Thoughts?

What I know for sure is that their console will have a though time around here and as much as I like Steam and Valve in general I'm afraid it will be difficult to recommend their boxes to my friends. No need to even consider the offer or the titles.

Kind of insurance for Valve to not be to the mercy of any proprietary os. I don't think they expect much income within the next years from boxes sale.

I don't care but for playing games on my Ubuntu pc. I've got a new gamer pc...

I think it is simply a piece of crap. But... whatever, most of the Steam users are idiots, so are most of the people who play video games today.

I don't play PC games on the TV. Adding a streaming box between the PC and the TV would just increase control latency and my frustration with response times. I already eschew wireless controllers whenever possible. (Damn Wii) I can feel the milliseconds lag between my button presses and the action on the screen. (I like fighting games, and specific frames of animation matter!) So until I see a standalone SteamBox that doesn't require an always-on connection to play (online to download locally is fine), I'm going to watch and wait on this.

So until I see a standalone SteamBox that doesn't require an always-on connection to play (online to download locally is fine), I'm going to watch and wait on this.

Steam itself isn't always-on, and you can download and play locally (though you need to 'call home' occasionally). I haven't heard anything about the steambox being always-on, and seeing that the basic operating system is open-source (and Steam will run over that), I don't see how it could be more "always-on" that Steam itself is. Further, since Microsoft just took a public beating because it was always-on, I doubt Valve is going to make theirs always on just a few months later.

Did I miss something? Where did you read it the Steambox is always-on?

Re: Wireless controllers - every console is heading in that direction except for PCs. You probably have a better chance of the SteamBox supporting wired controllers through standard USB ports than PS4 or the XBox One.

I have serious doubts about Steam hardware capabilities. It took Microsoft 2 console generations to probably get it right hardware wise with the Xbox One.. Valve is a software company first and foremost, I expect "growing pains".. If Valve thinks OEM will take up the burden, I don't think anyone is going to invest significantly in developing custom hardware for the Steam Box until its proven itself. At best they will invest in using commodity components and assembly, selling at a high mark up, which will put the Steam Box at a disadvantage with traditional PCs which use the exact same commodity components.

I have serious doubts about Steam hardware capabilities. It took Microsoft 2 console generations to probably get it right hardware wise with the Xbox One.. Valve is a software company first and foremost, I expect "growing pains".. If Valve thinks OEM will take up the burden, I don't think anyone is going to invest significantly in developing custom hardware for the Steam Box until its proven itself. At best they will invest in using commodity components and assembly, selling at a high mark up, which will put the Steam Box at a disadvantage with traditional PCs which use the exact same commodity components.

I honestly don't think they are really going into the hardware market, but instead building a reference spec for OEMs and enthusiasts. I.E., "If you want to build a Steam Machine, you should meet <this> minimum spec to get <this> quality of experience". Part of that is offering a base model that represents what Valve sees as a Steam Machine of certain standard of quality. Kinda llike what Google does with its Nexus devices for showing off a good Android implementation. At least that is my interpretation.

I am interested in the idea of the Steam OS. I think part of the problem they could have is that playstation and xbox have been growing a media ecosystem, and Steam I think will have a harder time developing those partnerships for the near future; stuff like the on demand movie services PS and Xbox have or Xbox's deal with the NFL. They're in a position where they could be THE media center OS, but people expect a lot from such a position.

The second announcement I think was the biggest non-announcement in the world. Their announcement was essentially saying that they were at a stage 6-12 months before an announcement that's actually interesting. "We're announcing a new operating system! BUT WAIT! That operating system is going to run on hardware. Some time in 2014. for 300 people."

Personally I would have held off on announcing Steam OS at all until I had a piece of hardware I could launch in the same quarter. Imagine how crazy the internet would have gotten if they would have announced some piece of hardware that's pre-orderable today. Seems like a total waste of the hype they'd been building for the past week and now I'm even less interested in what they announce today.

I am interested in the idea of the Steam OS. I think part of the problem they could have is that playstation and xbox have been growing a media ecosystem, and Steam I think will have a harder time developing those partnerships for the near future; stuff like the on demand movie services PS and Xbox have or Xbox's deal with the NFL. They're in a position where they could be THE media center OS, but people expect a lot from such a position.

The second announcement I think was the biggest non-announcement in the world. Their announcement was essentially saying that they were at a stage 6-12 months before an announcement that's actually interesting. "We're announcing a new operating system! BUT WAIT! That operating system is going to run on hardware. Some time in 2014. for 300 people."

Personally I would have held off on announcing Steam OS at all until I had a piece of hardware I could launch in the same quarter. Imagine how crazy the internet would have gotten if they would have announced some piece of hardware that's pre-orderable today. Seems like a total waste of the hype they'd been building for the past week and now I'm even less interested in what they announce today.

I think they want people to download and beta test SteamOS so that had to be announced, They will also send out steam machine prototypes to 300 users this year (This is the interesting part of the steam machine announcement imo, it is quite rare that normal users get a chance to play with free prototype hardware)

I think they want people to download and beta test SteamOS so that had to be announced, They will also send out steam machine prototypes to 300 users this year (This is the interesting part of the steam machine announcement imo, it is quite rare that normal users get a chance to play with free prototype hardware)

I get that, but the amount of hype they generated did not match the actual announcement. It's the same problem that causes people to still make fun of the Segway; the, "I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT WILL QUITE LITERALLY CHANGE THE WAY EVERY HUMAN LIVES THEIR LIVES!... It's a scooter."

Imagine how flat the iPod/Pad/Phone would have fallen if they came out and said, "It's the iPod, and next year we'll be launching a beta test where 300 lucky Apple fans will be able to beta test it," instead of, "It's the iPod, and it's out next month."

I'm not saying what they're doing doesn't make sense from a business perspective, but from a marketing perspective it's at best a wasted opportunity.