Steam's Linux Future. A Smart Move?


Well Valve has stated they have AAA titles on board.
It would have been way more convincing to announce them at the same time if that's the case. My guess is that most publishers are either not interested or not sure at this stage.

 People said the exact same thing of Android and you can look at how well that has done for itself now.
Android as gaming platform is pathetic. And let's not compare phone markets with console markets, there are completely different markets with different dynamics. Nobody makes a phone that lasts 6 to 10 years. But consoles do. There's not much parallel to draw there. 

Valve is a force to be reckoned with these days.
Mmm. Apart from Steam, what thave they achieved in the recent past? I mean, I like Steam very much but I don't really see the "Strength" you seem to talk about. They're just an online distributor of games with a couple of nice features. They don't make that many games themselves and they are certainly not leading innovation in games anymore. Please elaborate. 

(and considering the amount of Valve fanboys out there)
You'll need a large amount of Steam Linux Fanboys if you want to sell other things than SteamMachines made for streaming only. So far we have not seen them being in very large numbers.

I am sure developers will get in on that as well.
Wishful thinking :) No hard data so far to support this assumption :)  
 
I think it is way to early to discount it though. It's funny I have been using big picture for awhile and I have to say I quite like it.  

Android as gaming platform is pathetic. And let's not compare phone markets with console markets, there are completely different markets with different dynamics. Nobody makes a phone that lasts 6 to 10 years. But consoles do. There's not much parallel to draw there. 
 Well you can still game fairly happily on a 8600 these days and thats 7 years old.  You just have to turn everything down to console levels :D

The price of games on Steam might convince a few people to not go for the PS4 or Xbone and rather get a steambox.  I see this initially being a hardcore market at first but slowly leaking into the mainstream.  A bit like steam itself. At first it was a pile of shit but slowly it became the best distribution platform ever.
 
The price of games on Steam might convince a few people to not go for the PS4 or Xbone and rather get a steambox.
Maybe, but it's not just the price, it's the availability of games. For example if GTA 5 or 6 stays exclusive on consoles, no matter what price you offer for FEZ on SteamOS, people who want to play GTA will get a XboxOne / PS4 and not a SteamMachine.

That's why everyone was hoping for some kind of exclusivity for the SteamOS (like HL3). Now that it's not there, it will tough to attract large amount of people. But as you said, maybe it will be build up over time, on the longer term.  
 
my girlfriend is pretty much the target market for this. she's a console gamer - likes to play on TV and not have to mess around with computer configuration settings - but is tired of the Sony/Microsoft corporate shenanigans and is interested in playing more indie/cheaper games. she's looking forward to purchasing one.

(she already got an Ouya, but never plays it - it's mostly used as a video streaming box at my house now. and by 'video' i mean 60's/70's Dr. Who episodes. anyways, i find some of the games are fun...)
 
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The price of games on Steam might convince a few people to not go for the PS4 or Xbone and rather get a steambox.
Maybe, but it's not just the price, it's the availability of games. For example if GTA 5 or 6 stays exclusive on consoles, no matter what price you offer for FEZ on SteamOS, people who want to play GTA will get a XboxOne / PS4 and not a SteamMachine.

That's why everyone was hoping for some kind of exclusivity for the SteamOS (like HL3). Now that it's not there, it will tough to attract large amount of people. But as you said, maybe it will be build up over time, on the longer term.  
Well left for dead 3 has been confirmed.

I think Steam has enough sway to convince developers to create games for their platform. According to steam they have plenty of games including AAA's and even more in the pipeline and I haven't known Valve to talk things up.  
 
I think Valve did a smart move (but a tad too late):

The gaming market is simply changing, and as MS and Sony try to adapt to that Valve does too. With games on mobile device slowly outgrowing their casual roots, and Android devices like the Quya pushing into the living room, making a console isn't exclusive to big manufactureres anymore. This also pushes the current tendency to digital distribution of other medias (Video, Audio) even further, as installing and keeping an up to date client is as easy as getting a new game.

And this is also the market where rather big grow rates are still possible, the console market itself is already saturated (with mobile devices chewing off a small portion of it). But there are still a lot of people that not necessarly want a console in their home, but are interested in media streaming, and may buy a game occasionally. Or the avid PC gamer that usually prefers his mouse and keyboard combo, but may be interested to play a new plattformer rather in his/her living room. With media pc aren't something really exotic right now, there may be some of them that replace it with a Steam OS system, or by one instead of making a custom media pc.

MS and Sony are pushing in that direction too, just to broaden der posibilities of income.

But compared to MS and Sony, Valve has no need to rush. They can slowly trickly into the market, as they don't have the burden to release a new console generation. Their basic "system" is already up and running, the hardware is just a byproduct, which hasn't even a big impact on their whole system. Consoles are having the problem that their hardware is already outdatet shortly (if not even before) their release, but with Steam it is mostly up to the console owner wether he wants to keep is older system or buy a new system to get neater gfx. Which is another thing in favour of Valve: No need to decide wether to keep the old system to play some old titles, or just sell it- they will continue to work with the new system, which gets interesting if you are into online multiplayer gaming (not everyone of your friends wants to keep his old console too).

MS and Sony may get into that too, as they are relying on more standard pc components, but they still got their Plattform/their market share to defend, which means that they need to push exclusive titles, which will cost them. Valve is already a big player on the pc gaming sector, so they can just observe how the market is evolving and react accordingly.

The lack of games maybe a drawback at first. But with MS and Sony building standard components into their consoles this will fade away in the future (except exclusive titles of course). Big publishers tendency to spread their titles over several plattforms isn't getting smaller, and with a lot of middleware already doing the gruntwork here, I guess it isn't a tremendeous effort to bring a PS4 title onto SteamOS.

Indie titles maybe already cheap on the xbox, but "industry" (whats the opposite of indie ?) titles aren't, but looking and this whole "sale" thing steam is doing on a regular basis, I guess it won't be long as this isn't a big factor either.

The controller isn't a big "dough" either. Valve at least tries to adapt to the problem that is at hand if you try to play games that are developed with mouse and keyboard in mind without it. If it is no good, who cares. There are literally thousands of alternatives readily available, no need to buy extra pricy accessories (like you need to with MS and Sony).

As much as I don't like steam, I hope (and think) they will chew off a big part of that market, forcing MS and Sony to rethink their strategies.
 
I'm very interested by the option to stream video game from my big computer to a cheap one under the TV.

But I'm not that interested by a Steam Box/ Steam OS/ Specific controller. I'd rather have a mini pc with linux that can launch Steam.
 
First of all: the controller. Right now, the complaints about the controller come exclusively from people that have not tested it. The controller was tested by Tommy Refenes (the creator of Super Meat Boy). He played Spelunky and Meat Boy with it, and had no problems. The controller can be pressed like a standard controller with a cross (giving you the feedback most touch controllers lack), and is also touch sensitive. If a extremely demanding game like Meat Boy can be played nice, I don't think there will be any problems playing classic games. And for PC games like FPS and strategy ones, I would be VERY SURPRISED if the two touchpad approach worked worse than the "standard" two analog sticks you can find on a 360 controller. Maybe it will not be the best pad to play Street Fighter, but for sure it will work, and I think it may be the best gamepad for FPS games.

About Steam OS: It will be difficult for this platform to succeed. I suppose it will not be cheap, because I don't see Valve paying part of the cost of the machine, like Sony and Microsoft do. Also it will have a very limited number of games available at first, unless you stream contents from a Windows PC. I think the key that will make this platform succeed or fail, is Valve's ability to persuade third parties to release AAA games for SteamOS (Linux). And that will be for sure a TITANIC TASK. The streaming option is a patch until the machine has a decent catalog, but I don't think the platform can be sustained long term if most of the games will need to be streamed from a Windows PC.

What can't be argued, is that the platform only poses advantages: you will not be forced to use SteamOS, you will not be forced to use a Steam Controller, both the hardware and software will be completely open...

For me, it will be really interesting to watch how this platform evolves.
 
For example if GTA 5 or 6 stays exclusive on consoles,
since when did a recent "exclusivity" stayed exclusive for more than 8month?
I thought I read somewhere that it is coming for the PC... I may have been dreaming though.

But the same thing happened with the previous iterations the PC got them after and in the case of GTAIV got a really crappy port.
 
I don't understand why people keep saying touchpads are crap without ever having tried it. Is there any touchpad game controller out there that could serve as a reference?

Well, I will definitely give that steam controller a try.

I'm curious what Steam machines will be available. Depending on the price, I might buy a small one for streaming only. I don't play latency critical games (like shooters) at all, so I don't care much about small (inevitable) lags.

I really hope, major game developers finally jump on that Linux train. Let's see, what AAA titles Valve is talking about :)
 
Interesting if true. Then can you explain why the first netbooks came out with Linux several years back from many different manufacturers (not just one) instead a running XP and bundling lots of software, which would have then be more "cost effective" if we believe your version ?
Because Linux laptops do cost more for the exact same product.Installing Linux is not a zero-cost operation. You need to pay someone to build the install so it can be rapidly deployed and you need to support it. Support for Windows is built into the OEM cost, if there's a problem you just hand it off to Microsoft, but support for Linux is an ongoing cost: either you need your own team or you hire someone else (ie, Canonical in Dell's case) to handle support. If that support cost is greater than the cost of Windows OEM minus subsidies then the final cost of the laptop will be higher.

Of course there are laptops that come preinstalled with Linux that cost less than their Windows equivalent, your netbook example comes to mind. You can pay less for support, or you may not be big enough (or enough of a jerk) to pre-load Windows with everything under the sun and thus benefit from huge subsidies. For example, we have This Linpus and this Windows 8 pair. The Windows 8 laptop technically has a better CPU but I couldn't find anything exactly identical so we'll just pretend they're the same. The cost difference is still only $60. OEM Windows costs more than $60.

The important point is that running Linux does not automatically guarantee the SteamBox will cost substantially less than the hardware equivalent Windows machine, there are a lot of examples where this isn't true.
 
and you're not taking into account the fact that windows comes for even cheaper cause it's generally full of preinstalled crapware that company pay to preinstall on new computer...
 
I just don't understand how people tolerate windows still.. I repaired my friends PC, Fresh install of Windows 7.. 240 updates 15 reboots and a total wasted time of 8 hours to get everything up to date and it's slow as hell on hardware faster than my desktop.

A linux install takes me 15 minutes to install, another 30 minutes to run internet updates and only one reboot and about another 30 minutes to get settings the way I want it. I'm up and running in less than 2 hours.

I've been enjoying Steam for Linux, I hope more big titles follow.. I'm not sure if I'll hop on board Steam OS right away though..
 
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I'm not sure if I'll hop on board Steam OS right away though..
I might be proven wrong, as little is known about SteamOS, but I don't think there's a point to use SteamOS unless the computer is only plugged to a TV...
 
and you're not taking into account the fact that windows comes for even cheaper cause it's generally full of preinstalled crapware that company pay to preinstall on new computer...
That... was kind of the entirety of what I was saying. :p
 
I'm not sure how many of you actually read the article since you are mainly talking about the controller and not much else. I couldn't care less about the controller since you'll be free to use any controller you want anyway with your SteamMachine or your SteamOS.
Good for you, I care greatly about the controller as in its current incarnation it appears to be a huge missed opportunity.

My point was rather:

Even if you think it's a great idea, why do you think AAA publishers will even support that system ?
 
If the goal of significantly increasing the performance of PC Graphics technology through better drivers / APIs can be realised then surely SteamOS will see pretty major uptake amongst core PC gamers. If SteamOS proves popular then AAA publishers will support it due to the belief they will make a profit on games sales.

The Linux target already exists currently, it's Steam for Linux. ANd there's not much apart from Indie games. No AAA publisher (apart from the russians of Metro Last Light) have been voicing out any support for it. And that's the case even though there is ALREADY some kind of market and user base for Steam on linux.
I'd consider Valve a AAA publisher, I reckon they'll give it some support ;) SteamOS will hopefully lead to a few more of the big publishers offering Linux support, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few ports of big games to coincide with the launch of SteamOS / Steam Box.

SteamOS/ SteamMachines will start with zero user base. Who will use them or buy them ? 

Why buy it if you have the exact same thing as on Steam for Linux ? (yeah you can play on TV but is that really strong enough to push sales forward, especially when you have no AAA titles ?)

And why would any AAA developer even target this system if the user base is close to nil ? It does not seem worth the investment.
Valve do not need a huge uptake of Hardware sales, lets see what Steam OS can do other than playing Steam Games & and the hardware specs / cost before making guesses related to sales potential.

There's going to be a difficult chicken and egg situation when their system comes out, and so far I don't see how they plan to solve it. Unless they have something up their sleeves they have not revealed yet.
HL3 exclusive to steam OS for 6 months would probably see a fair number of people giving it a whirl.
 
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