Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this month, Valve treated folks to an unveiling of several Steam Machines that would be debuting later on in the year. Popular gaming computer company, Alienware, was one of the companies that managed to get the license to build Steam Machines and it was a thing of beauty. It was sleek and not ostentatious in terms of its designs and kept the LED lights to a minimum. Last we heard Alienware’s Steam Machine offerings would only see a September release which is a relatively long wait, and now according to Alienware, it seems that customers who buy their Steam Machine will not be able to upgrade it.

This is according to Frank Azor, Alienware’s General Manager who revealed that information during an interview with Trusted Reviews. Azor also revealed Alienware’s plans on the life cycle of the product and stated that the console will be updated once every year, similar to how smartphones and tablets are refreshed on an annual basis. “Lifecycle wise, consoles update every five, six, seven years, we will be updating our Steam Machines every year.” Some are not too happy about it as PC games are developed differently from consoles. With consoles, games are specially developed for the hardware which remains the same, but PC game developers aren’t going to tailor their games for one specific Steam Machine, are they? What do you guys think? Does this put you off Alienware’s Steam Machine?

Alienware’s Steam Machines Will Not Be Upgradeable, Released On A Yearly Cycle original content from Ubergizmo.

Back at CES 2014, Alienware unveiled their own Steam Machine, joining 12 other companies who have all been tasked to creating Steam Machines for the masses. Given Alienware’s reputation when it comes to building gaming PCs and laptops, we’re sure many are curious as to how Alienware’s Steam Machine will perform. Unfortunately if you weren’t at CES yourself, you will have to wait until September 2014 to test it out. This is according to Alienware who announced that their Steam Machines will launch only in September of 2014 when they spoke at Valve’s Steam Dev Days developer summit.

Given that we’re still in January, safe to say that we have a pretty long wait ahead of us. We’re not sure why Alienware’s offering will take so long to hit the market, but hopefully by the time it is released, its hardware will not have become obsolete. After all in a way it’s a bit like announcing a new computer and then waiting months to release it, by that time the hardware could have been replaced by something newer and better. In any case we’re not sure if the other Steam Machines manufacturers will be releasing their units earlier or later than Alienware, but if Alienware’s model was what you were after, September is the date you’ll want to mark on your calendars.

Alienware’s Steam Machines To Arrive In September original content from Ubergizmo.

Back in 2013, Valve sent out some Steam Machines to a lucky few beta testers, and recently at CES 2014, the company unveiled a whole host of Steam Machines that are being built by 13 different companies, giving gamers a wide variety of options to choose from. However the question remains, why doesn’t Valve just build their own Steam Machine? After all wouldn’t it be much easier for Valve to control the entire process from start to end? We have seen this method succeed with Apple where both hardware and software are controlled all the way through, so why not attempt to replicate Apple’s success? As it turns out, Valve revealed it was never the end goal to make their own machines, but rather to provide the groundwork and platform and let other companies take over.

Considering that Valve is primarily a software company, it certainly makes sense for them to license out the production of Steam Machines to companies who have already established themselves in the hardware manufacturing side of things, similar to how Google licenses out Android to companies such as HTC and Samsung who already have production plants and machinery all set up and ready to go. However Valve plans to be more hands-on in the production of Steam Machines, rather than just sitting back and raking in the cash. They admit that the success of the Steam Machines ultimately benefits Valve and the Steam platform as well and that it is in their best interest to ensure a certain level of quality in them.

Will Valve eventually make their own hardware? That’s hard to say and while Valve admits that this isn’t the goal at the moment, we have seen in the past how companies like Microsoft have shocked their OEM partners by creating and manufacturing their own hardware in the form of the Surface tablet. We guess we will just have to wait and find out.

Valve Explains Why They Won’t Be Making Their Own Steam Machines original content from Ubergizmo.

[CES 2014] Back in 2013, Valve unveiled Steam Machines which was basically the company’s way of breaking into the living room market, which at the moment is dominated by the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Given that the Steam platform is home to many games, big name games for that matter, softwarewise Valve had that covered. However as far as hardware was concerned, there were some questions about that, but come CES 2014, Valve has announced that they not only had one, or two, or three, but thirteen different hardware partners that would be helping the company develop Steam Machines for consumers in the near future.

According to Valve, the SteamOS powered Steam Machines will cost as low as $499 and each machine will come bundled with a Steam Controller. So which manufacturers did Valve manage to attract? Well as it turns out, Valve has managed to attract some pretty big names. According to the company, Alienware, Alternate, CyberPowerPC, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, GigaByte, iBuyPower, Maingear, Material.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen, and Zotac will be the companies responsible to producing Valve’s first-gen Steam Machines. This is pretty impressive as some of these brands, such as Alienware, Digital Storm, and Falcon NW are well-established players in the gaming PC market and have put out some pretty amazing products in the past, which also means of these Steam Machines will not come cheap.

Either way we look forward to hearing more about the Steam Machine efforts from these manufacturers in the near future, so check back with us then for the details! In the meantime which company are you most looking forward to?

Valve’s Steam Machines Will Be Built By 13 Different Companies original content from Ubergizmo.

When it comes to gaming PCs, Digital Storm is a company that has released some pretty impressive (and beautiful looking) products in the past. Now it looks like they are back again and this time instead of announcing a new PC meant for gamers, they have announced their own Valve approved Steam Machine. At the moment the exact specifications of Digital Storm’s take on the Steam Machine remains somewhat a mystery, although what we do know is that it will come with a liquid cooling system, advanced thermal management, and will come with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTA Titan graphics card as an option. It will also be able to dual-boot both Windows and SteamOS, allowing gamers to swap between platforms as needed.

We reckon this is a pretty smart move as gamers who want a bit of productivity will be able to switch between operating systems when the need arises. It will measure 4.4-inches wide, 14.1-inches deep, and 16.4-inches tall, making it a tad larger than the Xbox One, but still compact enough where it will not take up too much room, unlike the company’s previous PC offerings with towering PC cases. Unfortunately in terms of pricing, the Digital Storm Steam Machine will be priced starting at $1,469, meaning that compared to iBuypower’s Steam Machine offering of $499, this will not be as accessible. In any case check back with us during CES 2014 where we will have more information available for you.

Digital Storm Teases Steam Machine For CES 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.