Steam’s Living Room Hardware Blitz Gets Off To A Muddy Start

Valve is bringing the PC gaming experience to the living room this month as it begins shipping its variety of Steam hardware. This article talks a little about the quirks you might run into with the new OS, console, controller, and streaming box.

We've been putting that entire ecosystem through its paces for a few days now, and while some of those pieces work better than others, all have some trouble living up to the promise of a seamless, hassle-free, PC-on-a-TV-console experience. It's early, and Valve's attack on the living room is far from a vaporware failure, but it's not a shock-and-awe knockout blitz either.

Valve often has less than stellar starts, they do what other companies don't do, they don't panic and they stick with it and keep adjusting until they find a successful formula.

Article is shit. Comparing a 2012 comment on Windows PC gaming to the Windows 10 today. An upgrade, new CEO, and lackluster Xbox One debut later. Stopped reading there.

My Steam Controller came in the mail yesterday. My first impressions are slightly positive. It feels comfortable in my hand which is really important. The haptic feedback is an interesting and pleasant feature. My only gripe right now is that the shoulder buttons are too loud and require too much force to press.

I only played with it for about 20 minutes. I'll need to try it out with different games.

No offense but it just seems lazy to copy another site's headline word for word.

Technically Valve's "living room blitz" doesn't start until SteamOS actually launches in November, and the 10' Big Picture interface is still getting improvements almost daily in the beta.

For now it's just the controller and link that are getting into the hands of people that pre-ordered early.

This leads directly to the biggest problem with the SteamOS ecosystem as a whole: it doesn’t offer much of anything over the existing Windows-based gaming world.

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It doesn't offer ANYTHING over the existing steam for windows. As a matter of fact it offers much less.

It's Ars though. Not sure it's worth reading.

Stoly said:

It doesn't offer ANYTHING over the existing steam for windows. As a matter of fact it offers much less.

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Anything? How about not needing a $129 or $199 Windows license.

odditory said:

Anything? How about not needing a $129 or $199 Windows license.

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A Windows Home license on an pre-built machine doesn't come anywhere close to this. A Windows Pro license would come close. But if this really were an apples to apples comparison the cost argument would have a lot more weight. As currently less than 20% of the Steam Library is Linux compatible yes you save some money on the Windows license at the cost of not having access to most of the Steam Library.

That's the 800 pound gorilla in the room problem with Steam OS driven Steam Boxes currently.

odditory said:

Anything? How about not needing a $129 or $199 Windows license.

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Windows 10 is basically free at the moment; not technically or legally free, but anyone that wants a free, seemingly unrestricted install of it without paying for it can get it right now.

heatlesssun said:

A Windows Home license on an pre-built machine doesn't come anywhere close to this. A Windows Pro license would come close. But if this really were an apples to apples comparison the cost argument would have a lot more weight. As currently less than 20% of the Steam Library is Linux compatible yes you save some money on the Windows license at the cost of not having access to most of the Steam Library.

That's the 800 pound gorilla in the room problem with Steam OS driven Steam Boxes currently.

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What if I don't want some crappy pre-built? Did you forget which forum you're on? Fact: $119 for Windows 10 Home, $199 for Pro.

And SteamOS hasn't even launched retail yet so I wouldn't hang my hat on platform percentages too long. Consider the Xbox One couldn't play 360 games when it launched, but people bought it anyway even though 0% of it's library was 360 compatible. Same with PS4 after PS3.

Dont feel so threatened, it's just one more way to play games on a PC. I haven't heard any announcements of Valve planning to abandon Windows.

GaryJohnson said:

Windows 10 is basically free at the moment; not technically or legally free, but anyone that wants a free, seemingly unrestricted install of it without paying for it can get it right now.

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Really? Okay it just happens I'm putting a new PC together for my living room. Tell me where I download my free copy of Windows 10 with a key.

odditory said:

Dont feel so threatened, it's just one more way to play games on a PC. I haven't heard any announcements of Valve planning to abandon Windows.

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How many years have we been on this desktop Linux road? Sure desktop Linux is free and it's not made in difference for nearly two decades now. Sure this is another way to run PC games, except not most of them. Again, what do Steam Boxes and Steam OS bring to the table that's not already here?

What's going to be the reaction of a noob that buys a Steam Box, sees the latest Call of Duty game, want's it but it won't run on his system? Really, what app store has apps that don't run on the device the store is on? Remember all of the complaints about Surface RT devices? "It's going to confuse users because it won't run Windows software." And that proved to be a HUGE problem for the platform.

If Steam OS is a big success and developers chomp at the bit to develop for it, great. It's not like I can't run it if there's a reason to.

Was waiting for SteamOS before weening most of my PCs away from Windows.

I'll probably keep one PC with a Windows license but the rest at home will have SteamOS installed soon. Excited to see how it will work for general surfing, email and media/HTPC functionality.

odditory said:

Anything? How about not needing a $129 or $199 Windows license.

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At the cost of not playing 95% of steam games. Even Valve is recommending a Windows PC for streaming most games to a steambox.

But if someone were to buy a Windows OS to play games, they don't need to spend $129 or $199. B&H still has Windows 7 for $90, and Windows 8.1 is available for the same price at more places, and both are eligible for a free upgrade to 10 if they want to do so.

odditory said:

Anything? How about not needing a $129 or $199 Windows license.

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How about the thousands of games that are NOT on steam and will never be.

Stoly said:

How about the thousands of games that are NOT on steam and will never be.

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By that logic, people shouldn't have bought Xbox One's or PS4's because of all the 360 and PS3 games that wouldn't run on them. SteamOS isn't an all or nothing proposition, it's not trying to replace windows desktops, you don't have to choose sides. It's just one more way to play games on a PC, specifically in the living room with a controller.

Valve is planting a seed in the console space, not gunning for hyooge ConsoleWarz marketshare gains and millions of units sold overnight. Think long game, like the way Halo seeded the original Xbox, Half Life 2 seeded original Steam.

What's the worst that happens if SteamOS starts making marketshare inroads - a fire is lit under Microsoft's butt to start taking acknowledging its redheaded stepchild in Windows as a gaming platform? Win-win for PC gamers.

I want to bring the consoles to the desktop, and not the pc to the living room.

They could offer a PS4, or XBOX add on card for my PC, that fits in a pcie slot, and makes me able to play console games from the desktop, seamlessly.

heatlesssun said:

How many years have we been on this desktop Linux road? Sure desktop Linux is free and it's not made in difference for nearly two decades now. Sure this is another way to run PC games, except not most of them.

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I never mentioned desktop Linux, but points for trying to cloud the issue. I've seen no evidence of Valve trying to champion the proliferation of desktop Linux, or even gaming on Linux as a whole. Gaben is just a business guy who doesn't want his golden goose tied to an OS he has no control over, run by a corporation with wholly other interests than PC gaming. My take anyway. Linux desktop would end up benefitting from the proliferation of gaming on SteamOS, but that's not Valve's motivation.

Again, what do Steam Boxes and Steam OS bring to the table that's not already here?

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Valid point. Initially? It wouldn't appear to offer much. Steam Machines aren't going to be an overnight success; we know that, and I suspect that Valve and their partners know that too, anyone thinking otherwise is kidding themselves. The point of Steam Machines for now is to carve out a little enthusiast niche with people that want a more console-like experience with PC hardware.

pxc said:

At the cost of not playing 95% of steam games. Even Valve is recommending a Windows PC for streaming most games to a steambox.

But if someone were to buy a Windows OS to play games, they don't need to spend $129 or $199. B&H still has Windows 7 for $90, and Windows 8.1 is available for the same price at more places, and both are eligible for a free upgrade to 10 if they want to do so.

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Sure, or you could get a shady key off a street blanket seller in china, But most people that aren't buying a prefab PC just end up buying off Newegg or whatever.

The point is that removing the $90 or $129 or $199 or whatever Windows tax is it makes it that much easier for builders to hit traditional console pricepoints going forward. Console pricing is fickle, there are well worn pricing tiers that most people seem to expect - $299, $349, $399, whatever. If you're eliminating $90 from the BOM, that's a pretty big chunk of a $499 BOM, and the cost can be reallocated to better hardware - CPU/GPU, etc.

Every dollar and cent seems to count in a console's BOM, that's why you see MS & Sony trying to shave every possible corner on specs when they're developing a new generation box.

odditory said:

What if I don't want some crappy pre-built?

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Then don't buy a Steam Machine.

Wierdo said:

Excited to see how it will work for general surfing, email and media/HTPC functionality.

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Poorly. Extremely poorly.

The Article said:

"Amusingly, pre-built shortcuts like the Linux calculator app immediately crashed to a white screen when we launched them. Trying to launch the Xterm windowing system similarly generated some errors and kicked us out to a basic command line prompt. While utilities like a dictionary and file search tool launched directly, they weren’t compatible with the on-screen keyboard that can be accessed from the Steam Controller"

"Sites like YouTube and Netflix load and play all right, but anything requiring Flash or a downloadable app didn’t easily cooperate (meaning no easy way to play Spotify music during your SteamOS games)."

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Your statement exemplifies the confusion surrounding Steam OS. Some people believe it to be an OS made for living room functionality like something you would see on an HTPC, while some expect a gaming-focused OS with wide compatibility for the many titles on Steam and superior performance when compared to Windows. It's neither.

It's simply a portal into Valve's store that attempts to cut MS out of the equation. That's it. Don't forget, the only reason Valve created this OS was due to their CEO having a meltdown over the Windows 8 app store. Gabe Newell claimed MS was going to lock Steam out of Windows and thus lead Valve on their current pointless Linux crusade with the intent of locking MS out of Steam. Steam OS is not about choice, or superior gaming performance or replacing the desktop. It's the result of an irrational fear of Microsoft.

Ironically, two years later the Windows app store remains irrelevant, MS has made zero effort to lock Steam out of Windows (or any other software for that matter) and everyone has moved on to Windows 10. Gabe Newell made a huge mistake with this hardware push and it's going to cost his company millions.

odditory said:

Sure, or you could get a shady key off a street blanket seller in china, But most people that aren't buying a prefab PC just end up buying off Newegg or whatever.

The point is that removing the $90 or $129 or $199 or whatever Windows tax is it makes it that much easier for builders to hit traditional console pricepoints going forward. Console pricing is fickle, there are well worn pricing tiers that most people seem to expect - $299, $349, $399, whatever. If you're eliminating $90 from the BOM, that's a pretty big chunk of a $499 BOM, and the cost can be reallocated to better hardware - CPU/GPU, etc.

Every dollar and cent seems to count in a console's BOM, that's why you see MS & Sony trying to shave every possible corner on specs when they're developing a new generation box.

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Nice, except that Windows licenses sold to OEM's are significantly less than what you or I would pay for them directly. Therefore, a Steambox cost savings without the Windows license is minimal at best. Remember the Dell computer and the fact that you could purchase it for around $350 with a Windows license?

heatlesssun said:

<snip>. As currently less than 20% of the Steam Library is Linux compatible yes you save some money on the Windows license at the cost of not having access to most of the Steam Library.

That's the 800 pound gorilla in the room problem with Steam OS driven Steam Boxes currently.

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(I'm sure you're aware of it, but I'll continue anyway...) The answer to that is in-home-streaming.
Chances are most people complaining about the Linux library size being a show stopper have a valid (or legal enough) Windows license elsewhere in the house that plays whatever games they're talking about missing out on. In-home-streaming works great enough that you can play Skyrim from the couch instead of a $10K desk, and 'games from the couch' seems to be what this is all about.

That will be the bridge until more vendors get on-board with Linux support.. Or it'll land somewhere in the middle and Steam-Link backed by Windows will be what most people want.

ManofGod said:

Nice, except that Windows licenses sold to OEM's are significantly less than what you or I would pay for them directly. Therefore, a Steambox cost savings without the Windows license is minimal at best.

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Right. The Ars article in the OP says the cost of an Alienware Steam Machine with Windows is exactly the same cost as one with Steam OS. Both with identical hardware configuration.

The argument that you save money by buying a Steam Machine w/Steam OS instead of Windows is wrong on it's face.

Frobozz said:

The answer to that is in-home-streaming.

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Buying extra hardware to stream from a Windows machine to a Linux machine via Ethernet, with all the drawbacks that come with game streaming (video artifacts, CPU load), is a solution to a problem that does not exist.The CEO of Valve freaked out when he saw an app store in Windows and claimed Steam was going to be locked out of Windows. It didn't happen and it's not going to happen. Ever.

The entire "problem" with PC gaming on Windows is a paranoid delusion that only exists in the mind of Gabe Newell.

Steam hardware/OS has zero purpose and will fail to gain any traction. I would argue it has already failed.

crusty_juggler said:

.Buying extra hardware to stream from a Windows machine to a Linux machine via Ethernet, with all the drawbacks that come with game streaming (video artifacts, CPU load), is a solution to a problem that does not exist.The CEO of Valve freaked out when he saw an app store in Windows and claimed Steam was going to be locked out of Windows. It didn't happen and it's not going to happen. Ever.

The entire "problem" with PC gaming on Windows is a paranoid delusion that only exists in the mind of Gabe Newell.

Steam hardware/OS has zero purpose and will fail to gain any traction. I would argue it has already failed.

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Video artifacts haven't been an issue in my experience, and for CPU load, since my TV is 1080p, my streaming host box (normally @ 2560x1440) gets a break. It's a solution for a problem if your problem is that your gaming computer is in an office room on a desk and not hooked up to a TV and controlled from your couch.

Aside from that, I think Gabe had every right to be concerned about a Windows App Store. Balmer's MS saw the success of Apple's AppStore and wanted to do the same. If they had executed their ideas successfully, Valve would have been in a tough spot.

Valve could still get into a tough spot as they (MS) haven't given up on it. They're already doing nagging crap about Edge. "We see you're using Steam, have you looked at the great Solitaire games in the Windows Store?"

It might have traction issues, but Valve is smart to cultivate a platform of their own.

Frobozz said:

Valve could still get into a tough spot as they (MS) haven't given up on it. They're already doing nagging crap about Edge. "We see you're using Steam, have you looked at the great Solitaire games in the Windows Store?"

It might have traction issues, but Valve is smart to cultivate a platform of their own.

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There's more to it than even this. The Windows Store will soon be able to host Win32 apps. If Valve and Microsoft are taking around the same cut it would make sense for developers to deploy to both stores. The next Toms Raider is going to be on both the Windows Store for Windows 10 and Steam.

I'm pretty impressed that Linux has posted like some pretty significant growth over the last year or so...it's gone from like 1.25% of the OS market in November of 2014 to 1.74% of the market in September of 2015. No, that's not a huge amount at all of the overall market and it's slow growth, but ALL of that growth appears to be coming out of Microsoft rather than Apple as Apple's OS has picked up half a percentage point of the market too over the same time period (from 7.27% to 7.72%) and all versions of Windows declined a full percentage point over the past year.

What it means is that there's a year long upward rise of Microsoft's two main competitors and the funny thing is that since 10's release, the trend for Linux hasn't changed. It's still rising which means that 10 doesn't have the right stuff to keep people from moving away from it.

http://netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=0

Since companies like Valve are pushing it deeper into the desktop space and a pretty large number of games in it's library getting a Linux version (like 23% or so of the total library in the middle of September according to Ars - http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/valve-hits-a-linux-landmark-1500-games-available-on-steam/) and an average of about 100 games a month being released on Linux (nevermind the 2,200 on OS X), there's not as much of a reason for Windows as an exclusive gaming platform and the trend currently favors Linux moving forward.

What I think is gonna hold SteamOS back is the way they tuck basic desktop functionality away as sort of a secondary thing. A lot of people will wanna use just one OS on one computer and if SteamOS is going to fill that role, they'll sorta need to open things up a little (<---might be out of date info since I haven't used SteamOS in a while so feel free to correct me if I'm like way off on that). Also, LibreOffice still needs to get a little better at duplicating file formatting of MS Office and GIMP really is a huge pain to learn, both of those are key applications that are close, but not quite there yet.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:

What I think is gonna hold SteamOS back is the way they tuck basic desktop functionality away as sort of a secondary thing. A lot of people will wanna use just one OS on one computer and if SteamOS is going to fill that role, they'll sorta need to open things up a little (<---might be out of date info since I haven't used SteamOS in a while so feel free to correct me if I'm like way off on that). Also, LibreOffice still needs to get a little better at duplicating file formatting of MS Office and GIMP really is a huge pain to learn, both of those are key applications that are close, but not quite there yet.

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Perhaps this shows a perception issue that Valve needs to work on through marketing, but there's a distinct difference in use-case for SteamOS vs Linux + Steam Client.
SteamOS's focus is to put PC gaming in console space in the living room. Compete against the Playstation and Xbox.

They are not looking to provide a productivity desktop + gaming experience with SteamOS. For those that do want that, they leave you to install your desktop of choice and then install the Steam client.

SteamOS's underworkings should remain open enough for tinkerers to have a blast, but the main focus is to push the On button and play a game.

Frobozz said:

Perhaps this shows a perception issue that Valve needs to work on through marketing, but there's a distinct difference in use-case for SteamOS vs Linux + Steam Client.
SteamOS's focus is to put PC gaming in console space in the living room. Compete against the Playstation and Xbox.

They are not looking to provide a productivity desktop + gaming experience with SteamOS. For those that do want that, they leave you to install your desktop of choice and then install the Steam client.

SteamOS's underworkings should remain open enough for tinkerers to have a blast, but the main focus is to push the On button and play a game.

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I guess I can understand the intent and maybe that'll be good enough in the vast majority of use cases. Then again, it just seems odd to impose those limitations when it'd be a fairly trivial thingy to bake in the necessary package stuff for a person to, if they wanted to, have a more standard PC experience if they wanted. Linux is all about opening doors and saying yes to more options versus saying "Nope! Not what it's for!" to the person at the keyboard. I mean, I don't mind a closed box experience, but I don't really like the idea of having yet another stupid computer around that is a single-purpose system. I hate the idea of multiple computers just laying around so that I use this one for checking e-mail and that one for opening documents and this other one hosts files to a network. PCs are general purpose computing devices so task-limiting them without it being a necessity seems to go against taking advantage of that wide array of capabilities.

In the home, I mean...enterprise computing is a whole other thing and I completely understand that doesn't and shouldn't apply everywhere at all times.

I don't think Valve is preventing any kind of desktop experience in SteamOS but it is realistic of them to say that they don't have the competence or resources to make a good desktop OS. It's not really their domain anyway. If you prefer to have something that has better desktop abilities you might as well just get any distro of Linux. SteamOS doesn't give you anything more than what you can get with Ubuntu, etc. except for a flicker-free boot experience, which will likely be backported to desktop Linux soon anyway.