Valve to release its own 'tightly controlled' console-like PC for the living room

[Arthur]

I'm guessing it's more a don't make money, but keep people using Steam kind of move.

It looks like you may be right (assuming this is true of course).

Valve announces Half-Life 3 exclusively for Linux
If anyone had any doubt about the commitment of valve for Linux, here is the answer, a warning to Microsoft and its latest Windows 8. The company has announced the exclusive launch of Half-Life 3 for Linux.

This was announced during the Ubuntu Developer Summit by Drew Bliss, an employee of the company, later confirmed by Gabe Newell, head of Valve, who consolidates the position which I already had announced a few months ago, Valve commitment Linux expense of Windows 8. (Source)

[CyberNerd]

I think the best thing they could do is release a Valve distro - and use that as the basis for any console they release.
The community input of the distro would aid the development of the console.

[Rawns]

I reckon that its true, and Half-Life 3 will be Valves flagship game release on the new Linux powered PC/console. Will be interesting times ahead!

[localzuk]

I'm guessing it's more a don't make money, but keep people using steam kind of move. With the large influx of living room devices from consoles, to smart TVs etc, combined with every company bringing out their own "steam platform" and some like EA limiting games to their own platform, there seems little reason to use steam to buy nowadays.

I used to use steam a lot as it was an all-in-one place, that gave downloads that most companies didn't. Nowadays you can find lots of places that download their games, and to be honest steam annoys me with the amount of updates etc every week.

Steve

Huh? Keeping games up to date annoys you? That makes no sense.

[nephilim]

Steam updates can be done silently...just like chrome

[Steve21]

Huh? Keeping games up to date annoys you? That makes no sense.

Steam != Games

Been using steam since 1.6 days and even after 90000000000000000000 updates still seems to want more, even though the basic steam platform worked fine years ago

Steve

[localzuk]

Steam != Games

Been using steam since 1.6 days and even after 90000000000000000000 updates still seems to want more, even though the basic steam platform worked fine years ago

Steve

Sorry, still not getting it. So steam fix bugs in their platform, and introduce new features such as the Workshop in order to make life easier for the modding community, and you complain? You'd not get on well on Linux then... I'm running Linux Mint on my laptop at home, and there are updates daily.

[tmcd35]

I haven't kept up with PC gaming for years, I prefer the big screen and a good old fashioned sixaxis, but that's just me. This could be interesting though. Waiting to hear what MS and Sony have planned for their next releases, I'd like to see how this stacks up with them. How well have Valve got Windows games running under Linux now? I assume they are using Wine to make it all work? If they can get a good catalogue of games to run on Linux, with a gamepad and get developers interested in Linux native code then I'd be very interested.

For me I think Gaikai and PS+ might just give the PS4 an edge though...

[Steve21]

Sorry, still not getting it. So steam fix bugs in their platform, and introduce new features such as the Workshop in order to make life easier for the modding community, and you complain? You'd not get on well on Linux then... I'm running Linux Mint on my laptop at home, and there are updates daily.

But most of their "bug fixes" aren't bug fixes, it's rubbish like hats etc. Not to mention workshop etc was only released this year... I'm not talking about features you find today, I'm talking about Steam. It's life, pre Chrome etc to quote Neph Steam goes back years, and years.

And I run Linux fine, It doesn't force updates on you, It doesn't make you have stupid hats etc etc, Doesn't deny logins until it does updates etc etc Nothing at all like Steam

Steve

[localzuk]

I haven't kept up with PC gaming for years, I prefer the big screen and a good old fashioned sixaxis, but that's just me. This could be interesting though. Waiting to hear what MS and Sony have planned for their next releases, I'd like to see how this stacks up with them. How well have Valve got Windows games running under Linux now? I assume they are using Wine to make it all work? If they can get a good catalogue of games to run on Linux, with a gamepad and get developers interested in Linux native code then I'd be very interested.

For me I think Gaikai and PS+ might just give the PS4 an edge though...

You're kinda the polar opposite of me, lol. I don't keep up with consoles - preferring the keyboard and complexity of PC games.

But most of their "bug fixes" aren't bug fixes, it's rubbish like hats etc. Not to mention workshop etc was only released this year... I'm not talking about features you find today, I'm talking about Steam. It's life, pre Chrome etc to quote Neph Steam goes back years, and years.

And I run Linux fine, It doesn't force updates on you, It doesn't make you have stupid hats etc etc, Doesn't deny logins until it does updates etc etc Nothing at all like Steam

Steve

Hats? You're talking about TF2 which is a game, not the platform as far as I can tell, which still updates pretty regularly. You're talking about something that doesn't exist now then - why talk about something that you don't use now? I get updates on the actual Steam platform about once or so a month. Nothing heavy. I just don't understand your complaint about a platform that was growing and updating, and way back when you're talking about it, stablising itself and adding things (steamworks, the overlay, improving the update mechanism for games, etc...).

Steam doesn't force updates on you either. It informs you an update is ready and you can ignore it and carry on if you want. I've been using it for at least 5 years now and not once has a login been denied due to a lack of update.

[Steve21]

Hats? You're talking about TF2 which is a game, not the platform as far as I can tell, which still updates pretty regularly. You're talking about something that doesn't exist now then - why talk about something that you don't use now? I get updates on the actual Steam platform about once or so a month. Nothing heavy. I just don't understand your complaint about a platform that was growing and updating, and way back when you're talking about it, stablising itself and adding things (steamworks, the overlay, improving the update mechanism for games, etc...).

Steam doesn't force updates on you either. It informs you an update is ready and you can ignore it and carry on if you want. I've been using it for at least 5 years now and not once has a login been denied due to a lack of update.

As I said, "examples". I wasn't talking about something I don't use now, I made a single comment that I don't get the point in using it anymore when there are many alternatives, there's nothing really unique about steam anymore, and you started a conversation about it's updating process, and linking what I said to games and linux...

Anyway going back to the original point, what is there to keep someone using Steam over another of the big platforms? Unless there's a specific game on Steam you want, or your friends etc already use it there are lots of ways to download games etc and use them without Steam. Thus the point on Valves "console"

Steve

[localzuk]

Alternatives to steam are still not that great in my experience, which is why I'm so confused by your comment saying it updated too often!! You can't get away with one line comments basically saying that the system is no good because it updated itself, because the comment is just wrong IMO.

Alternatives to steam? EA Origin - shockingly bad platform. Atari's download platform? Good for the initial download, but if you need to download it again? You have to pay again if you're outside the short 'grace period'. Some game makers have started making their games available via direct downloads (indie games mostly, like Minecraft and Towns) but these are still few and far between.

Steam has also made gifting games very easy - buy as gift, send the person a code. A mechanism that is used a lot in the online streaming community.

Not to mention the sales being very cheap compared to most games, and most other platform discounts.

[ben604]

Steam's ace. It would be better if it worked behind a proxy server, obviously...

Steam is good for having everything in one place, updates/patches, being able to back up and restore (saved me a good 5 hours of downloading time last night), Midweek Madness!

I'm fundamentally against consoles and hardware that can't be easily upgraded, so I'll be sticking to my PC/Laptop rather than buying a dedicated box. That being said, a lot of people will want the dedicated box and it should attract more users to Steam, hopefully leading to more variety and (even) better pricing.

(As a side note, why would you want to fiddle with the linux build of a dedicated gaming machine?! Just turn it on and play the bleedin' games on it!)

[Rawns]

Anyway going back to the original point, what is there to keep someone using Steam over another of the big platforms? Unless there's a specific game on Steam you want, or your friends etc already use it there are lots of ways to download games etc and use them without Steam. Thus the point on Valves "console"

Steve

But none of the alternatives even come CLOSE to Steam's in-depth nature. It leads the way. What other alternatives are there? Origin? A pile of garbage that caused so much uproar when BF3 was released because EA wanted a piece of the pie, and it proves to be a more worrying piece of software if you actually read the T's & C's when agreeing to install it (Example: You give EA the right to selectively 'scan' your machine and return information on any files and software installed).

Yes you can download from companies like Direct 2 Drive but the games are simply install media. You still have to download updates and patches yourselves, and even install them!!! (Can;t remember the last time I actually went through a "setup" to install a game!)

And Steam are in most cases hard to beat on price. And if you are more reserved with spending your hard earnt cash on the latest release, wait a few months when chances are it will have 50-75% off in one of their awesome sales.

Frankly, I rarely get a game unless it's in steam!

[tmcd35]

Alternatives to steam? EA Origin - shockingly bad platform. Atari's download platform? Good for the initial download, but if you need to download it again? You have to pay again if you're outside the short 'grace period'. Some game makers have started making their games available via direct downloads (indie games mostly, like Minecraft and Towns) but these are still few and far between.

These may be "alternatives" to steam in the Windows PC world, but they are not alternatives/competitors as far as a Steam Console is concerned. The alternatives would be Apple-TV, Rocku, Google/Android TV, Wii-U, Playstation 4, XBox 720, OnLive. A some what crowded market with some big players. As I said above PS4 already as the Playstation Store and PS+ accounts offer cracking value. It's how they compete and differentiate themselves in this market that will be key. And the biggest key is attracting developers to Linux. If developers stick with Windows/Direct-X, Wine isn't going to get them that far...