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Ask Slashdot: Can Valve's Steam Machines Compete Against the Xbox One and PS4?
Nerval's Lobster writes "Valve has announced SteamOS, Steam Machines, and a Steam controller — the components necessary for it to create a viable living-room gaming experience. Valve's strategy with these releases seems pretty clear: create a platform based on openness (SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system), in contrast to the closed systems pushed by console rivals such as Sony and Microsoft. If Valve chooses to release Half-Life 3 in conjunction with its Steam Machines' rollout, it could help create further buzz for the system, given the years' worth of pent-up demand for the next chapter in the popular FPS saga. But can Valve's moves allow it to actually compete against Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony on equal terms? What do you think?"
Maybe. Especially on the TV.
Xbox didn't get foothold until all of those "Only on XBOX" TV ads for multiplatform games.
Yes, it can compete.
No. No one knows if it will.
Yes, it is a stupid question.
...that Half-Life is popular enough among the console crowd to be the system's killer app. It's lost most of its mainstream brand recognition by this point, and today's market no longer has an absence of story-based FPSs.
HL3 will sell like HOTCAKES among nostalgic PC gamers, but I just don't see it moving SteamBoxes among people who are console-only.
If the price for the console is right (read reasonably less than the competition), the hardware isn't lame (no red ring of deaths, no overheating, good controllers), the game selection is there (fps, rpg, fighting (Tekken et al), etc) and game quality (no horrible control layouts, stuttering, lousy gameplay); I believe they have a shot, now, before the new consoles get established in the market. The ability to upgrade the console and have a better experience sooner than the competition certainly will be draw, as well.
I think Valve actually wants to approach this by introducing a number of different machines at different spec levels, but all running Steam OS. Then, like how Steam operates now, they sell licenses to a wide variety of games (and possibly applications) that have different levels of system requirements.
The end goal is to reach out into a wide audience of different levels of gamers, from the casual to the hardcore, from puzzle game fans to FPS fans, etc., and to provide different kinds of devices geared towards each audience.
There's a danger of segmentation, of course. But I think the way Valve is approaching this is quite brilliant. The PS4, XBone, and Wii platforms have the advantage of being "do-it-all" machines, but they're also prohibitively expensive (at least in the cases of the PS4 and XBone) and might not be interesting to casuals, fans of games requiring lesser resources, or even hi-end gamer enthusiasts. Valve is taking a page from Android and casting a wide net.
Price
This is what drew me to Steam, this is what keeps me buying from Steam while my ps3/wii/etc gather dust.
If they keep up the constant sales and fairly good games on the Steam Machine like they're doing now on PC, yes, yes they can.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
It depends on what you want out of your gaming experience.
Old curmudgeons like me who want to play video games offline and without needing a network connection won't want this.
And I'm sure lots of people will want the kind of gaming experience this platform has to offer.
I guess it depends on how much people trust Valve and want their stuff. And how many people Microsoft annoyed with the XBone announcements.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I own an Xbox 360, a Wii, I owned a Wii U (but was so underwhelmed I brought it back).
I've had several consoles over the years, but I keep going back to PC gaming. My 360 collects dust - it's not worth paying the online tax to even watch netflix on it. The Wii is used for Wii Fit only. My 4 year old son prefers the games on the computer. I don't know why - he just does - with one caveat - they work with a controller.
I was looking at possibly the XBone for the living room - but it won't play 360 titles - and the entry price is very high considering I'd have to restock the titles at ~$60 a pop.
Now that Steam has announced SteamOS, Steam Machines and the Controller - I can kill many birds with one stone. I can buy a modern console for the living room. I can keep my current library of titles (that I've been building since 2006). My son can have a controller that's the same for both devices. I can stream old games, hopefully though there will be enough native releases - because that will be a key point to most people. Now that Steam will offer Family Sharing/Controls, I can finally stop buying for 2 accounts and just focus on building one library. For myself, this is a great solution.
Now, will people who exclusive use PS/Xbox switch? I don't think so easily. First, you have the Madden crowd - good luck getting EA to budge on releasing sports games for the PC again. Then there are the exclusives and the kinect. I know Kinect is a failure to a lot - but it is a great family device and one of the only things I fire the Xbox up for all anymore is stuff like Sesame Kinect...
But - as these machines proliferate - I can see more and more people picking them up. This is pure speculation - but I imagine they will refresh the hardware frequently - like phones and tablets. Being and Open System - I can see many of it's own exclusives - whether whole titles or features in a title. The idea of being able to self-upgrade is phenomenal. I imagine over time these machines will become more than just different form factor PC's - and may offer some sorely needed innovation in the market... SteamOS makes that possible - kind of like an Android for Consoles - just even more open.
The worse case scenario is it doesn't pan out great, and not a lot of manufacturers fizzle out on the idea and SteamOS/Machines become a footnote - but the damage is already done - because a game optimized kernel will exist with opitmized graphics drivers - something sorely lacking for Linux for many years... So even a short term failure could lead to greater things down the road.
Depends on how many Steam library games will eventually work under their Linux OS. If a large portion of my library becomes playable, you bet I'll build or buy a steambox.
Everything I've read so far is underestimating Valve imo. Keep in mind what they've done in the past, how they've been basically the single bastion of decent game programing left in the market now... how nearly every game they come out with changes the industry in one way or another. Valve IS innovation when it comes to gaming. If they were a publicly traded company I'd be all over their stock.
I doubt the steambox will be what we expect. None of Valves products ever are. They are releasing hardware requirements for free... the OS is free... do you really think this things a console? Is something so outdated their goal? I seriously doubt it. Within the next few years I expect to see T.V.s come with Steam per-installed. No console what-so-ever. You just pick up your Steam controller and viola, away you go. In the near term, you can get a set-top-box to upgrade your older TV or just install it on your PC. In the long term I expect to see Steam become the primary Media center on most TVs as it pushes out Microsofts offering as it's pricey.
This is going to be just like Android. Valve wants control of the market so they are giving the hardware manufacturers hardware specs, a free OS and promising to maintain it for them in return for access to your living room.
The 3,000-odd library of titles on Steam aside from a potential release of HL3 says your second point is moot.
Valve is not entering the console market in the traditional sense. It is taking off the shelf hardware and applying some glue to tie it all together. Its not a new product, its a remix of what we already have. This is not a 3DO/Neo-Geo situation. Everything that works today will be able to be integrated with Steam OS machines too.
Good-bye
The Steam Machine seems like yet another settop box that would allow you to remote into your gaming computer from your entertainment center.
This is where you missed the bigger point. The Steam machine can have different iterations and the most popular won't be just "streaming machines", the streaming option is there to answer to two things: "But I wanna play my windows games!" "Or I'd love to keep my battlestation PC in it's room, but occasionally game on the couch and I don't want to pay for two gaming pc's!"
The most promising is a self contained gaming system which will use Valve's optimized operating system - SteamOS (based on Linux) with new "AAA titles coming soon" and with the bonus of running any steam games you currently have that already have Linux ports (of the 3,000 games on Steam currently 300 are ported and the number is growing). As they have shown, PC gamers will get more bang out of their buck using their OS than Windows since the whole package will be optimized for gaming.
Now, don't compare it to your PC. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who owns a PS3/XBox360, doesn't own a gaming PC, and has $400 burning in their pockets for the next console release. What does a Steam Machine offer them?
* Cheaper games
* More launch titles (300 so far + the unannounced AAA titles)
* More precise FPS controller
* Ability to stream games from their gaming PC (if they have one)
* No monthly fee to play games online
* Ability to use any controller they want - system is open and PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers already work with it.
* Choice (and competition) of hardware providers
* Ability to mod into a full fledged PC (remember the Sony other OS debacle?)
* Upgradeable
* Easier game acquisition. Why run to the store to get your game? Fire up Steam, click on the game, click buy, tell it "yes" to install, enjoy!
* Game modding!
* More/better patches for their games
* More peripherals
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