Hey guys, so what's with the Steam Machines? Is anyone looking to get one?

All I've seen is Dell with the release date still TBA and no concrete details on hardware here.

I'm a bit disappointed really because I was quite interested in the practicality of them and the nice form factors.

There aren't going to be any official Steam machines sold until SteamOS is finished...it's still in beta.

You can build or buy your own PC now and install SteamOS yourself if you really wanted to. It's pretty early for all of that, though.

They're more expensive than God, so even if I wanted one there's no way I could justify spending that sort of money on what is essentially a computer in a straightjacket.

I have an PC with Windows. So, I basically have a steam machine, but it can play any game I want, not just Linux games. I would just buy a PC can hide it behind you're TV setup. You can always call it a steam box.

I think Valve will quietly cancel the hardware side project or let it wind down to nothing. They will complete the OS, and they will help manufactures put it on their system as a duel boot option. But Steam machines are over as a separate 'stand alone' concept. Steam OS will be just something you put on the gaming pc you buy...no push for $500 boxes, no cheap modular systems...not competition against consoles.

Unless there is a path here for quality pc gaming at console prices, I do not see the bother here. It would not hurt if the steam box had the functionality of surfing the net also. Everything from sending to the printer to playing movies from Amazon.

Saw the post below, modified my last statement(deleted it).

With the possible exception of streaming Amazon movies (not sure what DRM they use), steamOS already does this. It has a full Gnome desktop.

I'm more interested in the controller and Linux ports than the actual machine, but declaring Steam Machines dead so soon after their announcement and before their release seems a little hyperbolic. Of course the hype has died down, there haven't been any major developments. People will start talking about them again mid-late 2014, when they're actually shipping something.

i don't know if Steam has the kind of capital to sell a bunch of these boxes at a loss in order to get them out there and establish a userbase, but that probably was the only viable route to really take it. as it stands it's just another custom pc.

it probably would also be difficult to have a "one size fits all" but they probably could have built something to fit the medium/low requirements of a choice few of the most demanding games on Steam and worked down from there. a $400-500 box that played everything on Steam at least decently may have started a new phenomenon, but again i don't think it would have been possible.

Well, depends if your still fallowing any of those Beta participants. They are probably the best to know about this. But the controller is in need of redesign since last CES and Steam Dev days. And there are 14 third party manufactures signed on to release units...... still no release date, and I bet another wave of Beta might be coming up soon for another model.

Alright, you guys confirmed pretty much what I thought. I'll wait and see if Dell does some competitive pricing. Otherwise: Better to go for 4 gb grrd5 ram in a new graphics card if I do a build right?

I can just build myself a Steam Machine, no sense waiting for a prebuilt box that costs more. You can get some nice mini-itx cases that support long GPUs. Though I suppose the idea is more for people who don't want to do that.

Most likely, i'll build my little mini-ITX as a barebones box that streams from my gaming PC.

Yeah, I have been looking at some builds. Dell's X51 seems like really bad value compared to a build. I'm just a bit scared of slotting the CPU in, as it were.

Is this something we'll hear about at E3 at all?

Anyway Valve is still hard at work improving the state of OpenGL on Linux and getting controller input sorted out. I think we'll see a pretty nice gaming OS released eventually but I'm not too sure about what's going to happen with the hardware, if anything.

@ripelivejam: Valve aren't going to be selling these boxes at all. They made some prototypes for the controller and OS beta but that's about it. They're just having other boutiques and OEMs build PCs and slapping steam machine logos on'em.

In any event, you shouldn't care about the first versions of these machines anyway. After "Version 2" casual people may want to start to pay attention.

The OUYA is doing great.

Agreed I think the SteamOS is going to be awesome personally, it looks really nice and lets not forget, this is going to be a free OS, not like MS Windows without all the garbage of limiting to 3 installs per key before you gotta phone up MS every single time you need to reinstall windows. (damn thats fucking annoying I must say). Steam machines will without a doubt be at this years E3, along with all things valve have been doing with the controller and improvements with the SteamOS, the steam machines as far as I know, aren't ready yet which is why there hasn't been much talk about them beside that initial announcement last year but there is going to be some 20 different steam machines I think I read somewhere (gamespot most likely) just need to wait and see what happens. I think theres are going be very good for exactly who their targeting with these machines, people who don't know how to build a PC and people who want a PC to act like a console out of the box. Besides that, their just not going to appeal to vast majoriy of PC Gamers who can build their own machines, better machines, at half the cost.

Valve isn't a part of the hardware side except for the controller. There's no reason for them to cancel anything. All they're involved with is putting a sticker on the box that says Steam and the OS. A Windows Machine doesn't mean your PC was developed by Microsoft.

I just want to stream from my pc to a living room box. Is this already possible? Very little info out there as usual with valve.

i think the whole thing is a pile of dumb

I still don't really understand the point of Steam Boxes. It's just a PC with less gaming options.

Just buy a small form PC and write STEEMBOX MAED BY VALVE in Tipp-ex on it, and you're set!

Huh, I actually forgot about Steam Machines for a second, there.

I don't know if I'll ever get a Steam Machine as such. The controller could be interesting, though. Can't wait to hear more about that.

What is even the point of Steam OS, it's ostensibly made to play games on Steam but it can only play 0.1% of the games on Steam. The controller looked interesting but the DualShock 4 is just that better, hopefully they add support for the touchscreen on that.

I see their efforts in steam os like this: Microsofts vision for the future when it comes to windows is completely fucked (at the moment). This is valve attempting to detach itself from a platform that is showing signs of closing itself off. But there's a pessimistic part of me that thinks they're in too deep and Steam OS is just going to fracture their already terrible marketplace. They have to do something if their view of steams future with microsoft is grim, but there's just no way for them to make a clean break. If it does happen, it will be messy.

My excitement is over SteamOS...as long as Valve can convince enough developers to develop for Linux. I want to drop Windows and just run SteamOS on my gaming machine (and use my Mac for word processing and that other stuff). I want Windows to stop taking so much resources and allow game developers more headroom in a Linux environment to make even better performing games, since they are developing for a OS made for games, instead of an OS that just also has games.

From a console gamers perspective. I would love to be able to go to Steam. But I would build a gaming PC before buying a steam machine. I do not see the point of them.

Its sole purpose really is for people who may not be that tech savy enough or have the know-how to build an entire machine from scratch that acts like a console in the way its size is small and fits the living room space. That is it. If you are able to build your own machine, or prefer to go down the rout of buying say a pre-made desktop from Alienware/Cyberpower/Falcon-NW ect... then the steam machine isn't for you. It's aimed for a particular audence, the actual SteamOS is free, and you'll be able to load that in your regular PC no matter what.

Think you miss understood, Valve is part of the hardware, its their box, with their small scale size tech inside it, which all the different distributors and brands change depending on costs/needs/customizations ect... Its a PC, in the form of a console that fits the living room space which some would say desktops aren't capable of doing. When you compare Windows PC isn't a Microsoft product you're right, it isn't, all Microsoft are responsible for is the OS, the rest of it has nothing to do with MS, this isn't the case with Valve, as their working closely with the box designs for each brand, they designed the box itself in a particular and direct fashion to act more like a console, but with the power of a PC.

Steam Machines will become much more important when Valve gets around to releasing "Source 2" or whatever the successor to Source is going to be called. It is kind of too late really kick in growth on Mac and Linux because it wasn't till a few years ago that Source and Unity were really cross platform. If "Source 2" is designed to be cross platform and they continue to support "cross play" from the start then Mac and Linux will grow with the platform instead of trying to catch up. Then Steam Machines can easily show "Hey look at all of these Source 2 games we make that are everywhere".