, the Valve fanbase is a cult and it's annoying to watch them hijack PC gaming and pretend Steam is all there is to gaming on a PC.

[jeffgoldwin]

"the Valve fanbase is a cult and it's annoying to watch them hijack PC gaming"

You too clearly a stealth console fanatic if u think valve has hijacked pc gaming. They almost single handedly are responsible for making pc gaming what it is today. Now crawl back under your bridge troll.

[Somebody]

What other alternatives do we PC gamers have?

MS? The guys who left the PC when their shiny box came out and buried some of the classic PC devs while doing so.

Linux? They don't have much power among the tech titans with billions in their banks.

PCGA? All they do is release stats and charts.

Valve was the only one who stayed with the PC when the 360 came out and a lot of people wished the PC to be dead. Valve is making its own hardware and OS now but it doesn't leave out the traditional PC gaming experience out in the cold.

[ATi_Elite]

@ dedicatedtogamers

I find your comment very irrational. Valve has already transformed gaming so many times on so many levels yet you make a comment like this new Valve project will be a Blip.

Let me remind you just who Valve is:

Counter Strike = which is why Online FPS are so popular

Left4Dead = which is why Zombie games are so popular

Half Life 2 = Greatest Game ever that has the gameplay most games still copy today

Steam = Valve turned World Opponent Network into Steam and revolutionized Digital Distribution and DRM

Valve started the Dev/Gamer relationship

Valve turns Modders into Devs

Valve made it EASY for Indie Devs to be successful

Steam is the reason why Sony/MS/Nintendo/EA/Ubisoft etc all have online stores and networks

Valve has been at the forefront of gaming, saved PC Gaming, and has done so with Gamers in mind and now has taken a platform mostly under the WILL of Microsoft and in a BOLD move has snatched it from Microsoft and returned it back to the Devs/Gamers.

Yet you doubt them? LOL Valve is important to Gaming as a whole and not just PC Gaming. True Valve is not the say all end all to PC GAming but they sure are the engine that drives it.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Wrong on so many counts. Counterstrike (which was not made by Valve, mind you, but by modders) was predated by online shooters like Doom (using Kali), Hexen/Heretic, Quake, and the many mods for Quake that Valve later aped like Team Fortress.

Valve did not start the Dev/Gamer relationship. That started decades ago with companies like Blizzard and Origin (makers of Ultima). You must be a young PC gamer if you think Valve started that.

Valve turns modders into devs? Many of the first game developers were - by definition - modders. All Valve has done is slap their brand logo on the efforts of modders and called it their own. As mentioned above, modding was around long before Valve and many modders of the early/mid 90s found their way into studios like Blizard, EPIC, Westwood, iD, and Ensemble.

Valve made it EASY for indie devs to be successful? Maybe. Maybe not. All they really did was give them a marketplace to showcase their games. Indie devs have been around since forever. Some certainly have flourished on Steam, but it would be a stretch to say they would've failed without Steam's help.

Steam is not the reason why Sony/MS/Nintendo/etc have online stores. That's pure ignorance.

Valve Corp apes PC gaming. Every single idea of theirs has already been done. They simply cram it into a prettier, more cohesive package. Gabe Newell really did learn his lesson when he used to work for Microsoft: take an idea someone else made, repackage it, slap your label on it, and people will praise you as God. And the people who think Valve is innovative? Maximum LOL. You really show your age if you think Steeam/Valve Corp are the engine that drives PC gaming.

[aviator189]

I honestly still do not see anything significant or game-changing in valve's announcements.
I'd still rather use my high-end windows-based pc and laptop to get both work done and play my games on the same machines.
I still question who exactly the steamos and machines are trying to target.

[pwnsause_returns]

it was just an announcement. they didnt show anything. once they show something enticing then people will start hyping it.

I for one am excited about it. a OS dedicated to gaming on your PC was something i've dreamt about something like this while back. Where resources are not used up by other parts of the OS, just all for gaming.

[Pintheshadows]

Yeah, and despite what you may think, outside of N4G the reaction seems quite muted. I feel the same way you do as do pretty much all of the computer science students I hang around with. They raised their eyebrows as to the point of it.

I don't see this appealing to people who have a PC already. I don't see it appealing to people who are afraid of PC's as I don't see it getting enough exposure in that domain and it is just a REBRANDED PC with a currently unproven OS. It will still need updates after a period of time.

Not too mention I still remember Steam in the beginning. It wasn't pretty. I'm not sure how the OS will be.

The OS is a good concept but I think Valve has a ton of work to do to convince most people it will be worth it.

If this is what they have been doing instead of pumping out games then they are quickly losing my respect as a game developer as well. Release something you are known for Valve. C'mon. Where the hell is anything?

[DeadlyFire]

SteamOS can be installed likely on any PC. They are giving out details in another week they claim. You wouldn't need a new machine at all really.

Their aim is likely to grab some console gaming pie to the PC space. Lots of people figure PCs are hard to manage, upgrade, and figure out how to play games on. That is why many avoid the PC rack at a retail store. With a steam machine. Its likely easily upgradeable year by year affordable somewhat like a cell phone at least some versions and so on. So the consumer finds it easy, and affordable buys the hardware and starts playing games on it.

As far as games goes. Valve releases 1 game a year now since the release of HL2: Episode 2. I wonder what they are cooking up for 2014.
2013 - DOTA 2
2012 - CS: GO
2011 - Portal 2
2010 - Alien Swarm
2009 - Left 4 Dead 2
2008 - Left 4 Dead
2007 - Orange Box, HL2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal
2006 - HL2 Episode 1
2005 - Day of Defeat: Source, HL2 Lost Coast
and so on. :)

[Pintheshadows]

'SteamOS can be installed likely on any PC'

Indeed, which for many makes the Steam Machines pointless and i'm not sure that aiming at console gamers with the Steam Machines is going to work at all. There are 2 very dominant forces in that market right now that have gamers attention. I don't see a Steam Machine which is a PC in all but name breaking into that sector. And its bullet points are ironically pointless. You can stream games from a Windows PC to a Steam Machine (I like that name more than Steambox). Or you could save some money and plug your Windows PC into your TV.

I honestly don't think any of their announcements beyond the OS has much of a market and even then I think it will be quite niche with only hardcore PC gamers adopting the OS.

I don't think they have an actual target market set out which is a huge concern. Who is this for?

Most PC gamers will just use a HDMI cable to plug their PC into their TV (as I do) and most console gamers 'afraid' of PC gaming will still avoid it as it will still require upgrades and the disparity in power between models could be a huge stumbling block for it. If they wanted to do this they should of fixed the specs so they were all the same. It is just a PC with a different OS.

I think this is a suicide mission for Valve in every area bar the OS which is cool, but not as massive as some are trying to make out as most people will just stick with Windows. Galling I know, but I don't think this will have as much impact as some are making out. The fact is, as much as Windows is maligned it can do everything already which is why it dominates the market. Linux is great but even with Valves backing i'm not sure it will get the support required to even dent Windows dominance.

I think that is the reality.

Frankly though, I applaud Valve for this as it is very very brave and carries huge risk with failure.

[paddystan]

Then why are game devs such as Ken Levine and Tim Schafer praising SteamOS?

The Steam Machines will make it cheaper and easier to get into PC gaming. You can buy a 100$ Steam Machine and then you can upgrade it whenever you want instead of buying a 500$ computer and then upgrade it.

[aviator189]

I don't care what they think. They're game developers and they probably obviously receive revenue from steam's distribution of their games, so of course they're going to support them. I'm simply stating my viewpoint.

I imagine that steamOS will end up like ouya. Highly hyped, yet will fall short of expectations. I'd rather valve just make more games. This idea feels rather pointless, imo. If you've got a powerful pc and all of your games run perfectly well on it running on windows, what's the incentive to change to steamOS?
If I do upgrade, how will I use all of my windows-compatible programs (i.e. office, other programs, etc.).

[ElementX]

Any game that comes to SteamOS will come to Windows because the developer would lose way too much money.

[jeffgoldwin]

Yes but you have to start small before you get big.

[DeadlyFire]

They could do timed exclusives. If the craving is large enough it will take small bits of people over to their OS with each title.

Imagine Half-Life 3 SteamOS exclusive for a year.

[Pintheshadows]

Considering SteamOS is a free operating system that you don't have to own a Steam Machine to use I don't see that making a big impact in terms of moving the hardware. I'd just choose to boot into SteamOS to play it instead of Windows.

[shahab91]

So will this steam machine have exclusive games or what? I don't see it as a threat to consoles for one bit.

[kevnb]

PC does, tons of them

[shahab91]

Well,those exclusives didn't pose a threat to console gaming at all.

[aviator189]

Even if it does gain exclusives, most of those will probably not amount to much, aside from valve's own creations, but I doubt valve would want to make their games steamOS exclusive as they would lose a huge number of sales that would come from windows, mac, and consoles.

[nevin1]

I'll stick to consoles.

[CapsLocke]

Crapsoles.

[TKCMuzzer]

Its amazing how PC gamers want to come across a superior then someone like who types a comment like that, then one of your fellow elitists agrees with you.
None are better than the other, both have advantages and disadvantages, what both do have in common is fanboys, and their as bad as each other.

[jeffgoldwin]

@TKC

Just depends on your perspective. Like how your a console fanboy, so someone speaking positive on pc's make them an elitist in your mind.

"None are better than the other" that's actually false. Depends on what you want. For graphics, pc is better. So in that way it is better. But it's worse in some other ways like what do your friends play and cost.

Pros and Cons don't totally cancel each other and make everything exactly the same.

[TKCMuzzer]

@Jeff
Sorry but you seem to contradict yourself. You tell me that what I say is false and then give me a reason why consoles might be better than PC's.
Just because I say PC elitist does not make me a console fanboy. Nearly all comments posted on here by PC players look down on consoles, that's just how they read. Even if I was an avid PC gamer that's how I would still read them. Then you back up what I mean by pointing out the main PC gamers line "graphics are better on PC"
I don't care about resolution etc, I want to play good games, I want it to be easy and accessible as I work all day. That does not make me a console fanboy, its just that a console fits into my life allowing me to play games quick and easy when the time is there.
Gaming is not about resolution or textures etc, its about the experience and fun. So yes they do both have their advantages and disadvantages, its as simple as that.

[kevnb]

You mean the next big thing in PC gaming...

[byeGollum]

The more options the merrier. Valve can definitely be the "next big thing" in gaming, period. They've got a good business model. They're about to make PC gaming even more accessible than it's ever been. Valve are good for gaming.

For some odd reason, Whenever a new platform is revealed, people feel threatened as though their platform of choice is being taken away. Valves vision is good for gaming, nothing to do with your insecurity.

[EXVirtual]

This thing is not gonna pull anyone away from consoles.
The Steam Machines are literally plug in PCs. This isn't the second coming of gaming. You can hardly say that what they're doing is directly opposing consoles.
Sorry, but this 'innovation' is not a megaton. We haven't even seen any prices for the Steam Machines.

[jeffgoldwin]

You don't need a Steam Machine to use the new Steam OS (Linux based). It will for sure attract some console games because of a streamlined interface and the possibility of improved performance over windows. How much and to what extent remains to be seen.

For gamers looking to see games on the next level, with endless mod possibilities, not being stuck dated hardware for the next 5-10 years makes pc gaming/steam machines a very attractive option. Plus steam will always be backward compatible and isn't charging monthly fees like consoles. Is it going to appeal to every last person out there, nope, but clearly it is a powerful option.

[EXVirtual]

I know that you don't need to have a Steam Machine to use SteamOS.
And what you said about being stuck to 5-10 year old hardware, you're right, but that's not a more appealing option. You need to spend quite a lot of money in those 10 years just to keep up with games (not yearly). It's not that the average consumer can't afford it, it's that they're not willing to spend that much money on hardware for a gaming platform alone. Which kinda cancels out the whole monthly online fees for consoles. Not to mention no discs.
Like I said, this is clearly no megaton. The Steam Machine just makes me think of a PC. SteamOS is a good idea though.

[kingduqc]

I really don't see the attract of consoles these days.

The 3-4 action adventure game you get that last 8 hours long and you are done with it really overweight having to play games that run like crap, look like crap and are more expensive?

[aviator189]

I'll take uncharted, halo, the last of us, zelda and whole bunch of other console exclusives over any steamOS-exclusive anyday. I don't care if it's half-life 3 that is steamos exclusive.