In September 2013 Valve made three separate announcements in one week. They were the development of Steam OS, a new Steam Controller, and finally the creation of Steam Machines. All three of these announcements were related in such that they are part of one goal, to take PC gaming into the living room and make it more accessible to the public as a whole. To make it user friendly, controller friendly, and TV/Living Room friendly as well.
I’ll admit that I am a Console Gamer. I love playing my games in my media room with a controller in my hand. Playing on my 92-inch screen (Guys, I’m totally not bragging here… well maybe a little bit) utilizing a full 7.1 speaker set up makes me smile every time I sit down for a session. I have ventured into the world of PC gaming now and then, especially whenever we bought a new PC for the house, but I’ll admit I have never bought a PC with gaming in mind as I didn’t want to spend big bucks for that Ultimate Gaming Machine. I have played my games on the Intellivision, Colecovision, NES, Genesis, Saturn, PSOne, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, Xbox 360, Wii U, and most recently the Xbox One and PS4. Are you sensing a theme here? I, like many other gamers out there, am a console gamer. I am sure PC gamers out there are yelling at the screen saying “you could have bought or built a kickass gaming rig for all the money you’ve spent on home consoles” and they’re certainly right. I am sure there is some truth to that, but sooner or later I would have upgraded to a larger HDD, faster processer, or better video card, so I am sure more money would have been spent.
This is where the idea of the Steam Machines and all that is associated with them comes to play. Valve is partnering up with PC manufacturers to make “home console” like boxes that will be powered by the Linux based Steam OS. If you’ve been following the development and unveiling of each component of Valve’s master plan, you may know that 13 Steam Boxes were shown in Las Vegas at CES 2014. Boxes from the likes of Alienware (Dell), Origin PC, iBuyPower, Falcon Northwest, Cyberpower PC and Maingear to name a few. Prices range from $499 to as high as $6,000. All the boxes will utilize the Steam Controller too. Needless to say, the idea of a console like experience playing PC games is interesting, but as time has gone by I’ve developed some reservations of what is being offered.
For me, one thing that strikes out at the beginning is that Steam OS is Linux based. Gabe Newell stated at the start of unveiling all the information that Linux is relatively unused in PC gaming and that this is an opportunity for the OS to take off as a mainstream gaming OS. My understanding as a console gamer is that most PC gaming is Windows based. Heck, I can only assume that the majority of the now 75 million Steam users use Windows powered machines. Sure, there are some Mac OS users in there, as well as some Linux, but at this point in time, as a gambling man, I am confident enough to put money on the fact that most PC gamers play on Windows machines. I am also to understand that at the time of writing this article about 250 games are supported by the Linux based Steam OS. That’s a good number of games for a “new” platform, but when you think of how many PC games are out there, from indie titles to “AAA” titles, it is not a lot at all.
I also wonder how much support developers will give to making PC games both Windows friendly and Linux/Steam OS friendly. Given that I am not a programmer I have no clue if this will take a little or a lot of work. Sure, I do know that you can install Windows on a Steam Machine, but as a console gamer doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the Steam Machine? It’s supposed to offer a new experience with a new and innovative OS, the Steam OS, which is Linux based. I also know that you can stream PC and Mac games using a Steam Machine and Steam OS, but again, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the concept. At least with home consoles like the Xbox One or PS4, their OS’s are such that you don’t have to worry about different OS’s on the machine and you know that when you hit the start button that the game is programmed specifically for the machine you are playing, no dual booting or no streaming from another machine required. It’s basically press and play.
The other concern is that if Valve is aiming to have Steam OS and Steam Machines take over your living room, what else is being offered? What about entertainment apps such as Netflix, Amazon Instant, Crackle, or any other music or movie-based app using the Linux based Steam OS. A search of Valve’s Steam OS information page indicates:
“We’re working with many of the media services you know and love. Soon we will begin bringing them online, allowing you to access your favourite music and video with Steam and Steam OS.”
It seems that there is no definitive answer at this time, and what level of support the video, music or any other entertainment services that you can access on homes consoles, smart TV’s, or traditional PC’s are yet to be seen. One can only hope that with Valve’s desire to take over the living room that there will be lots of support in this area, but I honestly don’t know.
Another concern I have is the new Steam Controller. This controller is being developed to allow PC games to be played with an actual controller. Now, I know that not all PC games are complex, but some of the more popular ones use many keys on a keyboard as well as a mouse, and that is why you don’t see a lot of them on a home console. The Steam Controller is looking to change that. The controller is shedding the standard analog sticks of current home consoles in exchange for haptic and touch sensitive touch pads. The controller was originally going to utilize a touch pad in the middle too, but at the recent Steam Dev Days it was stated that the centre square touch pad is out in favour of a some physical buttons that may resemble traditional d-pad and “a,b,x,y” set-up. Overall, the touch pads and other forms of input on the controller are supposed to be equivalent to what you can do using your keyboard and mouse, but if this is true it is yet to be seen.
For me it is the touch pads that make me nervous, as the level control using a traditional controller with traditional analog sticks and buttons is commonplace. Yes, I know that mouse and keyboard have always been stated to be more accurate, but as a console gamer I love the controllers of today, and the Xbox 360/Xbox One controller is my preferred choice. Early Internet reports also indicate that more then a few people have concerns with how hard it has been to adapt to the controller early on. And for those that are screaming at the screen “you haven’t used it yet…” you are indeed correct, but the idea of no analog sticks is concerning to me, plain and simple.
The final concerns I have are all interconnected, and that is with the actual Steam Machine itself. There are so many different companies offering Steam Machines and the options with each one are quite different, which equates to different prices and different capabilities. A quick search of the Internet clearly shows that the Steam Machines unveiled at CES this month all vary in CPU (brand and speed), graphics card, storage, memory, and design to name a few features. I believe that this may be very confusing to the pubic as a whole. I can envision a family who are interested in a Steam Machine as they walk into a Best Buy or any brick and mortar game store and are faced with a multitude of Steam Machine options, each one with a different specs, different looks, and different prices. Some may buy one too powerful for their gaming needs while others may buy one too weak.
The variance in prices (at least those prices announced at CES) of the Steam Machines is insane, from $499 to $6000. Sure, the latter is a fully loaded and pimped to the max machine, but that is one hell of a variance. What or where is the true magic spot to get that ultimate PC like experience but on one’s TV and in their living room? Valve has already been noted on record to somewhat favour Alienware’s Steam Machine. Valve Designer Greg Coomer was quoted on The Verge stating “[The Alienware] Machine is one that we think is actually gong to serve most customers and make the most Steam users happy”. This is an interesting quote and I’d like to point out that there is no confirmed price on this unit yet, so it will be interesting to see what it will cost as generally speaking Alienware PC’s have not been cheap. Add to this point, what will it cost to build your own Steam Machine using off the shelf parts? I am assuming PC fans may be able to build their own Steam Machines for a pretty fair price, but that would once again defeat the purpose of Valve’s dream for simplicity and placement into the living room.
Finally, will Steam Boxes that are released during the early stages of Steam OS have the longevity that home consoles have? Case in point, the Xbox 360 is over 8 years old. Sure, there have been some hardware changes, but you didn’t have to buy a new Xbox 360 to continue playing Xbox 360 games… unless you red ringed but that is a whole other issue altogether! The games developed for it got better with time as developers knew what they were developing for. I know more than a few people who are still playing with an original Xbox 360. With Steam Machines, and PC games as a whole, they advance requiring more powerful hardware as time goes by to get that ultimate PC experience. So, will an initial Steam Machine bought at launch play games using Steam OS four or five years later just as well? Will they look just as pretty as the newer Steam Machines? With a console you know that the game is optimized for the console you’re playing on, and developers get to grips with the hardware with time, so games on a PS4 or Xbox One are going to look much better in 4-5 years, with no need to upgrade the box. Will the Steam Machine philosophy be like this?
Anyhow, I am sure I could bore you more, but alas what I speak of are just things that popped into my head when thinking about this topic. Again, I admit I am a console gamer, and I am proud of it, so I have had to think long and hard about my interest in a Steam Machine, and after considering the above, I am definitely going to wait. Yes, I know I am not a PC expert, and I can admit this fact, but I am what I see as a prime target of a Steam Machine philosophy. That being said, in my opinion there are too many intangibles at this time, from the Linux based OS, the small number of PC games supported by Linux as a whole, the need to stream to the Steam Machine to play Win/Mac games, to the controller itself. Plus with so many companies wanting your money, what is going to make people buy one Steam Machine over another, and how long will they all compete before there are only a few producers left? Let us know what your thoughts are regarding Valve’s conquest for the living room and why you may or may not be considering a Steam Machine.