Steam reveal

Winky_The_Winking_Turtle said:
Doesn't PS4 run on freeBSD, which in a lot of ways similar to Linux? Hopefully with this new competition and option of more sales, developers will be willing to port games to Linux.
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The thing is why bother if you are a publisher, what does porting a PC game to Linux with all the overheads and complications involved in supporting and coding for yet another platform actually bring you?
 
Macro said:
The thing is why bother if you are a publisher, what does porting a PC game to Linux with all the overheads and complications involved in supporting and coding for yet another platform actually bring you?
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This is what's interesting, and because of this i cant see it working. Its just another OS that pubs and devs need to port/optimize their multi-platform games too, how does this help PC gaming at all?
 
As a publisher it's another OS to support and now only one route to get your games onto it through Valve who can choose if they want to publish your game or not.

We've got to be missing something.
 
ColEx said:
This is what's interesting, and because of this i cant see it working. Its just another OS that pubs and devs need to port/optimize their multi-platform games too, how does this help PC gaming at all?
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I don't know what the piracy rate on Steam is, but i'm guessing it's around 0%. I'm also guessing the market penetration of Steam in places like Russia, China, Brazil, Korea is much much higher than PlayStation or Xbox.

Gabe openly dislikes the Windows 8 store model, OSX is transitioning to the App Store also - both compete directly with Steam. The consoles are end of life, and are both being replaced with basically PC type devices with their own app store. The PS4 and Xbone both have no install base, Steam has millions online. MS got forced to back out of their always online, app store based model of the future for the xbone - but Steam is already like that and people love it.

It's a great opportunity to disrupt the gaming market, I was having difficulty seeing how expensive one purpose devices could stay relevant under the onslaught of Fruit Ninja but then GTAV came along and sold $1 billion in 3 days.
 
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They need this OS to be popular to get other pubs/devs interested, so maybe they will announce some exclusive games to be released for this OS.
 
To the people saying "why bother when you can play more games on Windows":

You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!
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Interesting. Obviously depends on the latency, but if you can get a cheap Steam Box so you don't have to drag your main rig downstairs to the big TV it could be interesting.
 
Art said:
To the people saying "why bother when you can play more games on Windows":



Interesting. Obviously depends on the latency, but if you can get a cheap Steam Box so you don't have to drag your main rig downstairs to the big TV it could be interesting.
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No, still why bother comes in. Got to run another os, boot to it, now i need a second computer to stream games.

So no, that just makes it even more why bother.

However this may point to a very cheap box under the tv. As the main computer would do it. But then i allready have an xbox as a htpc.
 
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Macro said:
The thing I struggle with is would you seriously play PC games under a TV, steamed form your actual gaming PC with out a mouse and keyboard? Onlive tried it and failed miserably although i loved the idea (i bought one *sigh*) they had it just doesn't really work in the real world.
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Not all games require a mouse and keyboard.

Kenai said:
Yes, amazingly my PC allows me to do work activities as well as engage in pointless arguments on the internet and playing games. It's remarkable what computers can do these days.

If the SteamOS is going to be capable of everything a normal Linux distro is then they've certainly not yet advertised the fact, only that you'll be able to stream 'popular' media services.
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You missed the point, they aren't aiming to replace a desktop computer where you can "do work". It will be a gaming OS, like the consoles.
 
I think the next two announcements are Steambox and finally the controller (You need a controller to play games in the living room).

It's the controller I would be most interested in as Valve were trying to develop something to replace mouse and keyboard.

Trading in games you have bought for Steam credit would be something else I would like to see.
 
Glaucus said:
However this may poi nt to a very cheap box under the tv. As the main computer would do it.
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This is exactly what I was getting at. You can stream games from your main rig. They said they're working on media deals, so presumably something along the same lines as Netflix. It'll have Steams built in browser. As it's Linux based and they've said you can meddle with the software, running one of the Linux media centres should be fairly easy.

It sounds more like a box you stick under the TV which does light browsing, movies/box sets via this media deal, could do TV with a USB adaptor or via the web, can handle all of your music and now does all of your Windows/Mac games too. It's obviously no replacement for hardcore gaming but for casual stuff it'll give Windows based media centres something to compete with in everything except Bluray.
 
Theres already streaming options, sony is releasing one. Its still very much whats the point. As well as few pc games being good for a controller.

Then theres all the issues of what else can it do. Win8 is an amazing os, has 80k apps already, split screen, Skype etc. so why not have a windows box under the tv, or xbox/ps4 rather than steamOS which either going to cost just as much or requires a second windows system.

This is an OS not a box, the box is likely to be the other announcement.
 
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Longbow said:
You missed the point, they aren't aiming to replace a desktop computer where you can "do work". It will be a gaming OS, like the consoles.
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You're missing my point, Windows is already a gaming OS, with no functionality restriction to go with it. It can do everything SteamOS will do and more.

SteamOS so far isn't showing much advantage other than cost that makes it favourable to just using Windows and running Steam. When you consider a lot of people probably pirate Windows anyway then even cost isn't that big a draw.

Who specifically wants a gaming PC that can do less than the gaming PC they already have, with fewer available games?

As for the streaming option, that's a waste of time, anyone who doesn't want a PC in the living room almost certainly isn't going to be running a wired network around the house to accommodate game streaming and I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it over WiFi.
 
Streaming will be horrible..just think of the lag.

As it's an OS I presume it will have its own browser? Will we be able to install Google Chrome on it?
 
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Kenai said:
You're missing my point, Windows is already a gaming OS, with no functionality restriction to go with it. It can do everything SteamOS will do and more.

SteamOS so far isn't showing much advantage other than cost that makes it favourable to just using Windows and running Steam. When you consider a lot of people probably pirate Windows anyway then even cost isn't that big a draw.

Who specifically wants a gaming PC that can do less than the gaming PC they already have, with fewer available games?

As for the streaming option, that's a waste of time, anyone who doesn't want a PC in the living room almost certainly isn't going to be running a wired network around the house to accommodate game streaming and I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it over WiFi.
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What... Most console users have an ethernet cable going to their TV unit.

Again, this isn't to replace gaming PCs it is to provide an alternative way to play games on your TV. So if you could get a really cheap streaming box for under £100 that would let you stream games, media, netflix and the like to a box that is pretty darn good (look at the general interest in the Vita TV). Then it has the scalability of running on a mobile device (Nvidia Shield type of thing) all the way to a £700-800 small form factor console-esque type machine that goes in your entertainment unit.
 
I only use Windows for gaming so if they got the majority of developers to support it and I could play my old games then yeah. Judging by their game streaming functionality this isn't even on the cards though.

maxilive said:
Again, this isn't to replace gaming PCs it is to provide an alternative way to play games on your TV. So if you could get a really cheap streaming box for under £100 that would let you stream games, media, netflix and the like to a box that is pretty darn good (look at the general interest in the Vita TV).
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I guess that does sound pretty sweet.
 
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Well i'm yet to be convinced of the feasibility of playing games by streaming via a home network, can't see it being a setup many will have in place (I don't know anyone with ethernet cables to their TV, they all seem to rely on WiFi but then maybe everyone I know are different to the norm?) nor do I see working especially well, especially for those running WiFi networks, I can only imagine the input latency would be awful.

If the plan is to focus on streaming rather than directly playing, having a standalone OS rather than just the SteamBox seems a bit overkill.
 
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