Beta Steam Machines and Controllers Shipping Dec. 13

[BlameTheWizards]

Beta Steam Machines and Controllers Shipping Dec. 13

The 300 lucky beta participants will get their hands on Valve's new baby later this month.

On Dec. 13, beta testers will be able to see for themselves if Valve's foray into living room computers has been worth the wait. On that day, 300 participants will each be getting their copy of a Valve Steam Machine, loaded with the SteamOS, and a Steam controller, according to a post from Valve on the Steam message board. Commercial versions of the Steam Machine are set to go on sale in 2014, with more information to be announced at CES on Jan. 6. The Linux-based SteamOS will be made available when the prototypes ship, though Valve recommends all but "intrepid Linux hackers" hold off on playing with it until later in 2014. They didn't go into details on why, other than that more information will be posted soon. SteamOS will be available for download by individuals or commercial original equipment manufacturers.

Steam Machine beta participants were notified of their equipment's arrival earlier today. Each tester will also receive a special Steam community badge and a selection of free games that run natively on SteamOS. The beta is limited to the U.S. due to "regulatory hurdles." The loss of feedback from Steam customers worldwide was "unfortunate" and not the original plan, Valve said, but the alternative was to delay the beta beyond the point where data could be incorporated for the 2014 launch.

Source: <a href=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/1930088300965516570>Steam

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[Eiv]

They changed it so only the U.S. can get it? Love to see how that helps with the European market research -.-

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm disappointed that it's a US only thing now. My hopes have been smashed like a headcrab beneath a crowbar

 

[AstaresPanda]

Cool but yet again anyone outside the US gets kinda fucked.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

They changed it so only the U.S. can get it? Love to see how that helps with the European market research -.-

there was a clear reason for it? -_- they didn't want to... they only had it in the US because otherwise it would've been delayed, and they just wanted to get it out there ASAP to get feedback on it for its 2014 official launch; I don't see how that isn't the reasonable decision given the U.S. is their country of origin, I'm sure given the same limits but being located in another country would've yielded the same result.

OT: hopefully they make alot of the feedback public, and/or don't take down youtube videos of the testers messing with the steam machines to see their potential.

 

[JonB]

Aside: When will we be getting steam OS to play with for the general PC crowd that probably isnt going to buy a steam box until their current rig becomes obsolete.

Sources say it'll go up for download the same day Steam Machines ship. However, supposedly it'll take some Linux talent to get it working.

 

[Vivi22]

The Linux-based SteamOS will be made available when the prototypes ship, though Valve recommends all but "intrepid Linux hackers" hold off on playing with it until later in 2014. They didn't go into details on why, other than that more information will be posted soon.

I'd imagine most of us can figure out the reason why. It's the first release of an unfinished beta for a Linux based OS. No part of using that is going to end well unless you know what you're doing when it comes to using Linux and navigating problems. On the plus side, I imagine the Linux community will be all over it at release so hopefully Valve will be getting tons of good feedback on it so they can improve it.

 

[synobal]

I would kill to be one of the lucky 300 to get a beta machine to test. I would, I'd do blood sacrifices, I'm a linux guy I know linux for the love of god someone give me at least Steam OS to play with. Where are the repositories!

I'm disappointed that it's a US only thing now. My hopes have been smashed like a headcrab beneath a crowbar

I love the comparison there and I feel sorry for you, but you must understand that Valve isn't that big of a company compared to most places, I imagine they will get around to it eventually.

 

[Justank]

The beta is limited to the U.S.

I just want to put focus on that exact quote, because the tone everyone has about lack of support outside the U.S. means they're thinking the entire project is now in the U.S. There's only 300 of the prototypes going out, pretty minimal chances of participating in the beta even just inside the U.S.

Apologies if I'm mistaking meaning in people's posts, just wanted to clarify it in case someone misread and thought they were going to have to wait longer than the U.S. to buy it.

 

[Living_Brain]

December 13? Translate that through the Valve time zone and you get February 30. Just as I suspected.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

And yet you will hear the cries of how Valve doesn't care about the EU market, how crappy they are etc. All because people didn't read the entire news story, just the part that said they weren't being selected because of where they live, never mind the fact that it was already limited to 300 people AND the fact that waiting to ship to EU meant delaying the test beyond the date the data would be valuable to them...
*sigh*

 

[Harper0341]

They are probably only doing the beta in the US right now to make enforcing NDA's easier. Having to account for all of the different legal systems just adds complication with little or no benefits.

 

[Magnethead]

From reading the Steam forum's most non-US complaints are around the timing of the change. The beta opened up around 10-12 weeks ago, and they wait until the day before shipping to suddenly declare it US-only? They must have known before today that it wasn't going to be feasible. I suspect they would have gotten less of an international backlash if they'd come clean weeks ago about the eligibility of their non-US users.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

From reading the Steam forum's most non-US complaints are around the timing of the change. The beta opened up around 10-12 weeks ago, and they wait until the day before shipping to suddenly declare it US-only? They must have known before today that it wasn't going to be feasible. I suspect they would have gotten less of an international backlash if they'd come clean weeks ago about the eligibility of their non-US users.

I have to second this. I doubt that anyone was under the illusion that they were likely to be selected, but Valve pretty much gave ZERO implication that there were going to be any regional restrictions. Unless I've missed something, you could have got the idea that they'd even take the time to ship to a backwater third world country before this last-minute announcement.

So yes you lot, despite however reasonable their excuse may sound, it's pretty shit that went from "Anyone in the world could win!" to "Sorry, U.S. citizens only" mere days before shipping. I mean, what are these "regulatory hurdles"? Are we talking about NDA's, or making sure the packages don't get lost/stolen (perhaps by competitors), or what? I suppose it's not the end of the world, but getting people's hopes up just to pull the carpet from under their feet is still a pretty crappy move.

Then again, I guess you could applaud Valve for not using the limitation excuse to "Valve time" the deadline XD And I guess to be fair, it WAS part of the plan, and they apologized. Oh well. Here endith the rant.

 

[Jeroenr]

They changed it so only the U.S. can get it? Love to see how that helps with the European market research -.-

It probably doesn't matter that much.

I'm not clear on what they want to test here anyway.

If they want to test the console(for lack of a better word), they don't realy need to ship outside the US for the data.
If they want to test network stability, i don't see how this is different from normal steam (linux).

It isn't a real hardware test either, the final produckt is more diverse, there are a lot of CPU/GPU combo's posible.
like: Intel/Nvidia, Intel/AMD, AMD/AMD and although less likely AMD/Nvidia
not to mention amount of system/graphic memory.


Personly i am defently intrested, but i still have some reservation about this though.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Well considering those 300 will only be shipped to U.S people only I can imagine 300 people suddenly claiming it's the ebst shit since sliced bread.