Steam News and Bargains thread (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

The more I think about it, the less I think Valve is trying to compete with anyone at all. They will not take over the living room with Steam Machines because they will price themselves out of the market. They will cater to the crowd that already loves them and buys their stuff (which is a huge market) but I don't think the convenience offered by a Steam Machine over a PC bought in the last year or two is worth the price they will undoubtedly ask for. If anything, this kind of seems like an Apple move. (Create a new product, sell almost exclusively to people who bought the previous product.)

 

[Sam Posten]

I continue to be amazed at how differently you and I think about gaming =)

 

[Morgan Jolley]

In what specific way(s)? I really don't think they will expand the PC market into the console space by offering products that are double the price of the brand new upcoming PS and XB.

 

[Sam Posten]

A. I think we will see steamboxes that are cheaper and more powerful than next gen consoles
B. I don't think Apple is mostly selling to their existing customers.
C. I think that Valve making an integrated stack is as important as a new gaming platform compared to mobile AND console and has impacts beyond gaming to boot
D. Zen master says: We'll see. Execution is everything.

 

[Edwin-S]

What are the chances of this making inroads against Windows when it comes to gaming on the PC? Personally, I don't see this as being any sort of competition to Windows-based PC gaming.

 

[Sam Posten]

And that's exactly what Microsoft and Blackberry (and their legion of fans) said about Apple entering the smartphone market.

Will SteamOS do that on the PC side? I have my doubts too. But they have a huge advantage over any of the other Linux distros out there, they are going to control the whole stack, hardware, os, apps and store. Nobody else is close to that. We'll see.

 

[Edwin-S]

And that's exactly what Microsoft and Blackberry (and their legion of fans) said about Apple entering the smartphone market.

Will SteamOS do that on the PC side? I have my doubts too. But they have a huge advantage over any of the other Linux distros out there, they are going to control the whole stack, hardware, os, apps and store. Nobody else is close to that. We'll see.

Good thing I'm not a Windows fan. I have my doubts about this because of the massive amount of investment developers have in the MS ecosystem; however, more power to them if they succeed. It is always best to have another choice available.

 

[Sam Posten]

Well, we've long established that I'm anti-choice =p Or at least I don't believe that an over abundance of choice is a good thing when compared against a restricted environment that limits choice but does it's primary functions exceedingly well.

I also think that of the billions of app developers who create Windows tools only a small percentage have good taste or care all that much about UX. Obviously this is abstracted away for games, but from a desktop OS perspective things are even MORE bleak on Linux. So I'm curious to see what Steam brings besides game modes. If they can take more cues from OSX than they do from Ubuntu as far as the user facing features of the OS goes, that could be even more interesting.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

A. I think we will see steamboxes that are cheaper and more powerful than next gen consoles
B. I don't think Apple is mostly selling to their existing customers.
C. I think that Valve making an integrated stack is as important as a new gaming platform compared to mobile AND console and has impacts beyond gaming to boot
D. Zen master says: We'll see. Execution is everything.

A. This could be true, but I doubt it. Sony and MS are selling both platforms at a loss and I don't think any PC manufacturer can afford to do that. The closest would be a $300 box with okay parts that you can individually upgrade. That said, that's the idea behind the Piston and its starting at a grand.
B. If Apple isn't selling their products (by which I mean the iPhone) to their existing customers, then why has their marketshare decreased? There are too many cheaper and comparably better options on the market. People buy iPhones to keep reminding themselves how great it is to own an iPhone, not because they want the best value. Valve can make anything and it will sell well, but I'd wager primarily to the Valve faithful. Console and PC gamers have some overlap, but I don't think enough console games who don't play PC are going to all of a sudden buy into a Steam Machine. Basically, I think Valve's market is NOT the console market.
C. I don't see Steam Machines as a new platform at all. At best, they're the apex of PC as a platform. There's absolutely nothing about a Steam Machine that my laptop can't do right now with a wired 360 controller and an HDMI cable.
D. Yes, you are right. We also need to see some actually hardware shown off. Their announcements last week were, well, kind of incomplete. A new OS that will arrive eventually, a platform of hardware (without showing the hardware), and a controller that is still in beta. It's like if the PS4 announcement took place over 5 days and they had even less to show.

 

[Sam Posten]

Controller in action.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/11/4828422/valve-shows-steam-controller-in-action-by-playing-in-portal-2-civ-5

 

[Sam Posten]

Impressive growth:http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5045830/steam-65-million-active-accounts-6-million-concurrent-usersBigger than XBL.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Well, there are only a couple billion PCs out there and like 100 million Xbox 360s.

 

[Sam Posten]

Fair point, but that's active users tho, in game.

 

[mattCR]

Stream managed to effectively partner with more first party companies for a PC distribution platform. Frankly, Steam was one of those companies I thought MS would make a play for and didn't, or at least form a partnership to integrate into the Win8 store.. but nope.

 

[Sam Posten]

First hands on:http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/4/5063760/we-try-the-steam-machine-valves-video-game-console-of-the-futurehttp://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/steam-controller-beta-hands-on/Changes coming to offline mode:http://www.destructoid.com/valve-plans-on-improving-steam-s-offline-mode-264861.phtml

 

[Sam Posten]

Sounds like the big Steam Box party will be CES.http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/valve-steam-controller/#slideid-83991http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/valve-steam-machines/http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022180559_briercolumn04xml.html

 

[mattCR]

Steam sometimes has great deals; but often, I buy the title on Amazon and redeem the code on Steam and save about 50%.

 

[Sam Posten]

Yup, and GreenManGaming.Com

 

[Sam Posten]

Like a WWDC for steam!!!!http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/19/5121684/valve-vr-steam-dev-days-conferencehttp://www.polygon.com/2013/11/18/5118518/amd-nvidia-oculus-and-more-to-speak-at-steam-dev-days

 

[Sam Posten]

Cool deal, if this leak is true they are keeping the same discounts for both sales this year.Steam Autumn Sale begins Nov 27 through December 3The Winter Holiday Sale is to run from Dec 19 through January 2.http://slickdeals.net/f/6486286-steam-autumn-sale-begins-nov-27-through-december-3-get-your-wallets-ready