There are 2 more scheduled announcements, right? The next one will probably be about the SteamBox. The third will obviously be
HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED
They announce 2 of the 3 announcements and then don't say anything about the 3rd.
+3
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
No, it can natively run (Linux) games as well as music and video. Streaming is an option for Windows/Mac-only games, functionality that is supposed also come to the Steam client itself apart from SteamOS. I'm actually interested in it as a general htcp media platform if it can do the non-game shit well.
Oh. I see references to a Steam OS which has some streaming capabilities and then talk about the Steambox. I need to drink my coffee and reread the last few pages to see where I fell off.
Hey, another flavor of Ubuntu with Steam baked in. Wooh...meh. Still, you have to start somewhere. I'd have been more thrilled if they had announced improvements to Big Picture mode, like working launchers for games like Skyrim that leave you scrambling for a mouse when you start the game. No idea what the actual hardware is going to be since they canned all the hardware people a while back.
I did get a laugh from Notch posting about Valve saving the world with this, considering he doesn't sell anything on the service. I love minecraft, and and I like notch, but if doesn't even use the service how can I take his opinion that seriously? Valve has done a lot of good for PC gaming, despite not being able to ship the one game from them that I care about. That said, I don't see any corporation as being some magical savior of anything anymore. If anything, I'm happy to see them, Origin and Microsoft with viable delivery systems to keep each other in check.
It's already been posted they have an Ubuntu repository they've been using for a while. I like Valve and all, but frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to see them go the Google / Apple route of "Don't be a dick until you're too big to be stopped." I'd prefer they didn't, but I wouldn't be surprised.
'They've been having an APT repository with Ubuntu-based packages up for months now (and no, that's not the normal Steam client repo). I've heard they work on a normal Ubuntu install.'
'Although not confirmed by Valve, we’ve been told that Steam OS is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.' A number of sites cited Ubuntu when they announced it, one posited some flavor called Mir as well.
Fair enough. Glad to hear they're going with 12.04 LTS and not the latest. As much as I love the latest it's certainly a hassle to do really anything. 12.04 seems to be the best one to go with AND there is a lot of driver support for that version.
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
I did get a laugh from Notch posting about Valve saving the world with this, considering he doesn't sell anything on the service. I love minecraft, and and I like notch, but if doesn't even use the service how can I take his opinion that seriously?
..because the more people who use SteamOS is more people using Linux instead of windows. In theory, there's nothing stopping the Linux version of minecraft from working on SteamOS, even if it's not released through Seam. SteamOS is being made as a direct response to "walled garden" distribution services. It'd be really friggen weird if Valve went and did the exact same thing they're railing against, especially after advertising it as an "open" platform.
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Piracy is huge over there, but that doesn't mean legitimate sales can't be had. Warner Bros. has managed to make a profit selling legitimate DVDs there by making no-frills releases and pricing them to be competitive with the prices that bootleggers charge.
Piracy is huge over there, but that doesn't mean legitimate sales can't be had. Warner Bros. has managed to make a profit selling legitimate DVDs there by making no-frills releases and pricing them to be competitive with the prices that bootleggers charge.
There was a good article a while back (lost the link) about how Steam is making Russia work wonderfully for them despite a similar piracy problem. Good localisation + good prices + ease of use will get you sales.
+1
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Piracy is huge over there, but that doesn't mean legitimate sales can't be had. Warner Bros. has managed to make a profit selling legitimate DVDs there by making no-frills releases and pricing them to be competitive with the prices that bootleggers charge.
There was a good article a while back (lost the link) about how Steam is making Russia work wonderfully for them despite a similar piracy problem. Good localisation + good prices + ease of use will get you sales.
Marketing products in the local native language at reasonable price without automatically treating them like crooks means people will buy a product?
Quick, somebody get a sponge and bucket, because my mind is blown.
It's possible to make less money selling your stuff than not selling your stuff if the overhead to make your stuff available is higher than the profits you get from selling it. Personally I think taking the hit on that type of thing to establish a foothold in the country and/or to have a larger library made up of a wider spectrum of games is worth it but companies like Capcom and Nintendo generally don't believe in that and absolutely will not release a game unless they're sure they can make a reasonable profit off of it.
Isn't that what my PC is? Now I can put a different OS on it and not do any work on it?
Where does this fill a hole in the consumer market?
To me a Steambox tends to be a living room specific PC hooked up to the TV that also doubles as a home media streamer and a way to play stuff like Castle Crashers and Divekick with your buddies/kids/whatever. Formerly this was mainly a toy that only dedicated PC gamers would have around but if Valve markets their own, already setup and ready to rock Steambox then it'll open that sort of device to people who aren't too keen on building their own rigs.
The big question mark here will be on exactly what all the official Steambox can do and how simple it is to use for the average person who's new to PC gaming in general. I'm also curious just how many Steamboxes can stream off a local PC at the same time (barring obvious things like hardware limitations) This would open up family PC gaming since you could then just get an array of Steamboxes and then toss a central PC into a closet somewhere and let the whole system rip. The kids can go play Spelunky while you're playing Metro Last Light or something like that.
I was planning on doing a handbuilt Steambox precisely to play local coop capable games on the TV with my gf and also to double as a media streamer/blu-ray player. If Valve's official Steambox can do all this then I could easily see myself just buying one of those instead.
From here, if Valve can get serious enough market penetration you could see games start to be built specifically for SteamOS and bites slowly getting taken out of Windows. It's definitely a longshot but I really think in the long term Gabe is hoping to kick Windows right in the dick and take over the realm of PC gaming. I'd be pretty ok with that.
Isn't that what my PC is? Now I can put a different OS on it and not do any work on it?
Where does this fill a hole in the consumer market?
To me a Steambox tends to be a living room specific PC hooked up to the TV that also doubles as a home media streamer and a way to play stuff like Castle Crashers and Divekick with your buddies/kids/whatever.
Most people just use an Xbox 360-1, PS3-4 or Wii +/-U for this.
And those systems currently have the market set up so that there are some major titles worth heading to them instead of a PC for.
Without a groundbreaking, so far unannounced strategy, the Steambox is not going to have significant enough market differentiation to justify it for anything but the most specific users, and many of those users already run a "steambox" homebrew.
I don't see what new piece of the market it's going to carve out.
Posts
Everything else of Valve's is either a multiplayer-centric game (not my cup of tea) or Portal, which we just got portal 2 a couple of years ago.
Edit: Whoops, thought this was the Steam thread.
Real footage of cloudeagle
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/200815/BlackBerrys_future_in_games_gets_a_little_bleaker.php
Which means we will never talk about the Blackberry on this forum ever again.
I don't quite get it either, but then I didn't think Half-Life 2 was all that good. *ducks*
This! Although with all this 'openness' they can't make it an exclusive, obviously.
Steam: adamjnet
The idea of the Steambox sounded neat but I guess it isn't feasible
They announce 2 of the 3 announcements and then don't say anything about the 3rd.
Because they're not positioning it as a Windows killer, but for living room PCs.
The streaming is just one feature to compensate for the low number of games available directly on Linux.
Cool story, industry thread.
Industry thread.
Industry thread.
Depending on how the rest of this week pans out, I may be dropping my PS4 pre-order in order to build myself a Steam box.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
"Build myself a steam box."
Isn't that what my PC is? Now I can put a different OS on it and not do any work on it?
Where does this fill a hole in the consumer market?
Now, I can play my PC games in my living room without hauling my big, noisy gaming PC in from my computer room.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Technically, Valve made people use Steam well before HL2. By making it mandatory for HL1 multiplayer.
Those were very dark times, though, and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to forget them.
Or maybe tomorrow they announce the Men of Steam calendar.
Considering the countdown timer for the second announcement ends 10a Pacific tomorrow, I have amended your date estimates.
I did get a laugh from Notch posting about Valve saving the world with this, considering he doesn't sell anything on the service. I love minecraft, and and I like notch, but if doesn't even use the service how can I take his opinion that seriously? Valve has done a lot of good for PC gaming, despite not being able to ship the one game from them that I care about. That said, I don't see any corporation as being some magical savior of anything anymore. If anything, I'm happy to see them, Origin and Microsoft with viable delivery systems to keep each other in check.
So it'll probably remain the lead smartphone platform for development for a while longer.
'They've been having an APT repository with Ubuntu-based packages up for months now (and no, that's not the normal Steam client repo). I've heard they work on a normal Ubuntu install.'
'Although not confirmed by Valve, we’ve been told that Steam OS is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.' A number of sites cited Ubuntu when they announced it, one posited some flavor called Mir as well.
Well, I've been sniffing around and it seems to me that some PC devs are worried about the direction MS seems to be going with Windows.
Basically, towards a more closed system like Apple uses.
So, not sure how much of it is directly for the consumer.
This may just be a bid to keep developers developing for Steam as Microsoft continues to annoy them.
Considering what Newell's been saying about how evil he thinks Windows 8 to be, this absolutely has to be a reaction to that.
..because the more people who use SteamOS is more people using Linux instead of windows. In theory, there's nothing stopping the Linux version of minecraft from working on SteamOS, even if it's not released through Seam. SteamOS is being made as a direct response to "walled garden" distribution services. It'd be really friggen weird if Valve went and did the exact same thing they're railing against, especially after advertising it as an "open" platform.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/200895/Vivendi_fights_to_keep_Activision_Blizzard_selloff_rolling.php
I still think the shareholders are being short-sighted and idiotic about this whole thing but whatever.
Also, Microsoft is opening up a branch for the Xbox in China now that the video game ban is being lifted over there.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/200877/Microsoft_forms_new_console_game_venture_in_China.php
I really wonder how that whole Chinese market is going to work out for everyone. Piracy is goddamn huge over there.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
There was a good article a while back (lost the link) about how Steam is making Russia work wonderfully for them despite a similar piracy problem. Good localisation + good prices + ease of use will get you sales.
Marketing products in the local native language at reasonable price without automatically treating them like crooks means people will buy a product?
Quick, somebody get a sponge and bucket, because my mind is blown.
To me a Steambox tends to be a living room specific PC hooked up to the TV that also doubles as a home media streamer and a way to play stuff like Castle Crashers and Divekick with your buddies/kids/whatever. Formerly this was mainly a toy that only dedicated PC gamers would have around but if Valve markets their own, already setup and ready to rock Steambox then it'll open that sort of device to people who aren't too keen on building their own rigs.
The big question mark here will be on exactly what all the official Steambox can do and how simple it is to use for the average person who's new to PC gaming in general. I'm also curious just how many Steamboxes can stream off a local PC at the same time (barring obvious things like hardware limitations) This would open up family PC gaming since you could then just get an array of Steamboxes and then toss a central PC into a closet somewhere and let the whole system rip. The kids can go play Spelunky while you're playing Metro Last Light or something like that.
I was planning on doing a handbuilt Steambox precisely to play local coop capable games on the TV with my gf and also to double as a media streamer/blu-ray player. If Valve's official Steambox can do all this then I could easily see myself just buying one of those instead.
From here, if Valve can get serious enough market penetration you could see games start to be built specifically for SteamOS and bites slowly getting taken out of Windows. It's definitely a longshot but I really think in the long term Gabe is hoping to kick Windows right in the dick and take over the realm of PC gaming. I'd be pretty ok with that.
Most people just use an Xbox 360-1, PS3-4 or Wii +/-U for this.
And those systems currently have the market set up so that there are some major titles worth heading to them instead of a PC for.
Without a groundbreaking, so far unannounced strategy, the Steambox is not going to have significant enough market differentiation to justify it for anything but the most specific users, and many of those users already run a "steambox" homebrew.
I don't see what new piece of the market it's going to carve out.
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/apple-apparently-paid-ea-to-delay-plants-vs-zombie/1100-4747/