The lights are on
Valve's upcoming PC brand, Steam Machine, isn't quite a console, but the company hopes to attract consumers from that market. During a media event at CES 2014, Valve announced that it has 14 different PC manufacturers working to make systems that will run the developer's specially branded Steam OS.
Gabe Newell briefly took the stage during a Valve event at CES to talk about the future of gamers' living rooms. Valve doesn't think that there is only one way to play games in the living room, which is why the company has partnered up with a number of different PC manufacturers who are all making "different takes on the right solution for the living room," said Newell.
The full list of hardware manufacturers includes Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, iBuyPower, CyberPowerPC, Origin PC, Gigabyte, Materiel.net, Webhallen, Alternate, Next, Zotac, and Scan Computers. A lot of the machines are priced around the $500 to $700 range, but prices can soar as high as $6,000 for the Falcon Northwest Tiki. The middle ground puts systems in the $1,400 to $2,500 range.
In addition to a variety of different Steam Machines, consumers can expect a variety of different controllers somewhere down the line. Valve announced that its partners will be able to create their own Steam Controllers, further diversifying the Steam OS ecosystem. Valve didn't announce a release date for any of the systems or the OS, but it hopes to have systems on the market by the end of the year, and says it already has 250 titles supporting the new OS.
Our TakeValve's approach to the hardware market is certainly unique. I think it may have attracted more console players if it had stuck to one manufacture or at least one unified design. I think this many systems might lead to market confusion, but with this many machines, players should have plenty of options to choose from when they start hitting the market. I'm still interested in Steam OS and the controller, but I'm not sold on a Steam Machine yet. Check out the images below to see which system might be right for you.
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Starting look more and more like the over saturated Android market: one great OS on way too much hardware. Not sure about this yet, especially for the price...
Didn't see the point of this when it was first announced, and I especially don't see any point in it now.
Why would you try to enter a console market with machines that are basically stripped down PCs in 13 flavors? If anything, consoles have the unity going for them.
These are just weird-ass looking PC cases.
That's just too much of everything...
I find this weird. The Steam Machine was supposed to be similar to a home console, a box to put in you living room. But the price point is much higher. What's the point if you can just build a dedicated PC to put in the living room for $1000+. No console gamer would want to spend thousands of dollars for a box in the living room.
Now I plan on spending around $1200 to build a computer by april, why should I wait for one of these instead? How would that be better?
I suppose these are for people who dont build pc's. Instead they go buy the HP and Dell premade ones. If they were buying one of those but for gaming this could be better.
So this allows all those companies to compete with companies already making fully built pc's but will appeal to less of those customers. I guess this doesnt cost valve anything anyways aside from having to build the OS. Even if it flops its not gonna hurt many people..
People are saying it should be valve making 1 box that would appeal to more, but then valve starts taking risk and way more cost. This is the right way to do it I think. Its just going to be a matter of will it sell.
It sounds like the steam machine is a PC just for gaming, which excludes all the other functionality of a regular PC. If this assessment is accurate, what's the point of getting one of these, which can cost as much as a good gaming PC, if regular PCs can play games as well plus some?
I guess the point would be that console games that wouldn't normally run on the PC will be on the steam machines, but then again, why don't developers just make the game for PCs too instead of developing it for what is essentially just a cut down PC for living room gaming?
Sure, Steam Machines are not quite marketed as consoles, but if you're going to try to sell them to the console gaming market, I can't see having so many variants of the hardware as a good thing. A console game is a console game; you don't need to worry about specs when buying a game for the Xbox, PS4, or Wii U and therefore the idea of buying a console with certain specs wouldn't make a whole lotta sense to the console crowd.
I still don't understand how no one gets what Valve is doing.
The death of the "average" PC is nearly complete. Soon there will only be gaming PCs, and maybe corporate PCs (if that - I'm not convinced that corporations won't go purely mobile for the average worker bee). When that happens the prices for gaming PCs will skyrocket as manufacturers lose access to the tooling and R&D that made high-end equipment affordable. Intel, AMD, Nvidia and ATi are already trying to figure out how they're going to shift from PCs to more mobile and tablet manufacturing. When THAT happens, Steam loses marketshare, unless they can penetrate the mobile space, which they haven't, or unless they can penetrate the living room, which is what the Steam Machines are all about.
The Steam Machines are the last great hope for affordable PC gaming, which is why those boutique manufacturers are all on board. They see the writing on the wall.
I hope they succeed. There's just too much that can still be done on PC that isn't possible on consoles.
14 different consoles. to low-end to high-end..or even super-high-end!
As a humanoid that has a laptop but no real PC gaming rig, I've been on board for this Steam Machine. Although I like the options and Valve's direction with this "console", I'm not sure about paying large amounts for what is essentially a PC that isn't a PC.
All these people talking about another new console thing and im just sitting here with my PlayStation 2
If this is successful then it could have a huge impact on the console market and the way future consoles are made. I also think the major obstacle here is customer confusion and having too many options without an easy way to compare all of them.
hmm... this sounds like a huge mistake.. but Gabe is a sharp guy. He is probably trying to take the Microsoft approach (being an ex-MS guy), of letting the hardware people fight it out and all of them running Windows.. Now they can fight it out and all of them running SteamOS. Win-Win for Valve.
I think I'll just put the steam OS on another hard drive of mine in my perfect "takesyourxb1andps4andkillsthem" PC.
no thanks, i'll just keep building my own PCs
That sounds too expensive for something I would hook up just for my tv. I'm better off building my own PC that could run better for the same price.