Steam Machine Pre-Orders Shipping in October

[StewShearerOld]

Steam Machine Pre-Orders Shipping in October

Valve has revealed that the first round of Steam Machine pre-orders will ship to gamers on October 16th.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that consoles have over PCs is their ease of use. You buy one, bring it home, plug it in and play. Being a PC gamer comparatively can require technical skills and knowledge that your average rube just doesn't have. That in mind, things like <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/valve%20software?os=valve+software>Valve's Steam Machines have been a particular source of interest for many gamers. Now, thanks to a new reveal from Valve, those same gamers now know when they can expect the Steam Machines to arrive.

According to the company, the first official Steam Machines will be shipped to pre-order customers on October 16th. They'll then be buyable in stores a few weeks later on November 10th. The Steam Controller and Steam Link will land in retailers that same day. This first batch of Steam Machines will come from Alienware and CyberPower and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/140028-Steam-Machine-Prices-Revealed>range in price from a low of $449 to a high of $749. The Steam Controller and Steam Link will both cost $49. The Steam Machines will be limited to running games with <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130236-Valve-Joins-the-Linux-Foundation>Linux compatibility; about 1,000-1,200 games at launch.

Personally, while I don't need to buy one right now, I know that I'll be watching the progress and performance of the Steam Machines with a lot of interest. While I enjoy PC games, I'm not what you'd call computer-savvy. The prospect of a convenient, console-like box that I can just buy and play is, in turn, really attractive to me. What do you think? Do you have a Steam Machine pre-ordered? Or are you waiting to see how well they do and where the idea goes in the future?

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/4/8727269/steam-machine-launch-date>Polygon


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[Jacked Assassin]

You can pre order a Steam Machine now?! Right now my only real reason to get a Steam Machine is so I can learn how to program for Linux. That & play some games I own that can work on Linux. Not sure if I'll ever try to add Windows 7 on it to play games that need that OS.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I'm interested to see how it works out, especially as I've not decided on where to put my money for the current gen. However, Valve seem to have fluffed the reveals and roll out, and if Totalbiscuit's assessment of the revealed line-up is anything to go by, they've also got a very random and poorly priced selection of machines.

Frankly, I've lost patience with the idea and will likely just go for an XB1 or PS4.

 

[TK MadCat]

Eh... I guess console-like system would be handy for solo games. I still prefer the precision of a mouse for online/multiplayer games. Especially PvP ones. I will be building a new PC in the coming months for a little more than the price of the higher end version. My rig is already set up so I can use my TV to game if I want. Never do though heh. Hell, my 360 is only going to my TV for Netflix, but for games I use my 2nd Monitor.

Not really interested in the Steam Machine but... I'll probably be keeping an eye on how it goes, just in case.

 

[Dead Metal]

Totally forgot these were a thing.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

The primary purpose of these pre-orders is to get the Steam Controller and Steam Link to early adopters, not really to get early builds of the Steam Machines out. I mean, based on the pre-order store page, only four variants of Alienware's Steam Machine are available.

As such, I've pre-ordered my Steam Controller. I want to try one out before the public launch goes live.

And I gotta say, I like their refund/return policy on this as well. Within 30 days of receiving the controller, I can return it for a full refund. (minus shipping, I assume)[footnote]Correction: They also reimburse the cost of shipping, which is kind of nice.[/footnote]

I'm interested in trying out the Steam Link as well, but I can hold off on that one. I do plan to eventually network several PCs for streaming within my home, but I don't really need the Link just yet.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I really can't see these things working out. It seems to me like Valve has let makers run rampant with them and they've turned out to be no different from computers, which begs the question of what the point of these is.

 

[Exterminas]

I don't see any market for this. To me this is just another example of a poor decision, created by Valve's flat corporate structure. Like paid mods.

 

[mad825]

You can pre order a Steam Machine now?! Right now my only real reason to get a Steam Machine is so I can learn how to program for Linux. That & play some games I own that can work on Linux. Not sure if I'll ever try to add Windows 7 on it to play games that need that OS.

What? You're going to blow your money away....So that you can learn Linux. Seems legit. You could just download the latest SteamOS beta release....Right now...Instead of October.

But before you start programming, you might wanna realise that the Steam Machine is a glorified PC.

 

[Xan Krieger]

That image just screams to me to crush GDI, the brotherhood shall reign supreme!

 

[sneakypenguin]

Steam machines would only be reasonable if it was a set hardware standard. As is its not attractive for new to PC people. Imagine all the forums why is my steam machine not running fallout 4 "cause your gfx card is a 750" Also not attractive to PC veterans, since our PC's are probably cheaper/faster/better and we can just install the OS if we really want to.

 

[Vigormortis]

I don't see any market for this. To me this is just another example of a poor decision, created by Valve's flat corporate structure. Like paid mods.

You DO realize "paid mods" have been around for years, right? And by years, I mean decades.

The only significant mistake Valve made with their integrated paid mods system was attempting to crowbar it into a deep-seated, established modding community. (Which was a pretty big mistake.) Otherwise, it was a variation of an already established content creation/publishing method. A variation that put more power (and money) into the hands of the modders and streamlined the process of gaining licensing rights.

 

[Jacked Assassin]

You can pre order a Steam Machine now?! Right now my only real reason to get a Steam Machine is so I can learn how to program for Linux. That & play some games I own that can work on Linux. Not sure if I'll ever try to add Windows 7 on it to play games that need that OS.

What? You're going to blow your money away....So that you can learn Linux. Seems legit. You could just download the latest SteamOS beta release....Right now...Instead of October.

But before you start programming, you might wanna realise that the Steam Machine is a glorified PC.

According to the minimum requirements my current PC is too weak.
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
And the warning states I would lose all content I currently have on this PC if I installed Steam OS on it.

I technically wanted a Steam Machine to be my next PC before XP expired. But because XP expired last year I ended up having to buy this one with Windows 7 on it.

 

[mad825]

You can pre order a Steam Machine now?! Right now my only real reason to get a Steam Machine is so I can learn how to program for Linux. That & play some games I own that can work on Linux. Not sure if I'll ever try to add Windows 7 on it to play games that need that OS.

What? You're going to blow your money away....So that you can learn Linux. Seems legit. You could just download the latest SteamOS beta release....Right now...Instead of October.

But before you start programming, you might wanna realise that the Steam Machine is a glorified PC.

According to the minimum requirements my current PC is too weak.
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
And the warning states I would lose all content I currently have on this PC if I installed Steam OS on it.

I technically wanted a Steam Machine to be my next PC before XP expired. But because XP expired last year I ended up having to buy this one with Windows 7 on it.

I'm gonna sound a like a parrot but it's quicker and cheaper just to build one yourself. If you're concerned about your data then just get an extra 250GB HDD...Or SSD for that matter and install it on there. Steam Machines aren't going to come with extra feats and you will limiting your future upgrade builds because of the case.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I really can't see these things working out. It seems to me like Valve has let makers run rampant with them and they've turned out to be no different from computers, which begs the question of what the point of these is.

The only two valuable points to these is testing to see if it can make Linux gaming viable, which seems to be a Sisyphean task, and to sell/ further hype those controllers. They've already dropped the ball on the standardize PC configuration by letting other OEMs slap the Steam Machine logo on so many random builds that the only difference between the typical OEM build and a Steam Machine is the OS isn't Windows.

According to the minimum requirements my current PC is too weak.
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
And the warning states I would lose all content I currently have on this PC if I installed Steam OS on it.

I technically wanted a Steam Machine to be my next PC before XP expired. But because XP expired last year I ended up having to buy this one with Windows 7 on it.

I'm gonna sound a like a parrot but it's quicker and cheaper just to build one yourself. If you're concerned about your data then just get an extra 250GB HDD...Or SSD for that matter and install it on there. Steam Machines aren't going to come with extra feats and you will limiting your future upgrade builds because of the case.

I second this, RatGouf. You will save so much in the long run by making your own. Even if you don't have the money to buy all of the parts right now, you can get an extra HDD, download Steam OS or any other Linux distro for free, and install it to that drive. Then move than drive to your new build and use whatever OS you want.


Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I am reading that the Alienware offering doesn't even have a PCI x16 slot and the GFX chip is soldered to the mobo, like in many other Small Form Factor cases. If you have any interest in keeping up with specs on future games or GFX intensive programs, you don't want a PC with no upgradability.

OT: Just in time to remind people these exist right before E3. I only hope if they show up there, Valve doesn't show off another $4000 monstrosity.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

So tempting to get one just so I can have my whole Steam library on the huge TV....but I already have an HTPC for gaming in the man cave, and a mini computer for watching TV in the living room, making it completely redundant. I am interested in the controllers though, last I saw they were two touch pads I wonder how that's going. And I wonder if they can alleviate problems with sore thumbs or not.

I never paid attention either, what proportion of the more popular games are Linux compatible anyway? Is it more or less than the amount of Mac compatible?

 

[gardian06]

I really can't see these things working out. It seems to me like Valve has let makers run rampant with them and they've turned out to be no different from computers, which begs the question of what the point of these is.

If we look at statements by Gabe "owner of Valve" on the lines of computes 'one of the greatest weaknesses of the PC market is a lack of standardization which creates to great of a barrier of entry.' the best reason for these was "supposed" to be a more standardized approach to PC shopping with fewer pitfalls, but then they told Dell, and FalconNW they could sell them and we get I think 25 different versions.....

You can pre order a Steam Machine now?! Right now my only real reason to get a Steam Machine is so I can learn how to program for Linux. That & play some games I own that can work on Linux. Not sure if I'll ever try to add Windows 7 on it to play games that need that OS.

What? You're going to blow your money away....So that you can learn Linux. Seems legit. You could just download the latest SteamOS beta release....Right now...Instead of October.

But before you start programming, you might wanna realise that the Steam Machine is a glorified PC.

According to the minimum requirements my current PC is too weak.
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
And the warning states I would lose all content I currently have on this PC if I installed Steam OS on it.

I technically wanted a Steam Machine to be my next PC before XP expired. But because XP expired last year I ended up having to buy this one with Windows 7 on it.

seriously you can install some smaller distributions on a thumbstick, boot from it, and have full acces to everything on the system (Linux has no care for passwords like windows does), and if learning to program for it is your goal then you just need to create a small partition (last I saw Ubuntu only needs 10GB to work fine), and you can get full shell access.

 

[Exterminas]

I don't see any market for this. To me this is just another example of a poor decision, created by Valve's flat corporate structure. Like paid mods.

You DO realize "paid mods" have been around for years, right? And by years, I mean decades.

The only significant mistake Valve made with their integrated paid mods system was attempting to crowbar it into a deep-seated, established modding community. (Which was a pretty big mistake.) Otherwise, it was a variation of an already established content creation/publishing method. A variation that put more power (and money) into the hands of the modders and streamlined the process of gaining licensing rights.

That is what I meant. My point was not about paid mods, by point was about how Valve as a company makes decisions and how in the past years they haven't made many good ones.

Granted, they are doing well, but in opnion that's not because they make good decisions, but rather because their competition is so much worse than them.

If EA or any other big publisher got their shit together with online distribution, Valve would be in serious trouble.

 

[lordmanticore]

I actually own one of the Alienware models. I bought it as a splurge during tax season, along with a 28" TV, which works great as a monitor. What I have is the low-end model, which IMHO, is pretty decent for running MMO's and older games (I'm able to play alongside my wife for some LOTRO and WOW fun during the evening, and I'm going to work on a STEP mod setup for Fallout NV this weekend). What I will say is that, in any case, the Steam Machines seem to have at least 1 choke point, which is the HD. Every model of the Alienware (at least as of now) comes with a 5400 RPM drive, which is as slow as dirt. Our main computer is a custom-build, and my wife can login and get to our start-off point within 30 seconds, easily. With the Alpha, on the other hand, at least twice as long, and probably another 2-3 minutes to get all the background stuff loaded. Having only 4 GB RAM (on the low-end) probably does not help; I have make sure that Firefox is not running in the background to keep my games running smoothly. I've heard some people complain about the onboard video chip (custom build; equivalent to the NVIDIA 860M (w/2GB VRAM) in reality), because of the lack of updates, and I can understand that point, but I haven't seen any issues with it so far.

Fortunately, for those with a little know-how, it is not that difficult to pop open the box and put in a new SSD or a larger RAM module. Then again, the main demographic (I am presuming) for these Steam Machines are people who want a console PC. These are certainly doable (as such), but on the newer games, don't expect 4k resolutions (or even 1440p for that matter). It gets the job done, but not that well, just like the Xboned and the Pisse4.

Oh, and while Steam OS is on my machine (it defaults to that whenever I reboot), I've only used it to calibrate some things (such as the XBox controller that came with it). Win 7/8/10 is still the way to go for PC games; Steam OS isn't the worst OS out there, believe it or not (it is supposed to auto-disable some Win functions to make games run smoother), but I prefer to be bent over by Microsoft, like a good little PC minion.

 

[Vigormortis]

That is what I meant. My point was not about paid mods, by point was about how Valve as a company makes decisions and how in the past years they haven't made many good ones.

Granted, they are doing well, but in opnion that's not because they make good decisions, but rather because their competition is so much worse than them.

If EA or any other big publisher got their shit together with online distribution, Valve would be in serious trouble.

Oh, I agree they've made missteps. Some being fairly egregious. But, I also think they've made quite a lot of smart and/or beneficial decisions over the years as well. If they hadn't, they wouldn't be where they are now, nor anywhere near as successful.

And if my previous post seemed...combative, I apologize. I've grown tired of hearing people complain about the mere concept of paid mods as if Valve somehow invented it. That's giving Valve too much credit.