Thursday Next Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 I'd agree that PC gaming is definitely a lot more straightforward these days than it used to be. The biggest obstacles these days are: 1. Cost: Decent gaming rigs will cost 2 / 3 times that of a Gen4 console. 2. Compatibility: You have to be a little bit knowledgeable to know if a given game will barely run / run / run really well on your hardware. As Dean mentioned earlier, if it's got "PS4" written on the box, you know it will work. (Bugs etc. notwithstanding). 3. Location: PCs are normally in the study / bedroom. Gaming has moved into the living room. Steam Machine clearly looks to solve 3. What Valve can do about 1 and 2 remains to be seen. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 A great many PC gamers have already moved their PCs to the living room. Steam is looking to accelerate this with the Steam Machines. A decent starter gaming rig capable of 1080p on high settings for new games should be about $800-$900, so about twice the price of a next gen. Perhaps in Darkest Europe PC components are more expensive, thus making a PC more expensive. I suspect that the cheapest Steam Machines will likely be a bit more expensive than the Xbone ($600 or so) and will not ship with a robust general OS but rather come with Valve's Linux SteamOS. Unlike the consoles, presumably Steam Machine manufacturers can't subsidize low console prices with game software sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 You think the lowest entry level is going to be that expensive? I kinda figured it would be cheaper, something in a price range that would compete with the Ouya (so 100-200$ ish?). Basically, a weak machine that can run indie games and little else, meant for those that already own a decent gaming PC and that just need the thing to stream their games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 In my limited sample set of people that I have met, I don't know anyone who has a PC in their living room and I know a lot of gamers. PC's are considerably more expensive in the UK. Easily £1,000 for a decent rig. Mine was a self-build that cost me somewhere in the order of £800, it's decent but not top of the line. Plus I didn't have to pay for my graphics card (colleague threw me a freebie). So yeah, 2 to 3 for a global average. YMMV. If they can't get the price waaaaaay down then they are going to be asking people in the UK to spend around £1,000 on a gaming PC and around £500 on a Steam Machine. That's a really tough sell when I could get a PS4 for £350 and a PS Vita TV for £65. FLD's idea makes more sense. Assume your consumer has the gaming PC and provide a Vita TV, ChromeCast, whatever device for TV compatibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 (edited) I know several gamers with PCs in their living rooms. The trend seems to be to use the PCs as their entertainment hub, forgoing cable TV and streaming their entertainment. Some of this may be a function of small apartment sizes on the East Coast (not much room for a separate PC gaming area; that's been my personal experience) and the number of technophiles I know who have cut the cable. I also saw this sort of a few times this summer when looking at apartments to rent when the current occupants were couples rather than roommates who kept their lives in their respective bedrooms. Even saw one setup with just a huge monitor in the living room and a small TV in the bedroom. That person was clearly a computer illustrator by trade (she had a couple fancy-ass WACOM tablets and an artsy vibe),, but she had PC game boxes on her shelves in the living room. I still hope they do a cheap in-home streaming machine, and I agree that makes a ton of sense. I was responding more to Cowboy's discussion of getting into PC gaming with a Steam Machine and no prior gaming PC. Edited September 26, 2013 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 (edited) It may be due to space, because I'm with TN in not knowing anyone with a gaming PC in the living room. Our house isn't big but I do have an "office" that's basically dedicated to my PC. We have an HTPC out in the living room also (we too have cut the cable), but it wouldn't be suitable for anything more intense than streaming content from the one in my office or really low-requirement games. Most people I know under like 30 are cutting the cable actually, but they tend to use PS3's or 360's to stream, not a PC. *Edit* - In fact now that I think about it I'm the only person I know with any kind of PC in the living room (other than laptops, which everyone and their grandma has). Edited September 26, 2013 by TheMightyEthan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 I sometimes wonder if I am The Mighty Ethan and just don't know it... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 ......A fate worse than death. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) Valve made its third Steam announcement, and it's for a fucked-up new controller with trackpads instead of analog sticks, not in-home game streaming machines. Too bad. Edit: Apparently I'm an idiot; SteamOS and the Steam client will feature in-home streaming capability. That will be neat. Now I can stream games to the ol' laptop! Edited September 27, 2013 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 I kinda wish they'd maybe gone through some use cases. They say it'll work with every game on Steam, but they haven't said how. As in it'll boot up? Or like it will work fine even if it was built explicitly with kb/m in mind? Cos I'm struggling to see how that'll be the case. Heck even with games built with controllers in mind I'm at a loss for a few on how it's expected to work. @Goh: What'd you think the past few pages or so of discussion was about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 Dean: I thought that in-home streaming would be a hardware-supported feature of the Steam Machine rather than an almost purely software feature of SteamOS/the Steam client. This is because I missed the relevant portion of the SteamOS announcement Monday. I thought we were talking about Steam Machines being small streamboxes versus standalone PCs and was expecting a streambox announcement today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 Here's the link for anyone who wants it handy. How does this monstrosity even work? How do you jump in Portal 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 Gotta say though, it's one nice high-res render. Sure don't know how it works but you know what every crook and cranny of the front looks like. Also MisterJack has a good point, it's unaccounted for: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 How does this monstrosity even work? How do you jump in Portal 2? Hahaha. You're right. They left that off. Perhaps this guy is so pro they don't jump? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 I would laugh hard if you have to flick the controller up to jump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 Looks like I will continue to use my Xbox controller on my pc for a while. I have no interest in that controller, I don't see it as a step forward for controller design, rater a step sideways for design. It's different for the sake of being different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 It looks like a step backward to me... Diagonally backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 IDK... I'm picturing using it and it does seem like it could possibly have a lot more precision than sticks. No d-pad is a bummer but that's not exactly a shining point of the 360 pad, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/201195/Select_game_developers_used_the_Steam_Controller_Heres_what_they_said.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/201195/Select_game_developers_used_the_Steam_Controller_Heres_what_they_said.php Okay so the trackpads are kind of like how I was picturing it. Hearing the uses for the haptic feedback is interesting though. That's a lot harder to imagine for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Audio feedback on the pads is... interesting. That seems like something you could easily lose with a loud game or headphones. I wonder why they went with that instead of vibrational feedback like my phone uses when I type on the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 It sounds like it has both. I have a feeling we're going to hear a lot of independent developers talk about this over the next few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/62476523677/my-time-with-the-steam-controller Super Meat Boy dev thoughts. I think we all know how unforgiving SMB is to wrong or mistimed inputs. Also Splunky. Overall, he thinks it is a great start to something new but of course he prefers the 360's controller due to familiarity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 I hope in Valve-speak "soon" this time is sooner than November 15. Depending on how well it works, the in-home streaming could make me reconsider my PS4 preorder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 They're coming out in 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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