SteamOS Beta...

[DaGaffer]

Sounding more and more like an ill-conceived concept by a company without a plan tbfh.


And still, they fail to ask, why not just stick a PC next to your telly with Steam installed?

I don't think they'd have an answer for you on the basis of that interview. Seems like they're trying to half-arse their way to a new business model. I also think this mantra is a mistake:

So it really is just about listening to our customers. It’s hard for Valve to have a five or even two year plan. We respond to our customers. The plan will evolve as we get more feedback, hear what our users like, and hear what our hardware partners need from us. But I guess I’d say our two-year plan is making existing customers happy.”

Good product design isn't just a constant reaction to customers. Customers don't always know what they want until someone shows it to them. A two-year plan to "make existing customers happy" isn't a model for domination of the living room (which seems to be Valve's other mantra), because I'd be surprised if that many of their existing customers care. You only have to look at Valve's own stats. Right now about a third of all of Steam's traffic is being driven by DOTA 2, a game massively unsuited to a controller, although Valve are working on getting it ported (which doesn't mean those players want to play a game that takes half a keyboard on a controller). Another 20% are playing FPS games, and we all now the general view of PC FPS players about playing shooters with a controller (God knows its been ranted about debated politely on here often enough).

So straight away that's half the current Steam audience who are going to be a hard sell on using a controller in the living room. Building a business for SteamOS around those guys looks pretty questionable. Now, all those people may also be playing FIFA on Friday night with their mates, so maybe they are the audience, but somehow I doubt it.

What would appeal to me about a Steam Machine would be PC gaming but without having to worry that I'm going to have to spend hundreds every year just to keep the damn thing updated with graphics and RAM. Yes, being able to play controller games in my living room and Mouse/KB games in the study on the same device would also be very nice, and yes I'd pay a bit of a premium for that over an Xbone or a PS4. All the rest of this is just dicking around.

 

[Scouse]

Don't disagree with any of the above.

It looks like Gabe is just focussing on massive fail.

 

[Raven]

I wouldn't go that far...but someone does need to take him to one side and have a word before it all goes horribly wrong.

 

[Fweddy]

I don't see the point in the expensive steamboxes but steamOS and cheap streaming boxes could easily do quite well. I'm not particularly happy with my WDTV so replacing it with something that's going to be more actively developed and allows me to play my games in the living room too would be a very nice bonus. And once it's there I'll most likely end up playing most of my games on it because unless I'm playing competitively then I'll choose the comfort of sofa and joypad over sitting at my desk using mouse and keyboard.

 

[Raven]

I don't get this whole idea that PCs aren't already in the living room though, I don't know anyone who doesn't have their PC in the lounge.

 

[DaGaffer]

I don't get this whole idea that PCs aren't already in the living room though, I don't know anyone who doesn't have their PC in the lounge.

I don't have a PC in my lounge. And even if I did it wouldn't be next to/under the telly.

 

[Raven]

Are you from the year 2001?!

 

[Vae]

I don't have my PC in the living room either. It's in the office (Man Cave) where I don't have to fight with the missus for TV space. Also there's no room in the living room for a desk for it and there's a 2 year old loose in there as well! I've got a PS3 and a Wii but they rarely get used (except for Bluerays) as it involves taking over the TV.

 

[DaGaffer]

Are you from the year 2001?!

I can and do take a PC into my lounge, but that's a laptop. I don't keep a PC there. Why would I? All the content to the telly is streamed from the NAS or the desktop PC (or the laptop or tab but I don't do that much, pretty much everything goes on the NAS).

 

[Scouse]

I don't get this whole idea that PCs aren't already in the living room though, I don't know anyone who doesn't have their PC in the lounge.

I don't have a TV in the lounge. It gets in the way of being sociable - when mates are around I figure they're round to talk to me, not watch shit. (Uptake of board games has increased - it's nice to scream at your mates and be physically holding things/have to figure out what's happened yourself rather than have a computer draw it).

However, TV upstairs has a PC plugged in - but no aerial. Don't subscribe to sky/virgin or anything else. If we want to watch something there's torrents. If we want to play games there's a proper sized screen and a settee to sit on rather than a desk. Hard mouse pad to my right on the settee and wireless keyboard in my lap.

All my mates have media PC's in their living rooms for gaming and all the good shit you get with PC's - or like @DaGaffer have laptops that can plug into the telly.

I just don't *get* consoles - or the SteamOS. You can run FIFA on your PC - in better resolution with better frame rates with a controller (or multiple controllers).

Consoles for idiots who can't do PC's, PC's for PC users who want PC stuff, SteamOS for....??????????

 

[MYstIC G]

It would be much better with a windows based machine and Steam installed...at least you could play non-steam games on it.

There's been nothing so far that says you can't do exactly that if you want to. Nothing about locked down hardware, etc. If nothing more it would be useful if Valve comes out of this having galvanised what "the next X years of gaming" specification minimum is for PC gamers. It's about time someone did away with some of the the "this will run" / "this won't run" bullcrap that PCs cling on to.

 

[Scouse]

It's about time someone did away with some of the the "this will run" / "this won't run" bullcrap that PCs cling on to.

Whilst I hear ya, it's like saying it's hard to figure that stuff out. But it isn't.

If you're going to develop for the cutting edge, then you need the cutting edge to develop on. In graphical terms the reason games have stagnated is that publishers want cross-platform cash-maximising games - they've been playing to a majority.

Cutting edge is never a majority endeavour. The problem is that games makers have lost sight of the fact that there's still a very profitable market for cutting-edge PC games run on cutting-edge hardware. They just don't bother 'cause they just see a "bigger" pie, rather than a pie with more people fighting over it.

 

[Raven]

er well seeing as its a linux machine running a bespoke version of linux, rather than a windows machine any game will have to be made compatible to run on it. PC gaming usually gets the shitty end of the stick as it is, I hardly see a more niche version of PC gaming getting better treatment, or any treatment at all.

I am sure you can install windows on it but then what would be the point?

Its chicken and the egg.

 

[Scouse]

I suppose as an open-source console it makes sense.

But then we come down to price and availablility of titles, which the steam box sucks at on both.

 

[ileks]

I don't have a TV in the lounge. It gets in the way of being sociable - when mates are around I figure they're round to talk to me, not watch shit. (Uptake of board games has increased - it's nice to scream at your mates and be physically holding things/have to figure out what's happened yourself rather than have a computer draw it).

However, TV upstairs has a PC plugged in - but no aerial. Don't subscribe to sky/virgin or anything else. If we want to watch something there's torrents. If we want to play games there's a proper sized screen and a settee to sit on rather than a desk. Hard mouse pad to my right on the settee and wireless keyboard in my lap.

All my mates have media PC's in their living rooms for gaming and all the good shit you get with PC's - or like @DaGaffer have laptops that can plug into the telly.

I just don't *get* consoles - or the SteamOS. You can run FIFA on your PC - in better resolution with better frame rates with a controller (or multiple controllers).

Consoles for idiots who can't do PC's, PC's for PC users who want PC stuff, SteamOS for....??????????

That's exactly what I do. It's fantastic. I torrent all the films & TV shows I want and watch them in 1080p. I have an Xbox controller for games. The only thing I can't quite get is HD quality football. Streams are OK but If I could pay a reasonable amount for proper 720p streaming from Sky I would.

The only reason I'm thinking of getting a console is because mates have them.

 

[Scouse]

The only thing I can't quite get is HD quality football

Kind of on-and-off on HD quality. Sometimes I can get a 2000kbps HD-feed, sometimes I have to settle for a flash link. But I can get 99% of the matches - including the 3pm ones that aren't televised. And considering I used to watch films on video - with it's 200-vertical-line-resolution shitness, and still enjoy them, then I'm not that arsed.

Best thing? I can alt-tab to a game of counterstrike or a few clicks of CIV5 when half time comes around or if someone's injured and I don't have to root around for the remote control or have a second piece of hardware

 

[Raven]

That's exactly what I do. It's fantastic. I torrent all the films & TV shows I want and watch them in 1080p. I have an Xbox controller for games. The only thing I can't quite get is HD quality football. Streams are OK but If I could pay a reasonable amount for proper 720p streaming from Sky I would.

The only reason I'm thinking of getting a console is because mates have them.

Sky Go is terrible for football in full screen on a PC, not even close to 720p. BT sport isn't so bad though, I usually watch the Saturday game on my 2nd monitor while gaming.

 

[Deebs]

Sky Go is terrible for football in full screen on a PC, not even close to 720p. BT sport isn't so bad though, I usually watch the Saturday game on my 2nd monitor while gaming.

Sony said that you need at least 5MBs for PSN, guess all the carriers need to pull their finger out and offer a guarantee.

 

[MYstIC G]

This was inevitable, no more forced UEFI

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648817378243644036/#p1