Steam reveal

Glaucus said:
Its still very much whats the point.
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It's not going to replace PCs or appeal to everyone, that's for sure. Still, if you can't always take over the big TV in the house this would at least give you the option of using it without having to move your rig. If it streams media off your main rig as well as games it could also save you having to set up a laptop any time you want to watch a movie or put music on.

It's obviously not a PC replacement, it's a media centre box with games. It's not like media centres are a new concept, there's already a market for it.

As well as few pc games being good for a controller.
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It's not that hard to use wireless mice and keyboards. Besides, the whole controller vs M&KB thing is really personal preference: a few friends of mine have moved to Steam from the Xbox but they prefer to use a controller when at all possible because they're used to L4D2 and so on with controllers on the Xbox.

Whether or not this whole SteamOS/box thing floats depends entirely on how Valve can tie it together. Nobody is going to replace their Windows box with it so they've got to convince people that a media centre which streams games is a good thing. That's going to massively depend on what this media deal they've hinted at is and what else it can take off your main PC.
 
Well I have lots of games on PC - FIFA a good example. I want to play FIFA on the TV in the lounge rather than on the PC in my bedroom. The alternative is I buy it for the PS3 instead of course.

So I get a 'steambox' and just stream it form my PC in the bedroom to the TV in the lounge - it has a certain amount of appeal. Similarly if I'm watching something on my PC's blu ray drive I'd imagine I could also stream that to the TV. It will be interesting tech if it's like that, although very much depends on the cost.
 
Sounds interesting for starters but performance will be a big factor

Anyone who is serious about streaming anything from video to games that I know has a wired connection in the living room now. Wireless is just no use
 
I'd like to move to linux on desktop. If this is extensible and customisable enough (e.g I can do whatever I can do with linux normally with it but it's easier to transition) then I'll probably give it a go. I can always vm/wine for the few windows games/apps I desperately need.
 
Will streaming games work well? I've no idea but I'm guessing they've taken a long time testing this and have good results.

Will developers support it? They mention upcoming announcements of AAA titles, and I'm sure they would have been speaking to developers to ensure they have enough support.

I hate to sound like a valve fanboy who just trusts what they are doing, but on the other hand people are writing off something they've not seen, and we still have two more announcements to come.
 
mark43 said:
Will streaming games work well? I've no idea but I'm guessing they've taken a long time testing this and have good results.

Will developers support it? They mention upcoming announcements of AAA titles, and I'm sure they would have been speaking to developers to ensure they have enough support.

I hate to sound like a valve fanboy who just trusts what they are doing, but on the other hand people are writing off something they've not seen, and we still have two more announcements to come.
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I strongly doubt streaming will work for any game that requires any kind of reactions unfortunately.
 
I am very interested in this, so many games which Id play in the living room are cheaper/better on PC and work brilliantly with a controller. I dont think the lag would be a big issue with games like tomb raider, rayman and other casual games to play with the misssus.
One more reason for me to buy a HP microserver.
 
meandu229 said:
I dont think the lag would be a big issue with games like tomb raider, rayman and other casual games to play with the misssus.
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To be honest I reckon this is what they're going for, I doubt they expect hardcore twitch shooters to be played competitively on this thing while you're plonked on the sofa.

Kerbal Space Program, Portal or a strategy game would be fine, but I doubt it'll be designed to handle CS:GO and the like.
 
Art said:
It's not going to replace PCs or appeal to everyone, that's for sure. Still, if you can't always take over the big TV in the house this would at least give you the option of using it without having to move your rig. If it streams media off your main rig as well as games it could also save you having to set up a laptop any time you want to watch a movie or put music on.

It's obviously not a PC replacement, it's a media centre box with games. It's not like media centres are a new concept, there's already a market for it.

It's not that hard to use wireless mice and keyboards. Besides, the whole controller vs M&KB thing is really personal preference: a few friends of mine have moved to Steam from the Xbox but they prefer to use a controller when at all possible because they're used to L4D2 and so on with controllers on the Xbox.

Whether or not this whole SteamOS/box thing floats depends entirely on how Valve can tie it together. Nobody is going to replace their Windows box with it so they've got to convince people that a media centre which streams games is a good thing. That's going to massively depend on what this media deal they've hinted at is and what else it can take off your main PC.
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Good points for the most part but I would argue that "the whole controller vs M&KB thing is a personal preference" is only true right up until you attempt to play multiplayer games online.
 
Art said:
To be honest I reckon this is what they're going for, I doubt they expect hardcore twitch shooters to be played competitively on this thing while you're plonked on the sofa.

Kerbal Space Program, Portal or a strategy game would be fine, but I doubt it'll be designed to handle CS:GO and the like.
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Yeah. That's fine really. I personally doubt I'd use it though it might be a good way to lower the spec (or not bother upgrading) my media centre a bit.

I really hope that despite all the focus on living room PCs/media centres they still manage to deliver a solid desktop OS that doesn't feel too clunky for productivity. Probably a forlorn hope as that's not how they seem to be marketing things but....yeah...I'll carry on hoping :p
 
Not sure what to think on this, don't think it'll be for me as all I game on is my PC and the benefits of sitting at the tv don't benefit the cost.
 
FrenchTart said:
Good points for the most part but I would argue that "the whole controller vs M&KB thing is a personal preference" is only true right up until you attempt to play multiplayer games online.
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Personally I'd entirely agree, but like I said my friends constantly natter on about how they're too used to controllers to work effectively with a M&K. Apparently getting used to the superior method isn't the way to fix that. :p

I personally doubt I'd use it though it might be a good way to lower the spec (or not bother upgrading) my media centre a bit
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I've dithered about getting a media centre for ages but couldn't quite justify the cost for a reasonable spec machine. If Valve pull this off well and a relatively cheap box can stream loads of stuff from my desktop it could be great.

Lots more information needed though.
 
Its going to come down to price. Its a nice idea sitting back playing Skyrim on a 55" plasma streaming it from the main computer upstairs but its not something I would pay any sort of money to do so. Like many I already have a box for streaming films/music, a blue-ray player a sky box(courtesy of the gf) so some of what its offering is already covered.

What would you pay for a steam box? I very much doubt I would buy one (a PS4 is more likely to keep the gf occupied while i play BF4) but anything over £100 would be pushing it.
 
Thing is you can already stream games with a PC now - Windows 8 RDS remote desktop supports 3d acceleration(as well as touch support for a tablet). No one does though because it fundamentally sucks as a compromise, leaving you with something neither as good as your PC gaming, or Console gaming experience.

Onlive did a great job with their offering albeit streaming from the internet rather than the local PC but it's just not quite good enough.

Sure there will be a few people that want an extra PC to go under the TV to play the odd PC game on it, but given Valve aspire to play full games on the hardware under Linux witht he streaming as a sort of backup as far as i can see I can't imagine the hardware being much cheaper than a console. Linux doesn't magically make a crap PC Awesome for 1080p gaming no matter how they'd like to portray it as mysteriously "minimal", "optimized" and the other marketing guff that you can almost see be written as we speak. :)

It'll be interesting to see what they have in mind and I'm sure they'll get some sales from Valve fans and people who dislike Microsoft/Sony but I really am struggling to find where there's enough of a niche to make this a mainstream gaming offering.

All because Gabe thought the Windows 8 store might give people a real competitor for PC games digital distribution ;) It seems a bit of a shame to see Steam turn it's back on PC gaming and want to concentrate on a new console under TV box. :(
 
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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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If Windows is a gaming OS, why doesn't the Xbox or Playstation use it?

Obviously this Steam OS offers advantages, like the console OS, and that's why it's being made.
 
Longbow said:
If Windows is a gaming OS, why doesn't the Xbox or Playstation use it?

Obviously this Steam OS offers advantages, like the console OS, and that's why it's being made
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Because Windows doesn't support the custom console hardware and to try to make it do so is just as much effort as writing something with very limited support for specific hardware from scratch?

I seem to remember Xbox uses the Win Kernel anyway although i could be wrong.

It's being made because Valve can use it to lock you into only buying games from Steam as opposed to Windows (or consoles) where they have competition for digital distribution. Their master stroke is they will market this as a blow for openness and freedom whilst they tie you in. Before you know it you'll have such an investment in steam you won't feel like you can ditch it to take another option whatever they do or charge. It's fundamentally iTunes for games. :D
 
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