Quick Note - Steam Machines Delayed Until 2015
by Brett Howse on May 27, 2014 11:40 PM EST- Posted in
- Steam Machines
- Valve
- SteamOS
- Steam Controller
The concept of a Steam Box has been interesting from the beginning. Harness the power of a PC, include the expandability and upgradability, but keep the system simple and secure.
Unfortunately, that dream is slightly farther away at this point. Valve used their Steam Community page to post an update on the Steam Machine status:
"We've been getting emails from the Steam community asking us how our in-development Steam Machines are coming along. It's great that you're excited about it, and we know you appreciate it when we keep you in the loop on stuff like this, so we wanted to give you all a quick update.
We’re now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers. It's generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we'll be able to make the controller a lot better. Of course, it's also keeping us pretty busy making all those improvements. Realistically, we're now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014.
Obviously we're just as eager as you are to get a Steam Machine in your hands. But our number one priority is making sure that when you do, you'll be getting the best gaming experience possible. We hope you'll be patient with us while we get there. Until then, we’ll continue to post updates as we have more stories to share."
The controllers are unlike anything seen on any previous console, so it’s not surprising they are generating a lot of feedback.
E3 is just around the corner, so hopefully there will be a more comprehensive update at that time.
Source: Valve via ArsTechnica
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nathanddrews - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
My worst laptop is a Pentium T4400 with an NVIDIA GT 320M and is plays smoooooooth.coburn_c - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Oh no?!?! They delayed putting their freely available, largely unfinished linux distro on an overpriced pre-built? How will we survive?takeship - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Any bets on the delay stemming from the imminent most to MIR from X11 and Valve not wanting to be stuck supporting two display drivers for the next several years?eslu - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
More likely with X11 to Wayland i guess? Maybe related to AMD drivers?extide - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Debian won't be moving to MIR, they will be going to Wayland like everyone else should be. MIR is a joke.Torashin - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Read: We're waiting until Mantle is ported to Linux.Guspaz - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Most steam machines will be GPU limited, not CPU limited, so Mantle wouldn't really provide any improvement.andrewaggb - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Except more than half of the games supporting mantle are new ea games, which won't be on steam anyways. Waiting for Mantle is probably one of the hurdles though. From a price perspective, waiting for ddr4 amd cpu's, or something better from intel also makes sense from a low end machine standpoint.Only real problem I have is that this is further fragmenting the pc market which is already an afterthought for many people. Valve needs to provide something compelling. So good is makes the xbox one and ps4 and pc gaming look bad. With at least one or two exclusives that are 9/10 or better quality games.
Their controller is interesting. the game streaming is interesting. I don't think either is enough on it's own. If they had a VR headset ready to go, full multimedia support, a big games library, Half life 3, and sweet pricing, I'm still not sure it would be enough.
I'm currently playing the following games on/off. Battlefield 4, Titanfall, Hearthstone, Diablo 3. See the problem?
I'm looking forward to, Dragon Age, Destiny, Halo Next. My kids are waiting for PvZ Warfare on PC, otherwise they play minecraft and skyrim and lego lord of the rings.
So in all of that, steam has skyrim and lego games. Don't get me wrong, I have tonnes of games on steam, I love steam, but it's nowhere near being my only gaming service. The politics involved and the 'platform exclusives', 'store exclusives' etc are not going away unless something turns the whole market upside down. I don't think steam boxes are going to do that. At least not overnight.
Guspaz - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
What they probably need is a very cheap streaming-only steam machine (which they've talked about, but I don't think such a machine was amongst the initial ones they revealed). When streaming, SteamOS has access to your entire library of Windows games, so in its purest form such a box fills the role of bringing your whole Steam library into your living room.Impulses - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
That's what I'd buy. $200 or less and I don't even care if it isn't perfect out of the box... Any more and it better be, I can't be bothered to go build a machine just to test the streaming aspect. I imagine many will have spare laptops suitable for that but how many would bother?