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Valve: Steam Machines will launch this November at ‘console prices’

Valve Software finally announced launch timeframe and approximate prices of Steam Machines at the Game Developers Conference 2015. It looks like machines running the company’s own operating system tailored for video games will finally hit the market late this year and will not be too expensive.

The software developer said at the show that Steam Machines from companies like Alienware and Falcon Northwest as well as a dozen of other partners are slated to release this November, approximately three years after Valve first started to talk about its PC-based console platform for the living room. Steam Machines will run Valve’s own SteamOS and will use a special controller.

Valve claims that Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, but will offer higher performance. Those, who would like to have even better performance or run games in higher resolutions will be able to configure their systems themselves, just like they can do now with Windows-based gaming PCs.

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“We love this platform,” said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. “Whether you are running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience, this brings world-class gaming and graphics to televisions with an open platform true to Valve's PC gaming roots.”

Since many gaming PC makers have already started to sell console-like systems for living rooms, Steam Machines will hardly be able to drive innovation forward. However, the new product category will attract a lot of attention from consumers and will help to improve popularity of gaming PCs in the living rooms in general.

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KitGuru Says: Looks like Valve and its partners have finalized all the details about the operating system as well as the controller. Now it remains to be seen how good user experience will be offered by relatedly inexpensive personal computers running SteamOS.

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14 comments

  1. Valve and its partners have finalized all the details about the operating system as well as the controller!!

    Better be… Make sure ever system comes with windows 7, 8 or 10 right……

  2. “Steam Machines will run Valve’s own SteamOS”

    Don’t hate the Linux. Learn to love to the Linux 😛

  3. Etienne Boutet boucher

    soo they will be at least 400$ + and just be a mini pc with linux steam flavored, what is the point of buying that ?

  4. “Whether you are running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience[…]”

    Just that machine won’t be the 400$ one at all

  5. Patryk Nowakowski

    Well basicly im going to build my pc, install steamos and its gonna be way cheaper and stronger console. I love that they let you build your console. Real next level console. Steam machine > pc xbox ps.

  6. I will definitely be getting a version of SteamOS but as I already have 2 pc’s in my living room there is not much point in getting the SteamMachine.

  7. my steam Collection of 1000+ games says other wise.. ether these boxes come with windows as option or people will just format and install there own copy of windows…

    ether way I willing to bet 98% of all steamBoxe users will be running windows othere these pcs.

  8. I too have an ever growing steam library and use windows 7 for all my gaming. But i still hope that linux kicks off because it shows promise if it were to get the support. The BIG flaw is game compatibility (Which is getting better). Recent games like Dying light and borderlands tps are getting ports to linux but for long time steam users with a large collection of games, it is a bit pointless.

  9. “Valve claims that Steam Machines will START at the same price point as game consoles, but will offer higher performance.”

    -LMAO.

    “Those, who would like to have even better performance or run games in higher resolutions will be able to configure their systems themselves, just like they can do now with Windows-based gaming PCs.”

    -So why buy a Linux powered Steam Machine to do what Windows PC’s have been doing for years? A platform that has way more support and is probably already in your home. If a Steam machine is going to be priced at or above a current gen console, why wouldn’t I just take that money and put it towards upgrading my PC? Oh, because I can control your console with a controller? Um… ok Valve.

  10. Bingo!

  11. We loved Linux down to ~1% market share. Valve apparently hasn’t seen those figures.

  12. as u point out Dying Light as a example for port.. did u see the update logs on how BAD the port it…

    For example AMD has Basically zero driver support for OpenGL on Linux and such dying light has this to say about the linux port

    Known issues we are still working on:
    • Radeon support on Linux platforms

    Also back in the day when SteamOS first released for beta it also had zero AMD support…>

    Also AMD CEO yesterday

    Over the past few months, we’ve covered DirectX 12 and showed you the level of performance gains it can achieve. DirectX 12 promises to bring the same types of low-level APIs that allow game developers closer access to graphics hardware on a PC, very similar in fact to what AMD strove to achieve with its Mantle API. Today, AMD announced plans to effectively put Mantle on the back burner and is asking developers to focus their efforts on DirectX 12 instead.

    “QUOTED”
    AMD announced at the Games Developer Conference that
    Over the next couple of months, AMD will start positioning Mantle to developers that are looking for “custom needs”, likely referring to media production applications rather than game developers, whose focus should soon be on Windows 10 and DirectX 12.”

    ya even amd given up on there own Graphic API layer and had no mention of OpenGL ether…

  13. Speaking of API’s, have they said anything more on Vulkan API? I hear that AMD worked with Khronos.

  14. I haven’t caught any news on Vulkan recently, so I personally do not know 🙁