SteamOS

That IS a touch screen in the middle. There's also the two trackpads.

So I haven't really been following, is a steambox basically a pc dedicated entirely to playing games? It'd be nice if it's cheaper than buying and upgrading a normal pc.

It's kinda closer to a console dedicated to PC games, but that's close enough.

You mean like a console?

edited 30th Sep '13 4:50:17 PM by AnSTH

I wonder if any claim of 'Steam OS exclusivity' will be considered a marketing faux pas .

Since it looks like it's going to be a Linux distro, just using Steam's Big Picture mode as a GUI, any Steam OS 'exclusive' should work well on most Linuxes. Not to mention that the OS is being made freely available for download, and dual-booting is a pretty well-defined (and fairly painless) process, so the worst-case scenario would be a slight inconvenience for Windows users.

Of course, as a Linux user I wouldn't mind having a few big, exclusive titles, it might bring some more people into the tent (and a bigger user-base would solve a lot of Linux problems, which mostly come down to companies not taking it seriously because of the minuscule number of users).

Actually, I was questioning how limiting any attempt at 'exclusivity' could be since there seems to be efforts to ensure that the same games will be playable on both Steam and Steam OS and whether that would prevent using 'good exclusives' as a pushing point for the OS and the hardware.

edited 1st Oct '13 6:00:32 AM by Recon5

Maybe Linux could get in on the timed exclusive scene. Make the console guys (and the Microsoft guys) see how it feels from the other side.

Or maybe they won't be such douches. Not that I wouldn't mind getting something before Windows and/or console gamers.

^ Hard for that to happen, Windows have WAY too large market share in Steam for companies to piss them off...

The idea would be to convince the companies to make a release a timed exclusive.

What's Windows going to do? Even if they wanted to take any action (which they wouldn't), doing so would run afoul of competition laws.

The risk they would run would be of pissing off Windows gamers, but I don't think that's really a great risk for a timed exclusive.

It's not the companies' call to make. It's Gaben's.

I still don't really get it, [1], according to this, they just seem to be glorified pre-built pcs, not really a competitor to consoles but to alienware. I imagine building it youself would also come out cheaper.

It could be that they're aiming to match or even undercut scratch building while providing the obvious user-friendliness of a prebuild. They have the resources to do that if they want.

Now that might work. One of the big things that keeps so many people away from PC gaming is the complexity of trying to set yourself up a good gaming rig. So if one of their aims is to "simplify" PC gaming, then it could possibly work.

edited 7th Oct '13 9:15:23 PM by SgtRicko

Controller demonstration

Steam Machine and Steam Controller prototypes coming to 300 beta participants December 13. Winners to be revealed at 2 PM Pacific time (5 PM Eastern time) today. SteamOS to be released to the public on the same day as the Steam Machine beta starts (although Valve recommends waiting until 2014 to try it out unless you are very familiar with Linux). In addition, the 300 beta participants are exclusively chosen from the US.

edited 11th Dec '13 1:11:18 PM by TrashJack

So I've heard that the Steam Machine is essentially a gaming PC, while the Steam OS is something you can use to stream games from your Steam library onto a TV. Is that right? Or do I have something wrong?

The Steam OS is that, and more. It's pretty much Linux (a free open-source OS) with a bunch of gaming-oriented features and optimization attached to it.

Okay. Problem is I play games on a Windows, not a Linux XD

That double-boot tech.