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[Ricker]

A PC in your living room hooked up to your TV...


Or, after their next 2 announcements later this week, the SteamBox.

Mmmm ok,but I already have that...so yeah not sure where they are going with this...its like Apple TV or the Vita TV for those who dont already have a living room machine...? lol,still a little confused,guess we shall know more with the other 2 reveals.

 

[Gully State]

Local network streaming to get around Windows compability issues is such an elegant temporary solution.

I'm hoping in a few years this eventually leads to PC games not requiring Windows altogether.

 

[Wereroku]

I knew it.

A Linux distribution labeled as SteamOS with streaming capabilities for Windows games.
Nice, nice, nice! I hope that means in the future it is mandatory for Steam titles to run on SteamOS. Then FINALLY Windows is obsolete and gaming on Linux can thrive!

Windows will not die from this because it is built around steam so I am sure origin will ignore it entirely. They are building a living room box that works with a main pc as a stopgap while trying to get everyone to work with Linux. Their success at convincing companies to back linux will determine the outcome of this project. However they do not appear to be building this as a production environment just as an entertainment environment.

 

[scarybore]

Will be interesting to see if this takes off. Would love to see a version of XBMC developed for the OS/Steam.

 

[Lagamorph]

Totally and utterly pointless, and nowhere near a replacement for a gaming PC.

 

[CronoShot]

DirectX support will be incredibly interesting to watch.

A Steambox really taking off would require a massive shift, as long as it uses its own OS.

 

[polyh3dron]

It's pretty cool, but will never play any EA or Ubisoft games.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

In-home Streaming
You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!

Music, TV, Movies
We’re working with many of the media services you know and love. Soon we will begin bringing them online, allowing you to access your favorite music and video with Steam and SteamOS.

Family Sharing
In the past, sharing Steam games with your family members was hard. Now you can share the games you love with the people you love. Family Sharing allows you to take turns playing one another’s games while earning your own Steam achievements and saving your individual game progress to the Steam cloud.

Family Options
The living-room is family territory. That’s great, but you don’t want to see your parents’ games in your library. Soon, families will have more control over what titles get seen by whom, and more features to allow everyone in the house to get the most out of their Steam libraries.

And all of these will be in the normal Steam client as well.

 

[RulkezX]

Streaming sounds great , will be able to save on heating costs by having 2 PC running.

 

[ComputerMKII]

IT BEGINS

Microsoft, prepare your anus

 

[flattie]

Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014

This is interesting; I wonder just who they've managed to get on-board the Linux train? A few? Some? All?

The streaming thing is excellent news for the back catalogue, but it's native support that will make or break this new system.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

What games are those? I see Football manager, Trine and Total War Rome 2.

Europa Universalis IV on the left and Fallout 3 on the right.

 

[IT Slave]

If this thing has support for the streaming apps I use all the time, I'm reformatting my Windows 8 HTPC and throwing this on there.

SmartTV/Device apps are slow and clunky. I wonder how Apple will respond to this...if they are at all.

 

[VicDaMoan03]

I've never been a PC gamer before. Did Valve just make building a PC $100 cheaper by cutting out Windows? If I build a PC or buy a Steambox can I play old PC games or just new games going forward built for Steam OS?

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

FreeBSD is not Linux. They may have both started as open Unix implementations, but they have completely different governing bodies.

Like I said, I was wrong, thought it was. But still, similar to a point. Closer than Windows/DX is.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Linux based OS to play games. Yeah, good luck with that. You have a long way ahead, Valve

reading comprehension am fail

 

[Lynn616]

What makes this more exciting than just installing Linux and Steam?

 

[Bulbagarden]

Being built on Linux, I hope this will mean we'll start to see a lot more PC games being released with Linux compatibility in mind. I got the impression that the fragmentation of Linux distributions was seen as problematic by developers. With SteamOS making for a fairly stable platform to work off, hopefully now all the major blocks have been removed.

I imagine the streaming from Windows/Mac was added simply so people would still be able to play older games without Linux compatibility. In the long run, I'd expect them to incorporate some kind of compatibility layer as standard into SteamOS to handle that, building off existing software like Wine.

 

[Durante]

I just don't understand how Valve does it. They are a company of less than 300 people and are able to make award winning games, developer tools, content distribution system and now a freaking OS. Are Valve employees the most productive humans the world has ever seen? Jeez. How are they able to work on so many complex projects at once - I just don't get it.

Well, they aren't making an OS. They are making a Linux distribution.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Its most likely a streaming device no? How is that going to be a really big deal? If im reading this right you still need a machine to run the games on which is the biggest barrier for people in regards to PC gaming.

Only for the non-linux stuff. And they already have build up quite a library there. And they also are saying that there will come AAA game announcements for release in 2014.

 

[Anteater]

This is cool, I'll give this a try, backwards compatibility might be an issue for me though =( (for games that aren't available on linux)

 

[derFeef]

IT BEGINS

Microsoft, prepare your anus

I laughed. Because no.

 

[Xater]

?

You should be able to run this on all different kinds of hardware, drivers permitting
.

Yes, but I need to know about their box. That's what will get the ball rolling. Not weirdos like us installing this on custom build PCs.

 

[DeaviL]

Well, underwhelming.
I expected them to push for DirectX alternative.

They are, it's called opengl and it works lovely.

 

[jbueno]

BRB, partitioning my hardrive for new OS.

 

[I H8 Memes]

So this is going to be just a very basic SteamOS that is designed around running games. Any chance that this software has a future as a full fledged OS? I've been hoping to be able to drop Windows for a very long time.

 

[Sendou]

Looks like Fallout 3

Looks like that to me too. Wouldn't that be the real megaton though? Fallout 3 Linux announcement meaning that Bethesda is on board with Linux based SteamOS = Bethesda games on Linux

Also isn't this basically Rome II on Linux announcement too?

 

[DTKT]

I wonder what's the bottom right game here.

That's a Metro Last Light screenshot.

 

[mrklaw]

I hope they manage to work with EA and Ubisoft on better integration of uplay and origin into a controller focused steamOS

 

[ElFly]

You probably won't need extra hardware I think if you already have a decent gaming PC

If they are making a OS for streaming to the living room, they will surely want an all-in-on solution for consumers, that is able to play some games at low settings.

 

[komplanen]

The part about this being for living room PCs (no mention of anything else) kinda makes me curious in a good and bad way.

On one hand I'd love to ditch Windows for a gaming-oriented small fast OS like SteamOS sounds to be.

On the other hand I'm not sure how'd it work if it's practically just a Big Picture mode without Windows.

 

[The_Player]

Is it possible to put Linux on PS4?

I hope it would be. At least as a workaround.

 

[ash_ag]

My post is going to get lost in all of this,

I don't understand what they mean by "Living Room Machine".

Apple TV, Nexus Q and similar solutions. Not nearly as popular right now as they will be in the very, very near future.

 

[TheBioLover]

Meh, this is pretty uninteresting, for me, at least. Maybe the SteamBox is the second or third announcement?

 

[Takamura-San]

All that I want to know is:

1. Can I boot to Steam OS?
2. Can I install games to Steam OS?
3. How will Direct X games work on that setup?

 

[dragonelite]

So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?

Online network? Or streaming with other devices?
Edit: Could be a big rival for next gen consoles if minimum specs are nice and you can upgrade components if im not mistaken

 

[gofreak]

If they can bring devs along in the same way they did for commerce with the store, then Windows has another worry on its hands.

Will have to see what vendor and marketing support is like though. And very curious about the technical end...Unity support, please?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Linux based OS to play games. Yeah, good luck with that. You have a long way ahead, Valve

Agreed.

I don't think this is the megaton people think it is.

I love me some Steam and Valve but let's not get too clouded about this just because it's based Gabe doing it.

My interest is piqued though.

 

[marc^o^]

I wonder if the Steamboxes will be niche or if they will eat into console lunches within 4 years.

 

[Horsemama1956]

No thanks. I don't play any of Valves games or any of the Linux supported games, and I doubt new games from other companies are going to be exclusive to this OS. I also have no interest in streaming games from one room to the next.

 

[djshauny]

So how will this work?

Do you have to instal it like you do with windows? Or will this just be streamed etc?

 

[dragonflys545]

My connection speed is not ready. I'll just stick to PC steam.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

So if I have just one Win7 gaming PC, I'll lose the ability to play my games, right? They're all Win7 games

In order to play those games you'll need to have two PCs. One that is using Windows and one that uses SteamOS. That's only if you want to play those games through SteamOS.

I'm interested in hearing what those AAA games are.

 

[Angel Abaddon]

And all of these will be in the normal Steam client as well.

Yeah, I noticed that comment too. So may leave Linux based OS well alone (My HTPC has...issues running Linux and not wanting to play nice with the TV it's attached to) and just run streaming through the client.

 

[CountAntonius]

Awesome. Wonder how many games are supported though, and how the performance compares to Windows...

*edit2: Okay, few hundred supported natively, all if you stream. Now how is the performance?

This is what will make it or break it for me. Not ready to jump on board just yet but I absolutely love that this is happening. Make Microsoft sweat please.

 

[Kunan]

I'm assuming, based on the symbols, that part 2 is the box that will run the OS.

3 would be the most impact though.

Either way this is an amazing development!

 

[plainr_]

Absolutely legit question: when would it be possible to put SteamOS on PS4?

OtherOS + SteamOS

Believe.

 

[Interfectum]

If you absolutely have to have your Steam stuff on your TV for some reason. It's really not a big deal.

This goes well beyond simply streaming stuff to your TV. Did you read the page?

 

[IT Slave]

Local network streaming to get around Windows compability issues is such an elegant temporary solution.

It's not just Windows compatibility issues. If this thing is going to run on TVs and BD players, these things won't have the hardware to run PC games outside of Candy Crush.

 

[Dukey]

From the sound of it, it's good for PC gamers. For me as a non-PC gamer this does absolutely nothing to make me become one. Linux...blech.