Valve's Steam Machines Are More About Safeguarding PCs Than Killing Consoles 296
An anonymous reader writes "CES has come and gone, and we've gotten a chance to see many different models of Valve's Steam Machines. They're being marketed as a device for a living room, and people are wondering if they'll be able to compete with the Big-3 console manufacturers. But this article argues that Valve isn't going after the consoles — instead, Steam Machines are part of a long-term plan to keep the PC gaming industry healthy. Quoting: 'Over the years, Valve has gone from simply evangelizing the PC platform — it once flew journalists in from around the world pretty much just to tell them it was great — to actively protecting it, and what we're seeing now is just the beginning of that push. Take SteamOS. To you and me, it's a direct interface for Steam based on Linux that currently has poor software support. To Valve, though, it's a first step in levering development, publishing, gameplay and community away from their reliance on Windows and DirectX (and to a lesser extent Mac OS), systems that cannot be relied upon in the long term. ... As for Steam Machines, they are a beachhead, not an atom bomb. They are meant to sell modestly. ... The answer is that Valve is thinking in decades, not console generations.'"
Re:What's the difference? (Score:5, Informative)
SteamOS is Debian, so if there is something for Debian that sorts out Plex.
I was mistaken (Score:3, Informative)
I have always believed that Linux deserves to be a gaming platform. I use my machine for games. They are fun, exciting, and most are open source. I've never had to go online to sign up for an account to play any of them. I don't need to maintain an online presence so as to provide someone with information about my behavior. Games I play are available without having to buy a box specifically designed to satisfy the DRM needs of the games I am playing. If games on Linux comes at the loss of those benefits, or the Linux desktop is replaced by some java user interface that pushes the user towards signing up for things, I'm not seeing the benefit.
Re:What's the difference? (Score:5, Informative)
We're talking about Steam boxes, which run SteamOS, which is Debian based and therefore can run XBMC.
There is a launcher from XBMC [xbmc.org] that will open Steam in Big Picture Mode.
Re:What's the difference? (Score:5, Informative)
From what I've read, you can install any software you want on the SteamBox, or even run the OS on your own hardware. It's not the same model as consoles, iOS, or what Microsoft is heading for. It's the same model as Linux, Android, and what traditional Windows is.
Re: What's the difference? (Score:5, Informative)
Steambox is not a PC.
You want to look at that again? It is EXACTLY a PC. You can actually take any PC with a decent graphics card and install the software yourself! The controller is not even required, but I would want one. It is just not Windows. And while Steam does have DRM, the OS does not, unlike Windows. Also, no artificial limitations, like my desktop that has 24gig of ram under Linux, but Windows only sees 16... Yes, I know why... Now. After I installed it.