Steam Announcement #2: Steam Machines

Omnomnick

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The second of this week's major Steam living room announcements has been revealed! Introducing: Steam Machines. Previously dubbed by the community as the "Steam Box", the new Steam Machines will be introduced into the market in 2014 as a variety of pre-built gaming hardware solutions designed specifically for the living room space. Every Steam Machine will run the recently announced SteamOS, and will be available from a number of different hardware partners at a variety of price points and performance rates, all of which have yet to be revealed.

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The Steam Machines announcement page has revealed that, while the products are still in development and are not yet ready for a public appearance, Valve is planning a closed beta which will see the first 300 Steam Machines released for Steam users who meet a number of criteria, which we have outlined below. A new Steam Badge, known as the "Steam Hardware Beta Candidate" will track the completion of the criteria.

THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:
Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility
1. Join the Steam Universe community group
2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions
3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already)
4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven't already)
5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

The list will be locked after October 25th, so be sure to complete the criteria before then if you're interested in receiving one of the first 300 Steam Machines! The rest of the announcement page features a lengthy FAQ which we highly recommend checking out if you are at all interested in Valve's hardware pursuits. The bottom question of the FAQ leads us to believe that the third and final announcement, set to be revealed in around 48 hours at 5pm GMT on Friday 27th September 2013, will somehow involve Valve's controller prototypes, as it discusses that Valve will "have some more to say very soon on the topic of input".

Until the reveal on Friday, be sure to head on over to the Steam Universe community group to get started on your 'quest'!


FAQ
When can I buy one?!
Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers.

I’m pretty happy with my PC Gaming setup, do I have to buy a new piece of hardware now?
No. Everything that we’ve been doing on Steam for the last 10 years will continue to move forward.

If you guys are delivering an OS to hardware manufacturers, why is Valve also making its own box?
We're conducting a beta of the overall Steam living-room experience, so we needed to build prototype hardware on which to run tests. At Valve we always rely on real-world testing as part of our design process. The specific machine we're testing is designed for users who want the most control possible over their hardware. Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.

How will you choose the 300 beta participants?
A small number of users (30 or less) will be chosen based on their past community contributions and beta participation. The remainder will be chosen at random from the eligible pool.

Should I create lots of Steam accounts to increase my chances of getting selected?
No, that won’t work.
 

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not what I expecting, I expected more information rather than information I kinda already knew. I deem the second annoucement dissapointing, hopeful the third one won't be as well.
 
We all knew what the announcement was going to be, and the trd one is going to be about the controller, I guess no game with 3 yet.
 
we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.

guess we all know what the final announcement is about then....
 
Hmmmm, I actually think the third announcement could be source 2. They talk about a controller already being done in the FAQ, so I don't think that'll be the "big reveal" even though SteamMachines is pretty huge itself. What I'm wondering is is this just an extension on PC or will this actually be a competitor with the PS4, XBOX One, and WiiU? Or is it just gonna be kinda "eh" like the ouya.
 
OS and console I understand. You guys really think it's going to be a bloody controller as the third announcement?
 
Steam Announcement #3: Spotify

There is code in Steam relating to Spotify so they are certain to be one of the partners as part of SteamOS. But there will also probably be a bunch of others...Netflix, Hulu etc
 
What would be the benefit of Valve creating their own controller? Seems to me that one of main reasons that Valve have been able to push gamepad support recently is because of the plethora of gamepads which are essentially rearranged Xbox 360 controllers (including my own gamepad, the Logitech F310, which is basically a PS3 controller with Xbox buttons). I'm completely ignorant in this area, but wouldn't it be beneficial to developers who are developing games for Xbox and PlayStation for Valve to continue pushing controllers that are similar to the ones used by those pre-existing consoles?
 
for Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode. Does it mean I have to play a game in big picture mode or do I have to buy a gamepad in a store and then play big picture mode?
 
for Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode. Does it mean I have to play a game in big picture mode or do I have to buy a gamepad in a store and then play big picture mode?
Yes. Wait, what?
You can use a keyboard or a separate gamepad. They haven't released any hardware details about providing their own with the SteamMachine, I reckon they would.
 
for Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode. Does it mean I have to play a game in big picture mode or do I have to buy a gamepad in a store and then play big picture mode?

Basically there is no point Valve giving out beta machines to people who don't even own a controller. Playing a game with a controller while in Big Picture mode proves that you own, or have access to, a controller of some kind.
 
anyone else seeing that the main sphere seems to be getting more vibrant?
 
I wonder what the third announcement will be. I'm guessing they saved the best for last.
 
OS and console I understand. You guys really think it's going to be a bloody controller as the third announcement?
It may not be just about a controller, but a wider set of input devices. They've been working on virtual reality and biometrics for a while now.

Or it could really be Source 2. A new engine reveal sounds out of place between Steam related announcements, but I can imagine Valve tying things together by selling it as their powerful next gen software that runs natively on their brand new OS.
 
I'm calling it now: On friday they will announce left 4 dead 3 with a bio-metric controller.
 
I doubt the 3rd announcement will be about a controller, that's not exactly too exciting unless its something crazy revolutionary. In all liklyhood the controler they will be shipping with the steam machines will be manufactured by another company, and not their own design.

The 3rd announcement will have to do with steams services and social network. I expect it will highlight on features like library sharing, maybe playing multiplayer on one machine with split screen, or dual monitors(that would be cool).
 
They spoke about the controler way too much in this post, for it to be the big announcement.
 
Hmmmm, I actually think the third announcement could be source 2. They talk about a controller already being done in the FAQ, so I don't think that'll be the "big reveal" even though SteamMachines is pretty huge itself. What I'm wondering is is this just an extension on PC or will this actually be a competitor with the PS4, XBOX One, and WiiU? Or is it just gonna be kinda "eh" like the ouya.


Marc Laidlaw and others said on twitter that this all about Steam, nothing else. Don't expect game announcements, especially a new game engine, or you will be disappointed.
 
third announcment

Release Date of Halflife 3 will not be released
:eek:

so what counts as a gamepad?
a g25 will do the job?
 
Marc Laidlaw and others said on twitter that this all about Steam, nothing else. Don't expect game announcements, especially a new game engine, or you will be disappointed.

Exactly. These are all announcements about Steam in the living room. This is not about Valve in general. Everything is related back to Steam, SteamOS and the living room space. They probably not announcing Source 2 or a game.
 
I think this will be something really special, because they need to impress people for good with last announcment.

My bet is on Steam Furniture, where different suppliers will make furniture which, will fit in living room. In beta program, they gonna send 300 pieces of fully customisable coach on wheels, with biometric measures of stress level. If you fart too much in L4D there will be no zombies :)
 
The third announcement is the Oculus Rift partnership; the proposed release date and prices, and a bundle with Steam Machines in 2014.
 
well the leak in 4chan is pretty much accurate who knows maybe it will be the source 2 afterall there is a pattern even in tech demo
if we actually take what jiras files said that hl3 indeed is in developemtn of some sort then
either they will do a tech demo (deja vu hl1 hl2..)
either they will get to anncounce an nvidia deal or whatever
 
well the leak in 4chan is pretty much accurate who knows maybe it will be the source 2 afterall there is a pattern even in tech demo
if we actually take what jiras files said that hl3 indeed is in developemtn of some sort then
either they will do a tech demo (deja vu hl1 hl2..)
either they will get to anncounce an nvidia deal or whatever


You realize that the 4chan "leak" was fake, right? Only in the HL community would fans be dumb enough to buy that.
 
Don't give your hopes up, these announcements are more of confirmations rather than news.
Well, this is all news to me. I mean, I already knew Valve was planning hardware but I thought it was just going to be a gaming computer or something.
 
Don't give your hopes up, these announcements are more of confirmations rather than news.


Really? The fact that they announced are creating an Operating System dedicated to gaming is news to me.

anyone else seeing that the main sphere seems to be getting more vibrant?

Yeah. It might explode friday... Before it looked like there was a 37 inside. Now when I look at it I see some kind of pentagon going into a portal. Oh God, I'm probably overly-anticipating this...
 
how many 4chan "leaks" proved to be legit? anyone remembers? so far almost all of them have been found legit im not suprised anymore to see things like that especially from valve..
tho i would be suprised if in the end we all see that g man is actually gabe :eek::D
 
Mostly I recall their leaks being fake, but I don't tend to pay much attention to what 4chan emits.
 
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