Valve's crazy revelations: SteamOS, the Steam Machine, and the Steam controller

[Kimberly]

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/

 

Avid followers of Steam and their products and services have known that they planned to break into the console market for some time now. Today wrapped up the announcement of their plans to do just that. First announced by Valve was the SteamOS, followed by the Steam Machine, and finally the steam controller.

 

Some of you guys might be aware that Steam finally announces a Family Sharing option for games. This was actually leaked quite a bit ago when fanatic redditors spent some time poking around after one of the big software updates. It was finally announced on early in September and SteamOS plans to take full advantage of it in the living room, along with several other features console users are used to in this current iteration of consoles. The OS itself will be 100% free, linux-based architecture.

 

Later in this big week of announcements, Steam Machines were unveiled. Coming in 2014 running the previously announced SteamOS, they'll be offered in several different versions with different specs once they hit the market.

 

The final announcement wrapped up Valve's big push into the console realm with the Steam Controller, a gamepad that tries to emulate the high fidelity keyboard/mouse experience in a restrictive controller-shaped device. Designed to work with all games on Steam, it can be used by PC fanatics and Steam Machine explorers alike. Throwing traditional joysticks out the window, it instead uses trackpads -- yeahhhhh -- to allow for higher precision movement argued to be impossible with joysticks. Electromagnets beneath the trackpads help deliver tactile feedback that it otherwise would have lacked in this joystickless departure from tradition. The center screen is a touchscreen which "allows an infinite number of discrete actions to be made available to the player, without requiring an infinite number of physical buttons" according to Valve.

 

 

It's butt-ugly and console fans might shy back in revulsion, but it might be the sort of thing that revolutionizes console play forever...if it tests and sells well. And in an age where consoles are about to become irrelevant, spec-wise -- especially if things like the Steam Machine soars in popularity -- they need radical changes like the Steam Controller offers to close the gap between consoles and PCs.

 

So yeah, that's Valve's big announcement. I'm excited as all hell for it. What do you guys think?

[obfuscator]

Seems interesting. Never been too excited about consoles though, I doubt I'll try it...

[Kimberly]

I think it's aiming to be a cheaper PC tailored to the living room more than a traditional console. It might even go the same sort of route that Dell pioneered with "mass customization," allowing the consumer to pick and choose the specs they want (within certain limits.) It's kind of cool, but the Steam Machine itself doesn't really draw me in. It's mostly the aspect of competition (especially against microsoft and the xbox) against the major consoles and innovations in closing the console/pc gap that intrigues me.

[unkn0wnwarrior]

Looks interesting, I'll have to keep an eye on the progress made.

[chenw]

I'll keep my eye out on the joypad.

[Sally]

It'll be interesting to see where they go with the game pad as well as the console. It may be just the thing to finally give people the ability to game across various consoles, which I think is something the industry itself should move to anyway (they may be already doing this, I'm a little behind, so correct me if I am wrong).

[Randox]

I'm quite impressed, and curious. It's more than consoles, they are going to take on everything if I am reading this right. I'll be interested to see what the steam boxes can do on their own (sounds like there will be at least one in tablet and one in console form?), but with their SteamOS, they can back them up with a traditional tower running pretty much anything, and with the whole cross OS streaming gig, they don't need to immediately penetrate the OS market to get the ball rolling. I guess the steam box is the draw I was missing, the master plan to get people, consumers and developers alike, to adopt the SteamOS.

 

I'm wondering if we are getting to see Gabe Newell's vision for the future now. I like the way Valve runs, it's outside the box (sort of like this). It would be nice to see the odd company de-pants the computer industry. Might convince other companies to try things their way (I'm referring to their management structure).

 

Anywho, long term, I am definitely interested in the SteamOS. If they can get game, and general program support for it, I'd just as soon not pay for Windows, if Steam can support it as a general OS (which is a fairly tall order once your talking about the general public). I'm also interested in that controller. The haptic system sounds neat, but I'm nore interested in the ability of the trackpads to be used as absolute positioning rather than as joysticks. Nice to have both options, since for something like a shooter, you want one of each. I'm also actually impressed with their idea for the trackpad, to make it overlay on the screen (so you don't have to look at it), and then select things by clicking.

[nine naked men]

Here here are some first impressions of the controller, it all seems pretty positive.

[Estonian dude]

If you do not count double "here", I think this was the most grammatically correct post I have ever seen from nine naked men.

 

On topic I find myself interested mostly on the controller. Simply how the heck can they match the precision and feel of analog controllers or even be better?

[Randox]

I'm liking the description of the feedback system, that sounds really neat, and I was wondering how that would all work out. If they can make it feel like a giant trackball, or like it's moving in increments, that's pretty neat.

[PoorLepRecon]

Valve just trademarked Half Life 3. ITS HAPPENING.

 

http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688589

[chenw]

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[DownToFletch]

Steam Machine will be a beast. It's more advanced computer technology in peasant box form.

 

You can put anything from, say, a gtx 660 or a radeon hd series card up the latest and greatest, the [black series] titan (will be released soon), and the r9 290x.

 

Don't forget that Nvidia is releasing the 800 series cards around March I think :D