Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this year, Valve unveiled Steam Machines and its accompanying software, SteamOS, both of which would be Valve’s attempt to enter the living room space and compete with the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo in the console wars. Valve expects the commercial Steam Machines to debut next year, but in the meantime they have announced that they will be shipping prototype Steam Machines to 300 selected beta participants, with the console and its accompanying accessories expected to leave the factory this coming Friday.

Now the good news is that if you weren’t selected to be a beta participant, you might be interested to learn that Valve will also be making the SteamOS available for download for everyone when the prototypes begin shipping out. However Valve cautions that this might not be for the faint hearted, or rather the inexperienced Linux user. “SteamOS will be made available when the prototype hardware ships. It will be downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. (But unless you’re an intrepid Linux hacker already, we’re going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out.)”

Either way if you’re interested in learning more about Valve’s living room efforts with the Steam Machines and SteamOS, Valve has promised that more information will be unveiled at CES come January 6^th 2014, so check back with us then for the details.

Steam Machines Shipping To 300 Beta Testers On December 13 original content from Ubergizmo.

It wasn’t too long ago that Valve took the wraps off SteamOS and Steam Machines, an effort made by the company to enter the living room space which is currently dominated by the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo with their home video game consoles. As it stands each of the platforms has a game that is exclusive to them, such as Halo, God of War, and Mario, but will Valve be doing the same with SteamOS and Steam Machines? Perhaps make the alleged Half-Life 3 an exclusive to the Steam Machines platform to encourage users to buy the device? The good news is that Valve has no intention to make their own titles exclusive for Steam Machines or SteamOS.

Speaking to IGN, designer Greg Coomer was quoted as saying, “You won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us […] We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.” Valve spokeswoman, Anna Sweet, confirmed this by saying, “That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that’s exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines.” In fact Valve does not want third-party games to be an exclusive to their platforms, with Sweet claiming that Valve occasionally encourages third-party developers to get their games out on as many platforms as possible. Is this a smart move by Valve? From a gamer’s point of view this is good news, but from a business standpoint, what do you guys think?

Valve Won’t Develop Exclusive Games For SteamOS Or Steam Machines original content from Ubergizmo.

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Comments

Following the announcement of SteamOS, Valve just unveiled the long-anticipated Steam Box — sort of. Instead of releasing a Valve-branded Steam Box, the company will actually work with multiple manufacturers to release a series of Steam machines for your living room.

Yet, Valve also presented a specific prototype, a Steam machine designed by Valve. This particular machine is closer to what everyone expected. For now, only 300 copies will be produced and sent to lucky beta testers. The company doesn’t say whether those prototypes will eventually become the Steam Box, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone.

As for the Steam machines, Valve promises “an array of specifications, price, and performance.” It could be pretty similar to the Chromebook lineup. Customers will be presented with multiple performance tiers — it should make it easier to buy a traditional gaming computer. Hardware will be hackable and you will be able to install another operating system for example.

As a reminder, SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system for your living room. It is optimized for gaming, movies and music. While many games are not available on Linux, SteamOS allows you to stream your games from your Windows or Mac machines using your local network

Today’s announcement is very short and doesn’t say which OEM will actually build Steam machines. All we know is that they will ship in 2014. The Valve-branded prototype could come to beta testers earlier as the company will select beta testers on October 25th.

On Steam’s website, users can find a teaser page with three icons that represent three different announcements for the living room — SteamOS and the Steam machines were only the first two announcements. Valve hints at a new input method for the third one. On Friday, Valve should answer the last standing question — which game controller will ship with the Steam machines?