Ask Slashdot: Can Valve's Steam Machines Compete Against the Xbox One and PS4? 348
Nerval's Lobster writes "Valve has announced SteamOS, Steam Machines, and a Steam controller — the components necessary for it to create a viable living-room gaming experience. Valve's strategy with these releases seems pretty clear: create a platform based on openness (SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system), in contrast to the closed systems pushed by console rivals such as Sony and Microsoft. If Valve chooses to release Half-Life 3 in conjunction with its Steam Machines' rollout, it could help create further buzz for the system, given the years' worth of pent-up demand for the next chapter in the popular FPS saga. But can Valve's moves allow it to actually compete against Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony on equal terms? What do you think?"
I think they plan to compete on the premium end. (Score:3, Interesting)
Like the Neo-Geo did, for a brief while.
Valve may last longer though, it's got a stronger basis behind it and years worth of invested development.
Compete in what sense? (Score:4, Interesting)
Outsell either of those 2? No. Sell a good chunk, and added with people who installed the Steam OS and run their own hardware, total in the millions, help push Nintendo out of the hardware business, and put themselves in a good spot for the generation after this coming one? Sure, that's a possibility.
The end of classic PCs makes this inevitable (Score:3, Interesting)
Personal desktop computers are falling out of favor with the general populace, replaced by smaller devices which can do almost everything a PC can do....except playing big, blockbuster games. Current consoles play games, but they lack the ability to handle the same kinds of games a computer can--they don't do well when games need complex keyboard based input, and they don't have the same sort of access for indy games. Valve is aiming to fill the gap here, with a console targeted to play PC games. Steam allows them to make money on distribution even if people can in theory buy third part games--we know they will still love to use steam.
over before it began (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I think they plan to compete on the premium end (Score:5, Interesting)
I kinda took it differently. When they announced this an Alienware equivalent doesn't come to mind. Instead I get the same picture as the $300-400 budget gaming PC's that I've always built. When the parts are bought in bulk I'm willing to bet that an OEM could assemble a small equivalent set-top box for even cheaper and have a fairly capable system to compete with the $400-500 Sony and MS offerings.
I'm kinda envisioning the Steambox being offered at more of a $250-300 price point. If you want a monster rig you can still build it yourself and run SteamOS.
Success hinges on the controller (Score:5, Interesting)
SteamOS has a unique problem that no other ecosystem has to deal with: In order to leverage steam's strength, the size of the community, they had to do two things. First, ensure that the catalog of games is playable on the TV, and second, that this userbase can interact with the steam community on PCs. If the system can't do this, it requires a huuuge shift of users in order to make it successful, which requires the kind of investment microsoft did with the XBox.
The second bullet point above leads to an interesting problem if they go down the path of interoperability with PC clients: controllers and mice. PCs have several genres that are unplayable with a controller, and the mouse and keyboard combo offers a significant advantage in almost every kind of competitive gaming and multiplayer. I hope that their controller bridges the gap, and chances are it might.
The touchpad-based movement is a huge change from a joystick. Precision movement on a touch-style pad like that is the only way a controller could handle snap turns and accuracy that muscle movement on a mouse pad offers. The way its set up, I'd expect it to work sort of like the Thinkpad nib. If it works and people adopt it, it will allow people to play things like RTSes, turn-based games like Civ, and a host of other options. Yeah, hotkeys are another important point, but one more easily overcome than the massive gulf that currently exists between the mouse and the analog joystick.
There are other factors that will tie to its success, but I think the future of the system ties to its interoperability with the PC gamers. If it doesn't, its just going to be an also-ran.
Re:I think they plan to compete on the premium end (Score:5, Interesting)
"Does Nintendo really think they can compete with Atari, Magnavox, Intellivision, and Coleco with their upcoming 'NES'? Can they really elbow their way into this crowded market full of entrenched and experienced companies?"
The bottom fell out of gaming in 1983. The entrenched and experienced companies were all twisting in the wind when the NES arrived. A lot of the secret to Nintendo's success in the west was distancing itself from existing video game systems that plug into a tv and billing itself as a toy you plug into the tv. The loss of a joystick was also great in pushing this image, although a feature of the original Famicom and not a change made for the exclusive benefit of taking market share. They also had a great PR machine that drove customer demand while simultaneously strong arming their partners and retailers: no discounting, no consignment, hardware lockout to enforce licensed developers only and bill it as a "quality" seal.
"Does Sony really think they can compete with Sega, Nintendo, NEC and Neo*Geo with their upcoming 'Playstation'? Can they really elbow their way into this crowded market full of entrenched and experienced companies?"
When you consider that Sony's Playstation is less of a from-scratch built platform than it was really a spin-off the SNES, the analogy doesn't make sense. A better analogy for the period for a from-scratch platform from the time period might be 3DO, which you mistakenly placed in your following section. As far as the competitors? SNK's NeoGeo never really hit any big numbers for home use, and NEC's position was obliterated from the west, and they were so desperate in Japan that they began to encourage out-and-out pornographic games on their PC-FX platform.
"Does Microsoft really think they can compete with Sony, Nintendo, Sega, 3D0 and Atari with their upcoming 'Xbox'? Can they really elbow their way into this crowded market full of entrenched and experienced companies?"
By the time XBox was out, The only real players on the market were Sega, Sony, and Nintendo, and Sega was on it's last legs as a hardware maker. 3DO and Jaguar were already jokes and dental x-ray machine covers. Microsoft still hasn't make dime one on their gaming division, their existence in the market is due mostly to Microsoft's deep pockets.
Yeah, I think history says it can be done.
It can be done, but none of the moments of opportunity are here for Valve to make it the way you suggest. Steambox merely going to wind up a slightly better funded Ouya, a more fondly remembered than OnLive, and a money maker only for ebayers that will hoarde and sell it in 20 years.
How many Steam games run on Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
The 3,000-odd library of titles on Steam
In order to run on a Steam Machine without also hogging a Windows PC for the duration, a game has to be ported to desktop Linux. I was under the impression that less than 10 percent of the Steam library was ported to desktop Linux, though I'd appreciate links to sources that correct this.
Lockdown was a feature in the mid-1980s (Score:4, Interesting)
Does Nintendo really think they can compete with Atari, Magnavox, Intellivision, and Coleco with their upcoming 'NES'?
In 1983, store shelves had become filled with me-too shovelware for the Atari 2600, and people stopped buying video games altogether after having dropped upwards of $60 (inflation adjusted) on something that's no fun. After a recession in the North American video game market through 1983 and 1984, Nintendo elbowed its way into the market by using lockdown to reassure retailers that the NES wouldn't have the same sort of me-too shovelware that the Atari 2600 had. Valve is doing the exact opposite.
Sony (Score:5, Interesting)
I bought the PS2 and PS3 because at the time, they offered backward compatibility. To this day, I can run PS1 and PS2 stuff, awesome games like Crash Bandicoot and Maximo. With the PS4 they're telling me that the media library of titles I spent a *lot* of money on will not run on the new hardware. My reaction to that is simply to not buy a PS4. Instead, I bought a couple more used, working copies of the original (meaning, have those that have the PS2 hardware in 'em) PS3s to keep in a very low use state for the likely day when the one I'm using dies. I'm *really* tired of having to start all over again, and this time -- I'm just not gonna do it. The (considerable) up side is that PS3 titles and PS2 titles can be had for pennies, and I'll never run out of "new" games to try. And my favorite game of all time isn't a PS title anyway -- MechAssault -- so phhbbbbt.