Valve announces SteamOS

Status
Not open for further replies.
Interesting idea. I guess it's not dissimilar to a console OS but you can pick your hardware (kinda because I know it won't support everything). It had to happen though, Steam was getting boxed in by Windows and Mac and they have no chance to move to mobile.
 
The only way they can make this fly is to make HL3 exclusive to it. Otherwise it's kind of a niche OS that will probably take 2-3 years to make it awesome.


I can't believe how many people are confused by the concept of a 'living room machine'.
 
Call me crazy, but I read it like it's not only coming to their Steambox. It sounds like they might aim for consoles now, since they support apps.
 
Interfectum said:
This goes well beyond simply streaming stuff to your TV. Did you read the page?
Click to expand...

I did. It's Steam on your TV with a more consolized interface and an OS that no one wants to use. I can do that right now if I wanted to, but keep the OS that I and everyone else still wants to use.
 
Ricker said:
Mmmm ok,but I already have that...so yeah not sure where they are going with this...its like Apple TV or the Vita TV for those who dont already have a living room machine...? lol,still a little confused,guess we shall know more with the other 2 reveals.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm gathering, and expected. I don't get people expecting a direct competitor against XB1/PS4. It goes against so much of what Valve is about. I think the steam box is going to be a micro-console with HD output to any tv in your house, which is actually perfect for the PC enthusiast crowd.
 
I have no idea if this could be done, but imagine a button on Steam in windows that said "launch SteamOS" and as soon as you hit it, it instantly went to SteamOS (much like the button for big picture instantly puts you in big picture).

The streaming just doesn't do it for me at all, I want a way to easily play both my Windows games and SteamOS games on the same PC - without having to completely reboot the PC. I just don't like the idea of using the SteamOS PC and then having to run an entire other PC for the Windows based games.
 
maplelord93 said:
you cant play your normal game without windows or mac, this is just essential ui change to fit better for tv?
Click to expand...

Seeing as about half of Steam's top 10 currently playing are Valve games and those will be covered, a good chunk of the Steam userbase would be fine natively. Ideally the end game for them is probably to ween developers off Windows into a more controllable environment.
 
I might note, that I really don't find the, "Streaming," capabilities, all that alluring a feature. Ideally, I'd like to move out of the Windows environment, since Microsoft is heading in a direction I don't want to go, but I don't want to keep two Gaming PC's around.

The big hurdle for me, is going to be game support. I suspect most the Indie games will support SteamOS just fine, so really it'll come down to a handful of big key titles.

Basically, Dark Souls 2, and Final Fantasy XIV. It's okay if it took awhile to get native support for these games on SteamOS, since it'll be a year or two before I'm ready to do a full rebuild of my current PC gaming rig, but I want these titles eventually, as they're the only AAA titles I see myself playing on PC during the next year.

Also, they better have a good web browser.
 
Nonentity said:
mQ65R3b.jpg


So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?
Click to expand...

Half Life 3
 
ToxicAdam said:
The only way they can make this fly is to make HL3 exclusive to it. Otherwise it's kind of a niche OS that will probably take 2-3 years to make it awesome.


I can't believe how many people are confused by the concept of a 'living room machine'.
Click to expand...

A niche OS for people who have two PCs but an OS that will also be on their $100 Steam Box which's purpose is to stream your PC games to your TV while also offering the TV/Netflix/Hulu capabilities of a Roku or AppleTV.

My bet.
 
I'm sorry but I'm not interested by that valve !
Will wait for the two others announcements but with this start I kept my enthusiasm pretty low.
 
Pinko Marx said:
So somebody in the teaser thread had predicted

OS
Controller
OS + Controller = Steambox.

Seems about right.
Click to expand...

That was my prediction! I'm sure others predicted it too, so glad that I was right :-) SteamOS sounds fantastic and the blurb about triple-A announcements makes it sound like Valve has gathered support from major publishers.HYPE!
 
Just saw this on the site

Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the Linux distro is going to be fairly open to adding outside applications to it (Big one will be XBMC I'd imagine), as opposed to a closed system like OpenElec.
 
IT Slave said:
It's not just Windows compatibility issues. If this thing is going to run on TVs and BD players, these things won't have the hardware to run PC games outside of Candy Crush.
Click to expand...

That is where the streaming part off the os comes in.
My guess is they can make the network latency really low by altering the network stack or something like that.
 
So an OS with a broken web browser? Instead of wasting time with this, they could be fixing the coding that steam uses for its browser and community pages. Hell even the store
 
Nonentity said:
mQ65R3b.jpg


So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?
Click to expand...

1. SteamOS
2. SteamBox
3. Multi-screen, multi-session. Can run multiple games on different TVs/monitors from the same box.
 
Pretty sure this is an Ubuntu-based distro.

Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS. Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014.
Click to expand...

This is very exciting! Linux has been slowly but surely getting more support from devs since Humble Bundle and Steam for Linux, but this will be the biggest push yet.
 
Tacitus_ said:
Only Linux games so far, yes. Don't expect that to change.
Click to expand...

The website doesn't talk about games running on Linux...

You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!
 
So it begins. Hope a reference hardware design will be announced soon. Would be interesting whether Bootcamp will support Steam OS.
 
Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.
Click to expand...

Really curious what developers are onboard for this. If we start seeing AAA announcements I could really see this OS making a push.
 
If the lag and streaming quality isn't bad (but I expect it to be bad), it could be kinda neat for an HTPC I guess. Otherwise, meh.
 
patjburns89 said:
I could be 100 percent wrong here, so apologies in advance, but the people who swore Linux was going to take off, just watch people were the equivalent of people who are SURE European Football will eventually take over the US sports scene.

I mean, the functionality seems really cool. But people saying Windows is dead? Come on, guys.
Click to expand...

It's been "Year of Linux" for the past 15 years. It's always the year that Linux is going to take over. It never ever happens. It probably won't.
 
Nonentity said:
mQ65R3b.jpg


So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?
Click to expand...

World domination. Gaben crowned as Emperor of Gaming.
 
ToxicAdam said:
The only way they can make this fly is to make HL3 exclusive to it. Otherwise it's kind of a niche OS that will probably take 2-3 years to make it awesome.


I can't believe how many people are confused by the concept of a 'living room machine'.
Click to expand...

Why make it exclusive? Also, it's a free OS. Plus, if they came out with HL3 that work on PC, Linux and Mac by day 1, then it would give people a reason to switch, and not be forced to switch. Also, forcing people to switch would be suicide.
 
I'm genuinely interested in SteamOS. I have my PC linked to an LCD in my office over HDMI and one of my gripes with BPM is that sometimes Windows will switch from the game I'm playing back to steam BPM making me get up and have to alt-tab back. Hopefully SteamOS will make this a lot more elegant.
 
Nonentity said:
So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?
Click to expand...
Maybe a tool to port games from Win to Linux more easily?
 
Lagamorph said:
Totally and utterly pointless, and nowhere near a replacement for a gaming PC.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Unless it can play every PC game that my Windows PC can, I dont see a single reason for replacing it.

Even if you are making an HTPC like solution that connects directly to your TV why would would you not just installl Win 7 on it and set Steam to big picture mode?

Pointless is the word alright.
 
Question.

If one had a PS3 that still has the other OS option on it, could you theoretically install Steam OS and thus play Steam Linux games?
 
Man Glad I cancelled my xbox one pre order. If they announce a steam box its game over for consoles for me. Full backwards compat with a catalogue ive had for nearly 10 years.

This is a big deal for me
 
Bookoo said:
In home streaming normally pretty good, but it could depend on where you put all your stuff.
Click to expand...

I'll certainly use ethernet if I choose to stream games.

Lasthope106 said:
I just don't understand how Valve does it. They are a company of less than 300 people and are able to make award winning games, developer tools, content distribution system and now a freaking OS. Are Valve employees the most productive humans the world has ever seen? Jeez. How are they able to work on so many complex projects at once - I just don't get it.
Click to expand...

They don't release stuff particularly fast, lol.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom