STEAM!

[ilhdr]

Steam Box is the same mistake microsoft made on xbox and it will **** us pc gamers in the mid-long run.

Edited September 25, 2013 by ilhdr

[AwesomeOcelot]

That's a good point, Valve are already making their games console friendly and that shows in their PC games, the consolitus could get worse with the SteamBox. The original Xbox took some PC franchises away, Valve probably won't be as bad as Microsoft, they won't throw money at other developers to move from Windows/Mac and they'll still publish on Windows/Mac, but Valve could make SteamOS the lead platform for their own games and if anything Valve are a far more important developer to PC than Microsoft was in 2001.

[Humanoid]

Valve are a developer? Could have fooled me.

 

 

(Being facetious of course, but it's also true I've never played any of their games)

[Keyrock]

GRAIN OF SALT ALERT: ANONYMOUS SOURCE - SUPPOSEDLY VALVE EMPLOYEE

 

Valve's next announcement to be a reference design, Source 2 on Friday

 

 

A supposed Valve Software employee has jumped on popular site 4chan to spill the beans on what the company plans to reveal on Wednesday and Friday. Posting only as Anonymous, he also discusses why Valve chose to use Linux as the foundation, dishes out a few insults towards Microsoft, and talks about the platform's streaming feature. But take all of this with a grain of salt: it's easy to write fiction while under the anonymous umbrella.

 

For starters, as expected, Valve will supposedly reveal a reference design on Wednesday, not a complete out-of-the-box console. This design will be highly upgradable by the end user to that customers aren't locked into one hardware set for a near decade. Xi3 Corp could still be one of these partners, and maybe even Zotac and a few other barebones Mini PC providers, but the unnamed source indicates that the ideal form factor may not be quite that small.

 

"It will support all hardware. All CPUs, all GPUs -- from three generations ago at the oldest for Nvidia, two for AMD and all going forward," the unnamed employee claims. "The release design, however, will have a Nvidia GPU and an AMD CPU. It will use regular PC parts, however, there will be a certification program. We have to guarantee some sort of baseline performance – if there's analog out, then the audio must not crackle, PSUs that are small won't burn your house down, small cases without retarded branding, low latency wireless networking, etc. You are free to build an 800 pound glowing monstrosity if you wish, and it'll work, but that's not really what we want you to do. There will also be prebuilt and bundled solutions."

 

So that's part two of the reveal: a certification program for hardware builders looking to provide full solutions, and a reference design for the ideal "Steam Box". As revealed on Monday, Valve is also releasing the SteamOS platform not only for Valve partners for creating a complete package, but for PC gamers wanting to build their own Steam Box. He said that the reference design doesn't use Intel because the company wanted to be paid for its involvement while Valve in turn would be marketing Intel's hardware for free.

 

"[Nvidia] reached out to us and have been extremely cooperative," the employee said. "They even let us use their streaming tech – the one they showcase on the Shield (which is getting Steam integration, btw, as are all Tegra devices), even though we told them it would have to work on AMD cards. If you were wondering what Nvidia was unveiling soon that wasn't a video card, this is it. They're the first choice for Steam Box hardware. (We even set it up so that it rains on AMD's video card announcement, kek). Expect extremely good Linux drivers from them over the next few months. AMD is… hesitant to comment."

 

That's it for Wednesday. On Friday Valve will not reveal new Steam peripherals, but the Source 2 game engine. The employee said it won't have a line of DirectX in it (meaning it presumably supports only OpenGL), but will work on Linux, Windows and OS X – possibly even the PlayStation 4 in the future. There will also be a game possibly using this engine that will be bundled with Nvidia cards and redeemed on Steam Boxes.

 

The update also goes into how Linux is faster than a Windows platform, and how Microsoft is extremely lazy and greedy. We've already heard Gabe Newell thrash the Windows 8 platform, so it's no surprise hearing similar talk from supposed employees. Windows is the real cancer killing PC gaming, not consoles, he claims.

 

Naturally take all of the new Valve talk as simply rumor until Valve dishes out the official news on Wednesday and Friday. Cross your fingers the new Source 2 game is Half-Life 3!

Obviously this is all just rumor, but it does sound rather plausible.  It does indeed make sense for them to push OpenGL as the graphics API.  They've been championing OpenGL ever since their move to OSX and Linux.  Valve has been working hard to bring better tools to OpenGL, which is the area where it falls behind DirectX.  Feature wise, they're on par with each other.  If this is true, this would be eerily reminiscent of Microsoft's own strongarm tactics some 10 years ago that attempted (somewhat successfully) to bury OpenGL.

 

We'll find out soon enough if there's any truth to this supposed leak.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Keyrock

[Humanoid]

A regular poster on the Anandtech forums admitted to having faked that leak. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2343871&page=14

 

Obviously he could be lying, or double-bluffing. :D

[Keyrock]

A regular poster on the Anandtech forums admitted to having faked that leak. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2343871&page=14

 

Obviously he could be lying, or double-bluffing. :D

LOL.  Hence, why I threw up the grain of salt alert.  Anyway, we're about 3 hours from finding out for realsies.

[AwesomeOcelot]

That's obviously fake, but it is what everyone has been predicting across the web, SteamBox and Source 2 being the other announcements. I think that's sensible but speculation is often wrong, especially when a company can read it and change their plans on the fly.

[Keyrock]

So the second announcement is indeed the SteamBox, or rather Steam Machine, though there will be multiple Steam Machinescoming 2014.  For the time being there is a hardware beta you can sign up for:

 

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

 

 

When can I buy one?!

Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers.

 

I’m pretty happy with my PC Gaming setup, do I have to buy a new piece of hardware now?

No. Everything that we’ve been doing on Steam for the last 10 years will continue to move forward.

 

If you guys are delivering an OS to hardware manufacturers, why is Valve also making its own box?

We're conducting a beta of the overall Steam living-room experience, so we needed to build prototype hardware on which to run tests. At Valve we always rely on real-world testing as part of our design process. The specific machine we're testing is designed for users who want the most control possible over their hardware. Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.

 

How will you choose the 300 beta participants?

A small number of users (30 or less) will be chosen based on their past community contributions and beta participation. The remainder will be chosen at random from the eligible pool.

 

Should I create lots of Steam accounts to increase my chances of getting selected?

No, that won’t work.

What are the specs of the Valve prototype?

We'll tell you more about it soon. Remember, there will ultimately be several boxes to choose from, with an array of specifications, price, and performance.

 

Where’s a picture of it? How big is it?

We promise we'll tell you more about it soon.

 

When will the prototypes ship?

This year.

 

Will beta testers be allowed to share info about their experience and post pictures and opinions online?

Yes, that really is the whole point. The input from testers should come in many forms: bug reports, forum posts, concept art, 3D prints, haikus, and also very publicly stated opinions.

 

Will I be able to build my own box to run SteamOS?

Yes.

 

Can I hack this box? Run another OS? Change the hardware? Install my own software? Use it to build a robot?

Sure.

 

Can I download the OS to try it out?

You will be able to download it (including the source code, if you're into that) but not yet.

 

If I’m not in the beta, how can I help and contribute feedback?

The Steam Universe Group is where feedback is being collected. Most areas of the group will remain open for participation by all Steam users. Some may be limited to beta participants only, but there will be plenty of ways to contribute feedback for everyone.

 

What games will be available during the beta?

The nearly 3,000 games on Steam. Hundreds already running natively on the SteamOS, with more to come. The rest will work seamlessly via in-home streaming.

 

What is SteamOS? What’s included?

Here's a link to what we said earlier about SteamOS. We'll have more details to tell you, soon.

 

Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?

If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though - we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tale]

It's basically what lots of people assumed the "Steambox" would be. Or at least from where I sit. Sad that there's not more details. Something new we didn't already figure out.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I'm struggling to find any new information in these announcements since Valve started talking about the SteamBox a while ago. A 300 participant beta? I was hoping for something more substantial like partners, pricing, specs, new games.

Edited September 25, 2013 by AwesomeOcelot

[Keyrock]

It's basically what lots of people assumed the "Steambox" would be. Or at least from where I sit. Sad that there's not more details. Something new we didn't already figure out.

You mean something like:

 

"True to it's name, the Steam Machine also steams milk.  Combine it with your already existing coffee maker, or add the $20 coffee maker attachment for an all-in-one cappucino maker/gaming machine ready to tackle an all-night gaming session."

 

Edited September 25, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tale]

 

It's basically what lots of people assumed the "Steambox" would be. Or at least from where I sit. Sad that there's not more details. Something new we didn't already figure out.

You mean something like:

 

"True to it's name, the Steam Machine also steams milk.  Combine it with your already existing coffee maker, or add the $20 coffee maker attachment for an all-in-one cappucino maker/gaming machine ready to tackle an all-night gaming session."

 

I was hoping that maybe it would be coal operated.

[SadExchange]

Kind of off topic, why does every link to a steam site bring me to the spanish version of the site?  Kind of hard to join the group if I can't read the language.  Or can anyone tell me how to join the group within steam?

[Keyrock]

Kind of off topic, why does every link to a steam site bring me to the spanish version of the site?  Kind of hard to join the group if I can't read the language.  Or can anyone tell me how to join the group within steam?

GabeN can read your mind and he can sense your desperate desire to learn Spanish.  He's also planning to partner with Rosetta Stone, so it's a win-win.

 

 

THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:

Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility

1. Join the Steam Universe community group

2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions

3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already)

4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven't already)

5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

[SadExchange]

 

Kind of off topic, why does every link to a steam site bring me to the spanish version of the site?  Kind of hard to join the group if I can't read the language.  Or can anyone tell me how to join the group within steam?

GabeN can read your mind and he can sense your desperate desire to learn Spanish.  He's also planning to partner with Rosetta Stone, so it's a win-win.

 

 

THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:

Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility

1. Join the Steam Universe community group

2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions

3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already)

4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven't already)

5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

 

haha, that's what I was thinking.  Thanks for the notes, but along the lines of 1.) where on my steam application do I go to join the group?

[ilhdr]

That's a good point, Valve are already making their games console friendly and that shows in their PC games, the consolitus could get worse with the SteamBox. The original Xbox took some PC franchises away, Valve probably won't be as bad as Microsoft, they won't throw money at other developers to move from Windows/Mac and they'll still publish on Windows/Mac, but Valve could make SteamOS the lead platform for their own games and if anything Valve are a far more important developer to PC than Microsoft was in 2001.

 

If Valve starts to make a lot of money with its console, I don't see them still supporting a plataform which they don't grab a share in its hardware sells.

[Malcador]

10 friends ? pft.

[Tale]

If Valve starts to make a lot of money with its console, I don't see them still supporting a plataform which they don't grab a share in its hardware sells.

It's not a console. Valve is unlikely to be getting money from hardware sales except for the ones they're going to be selling themselves, similar to how they operate Steamworks. SteamOS is even available for regular users to use for free, you can essentially build your own Steambox.

[alanschu]

I'm actually curious if Half-Life 3 is Friday's announcement.

[Tale]

Valve has a controller patent that's user configurable. You can pull out the joysticks and put in d-pads. And today's announcement says they'll talk about input soon.

 

That's what I suspect for Friday. But it does sound kind of weak.

[alanschu]

I didn't know about that.  It could be that, though yeah I think that that one is a bit less interesting.

[AwesomeOcelot]

The terms and conditions does say about the beta hardware coming with a beta controller.

[Monte Carlo]

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die was only UK£ 4.99. Seemed silly not to buy it given the stuff some of the guys on here have said about it.

[Keyrock]

The third announcement is indeed a controller:

 

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

 

 

That thing is fugly!

Edited September 27, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tale]

That definitely looks like some out of the box thinking right there. It's not in my comfort zone. I have to know how this actually performs.