Origin PC CEO: Steam Machines "Pretty Much Dead"

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This quote is bound to get everyone all worked up.

Also during our interview, Wasielewski said the term "Steam Machine" no longer means much of anything. "I think that's kind of pretty much dead," he said of the term Steam Machine. "It's like a living room PC--is now the new term. Living room PCs have been around forever. That's not anything new either. But it seems like there's a legitimate demand and push for living room PCs."
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Don't disagree. See it filling such a niche space between full PC and a console, I don't see much demand there.
 
I'm more worked up by the thread bait title.
 
Awww.. somebody's angry that Valve wasn't willing to let over-eager hardware OEMs dictate timing for Steam Machines launch.

He's just going to have to stick his nose in it, breathe in deep, and learn to love it. Valve recognizes the software and platform has to be just right before a retail launch or everyone will kneejerk-declare it a failure.
 
Captain Obvious must have taken the day off. Thanks for filling in, Wasielewski.

The last Steam hardware survey I saw had Windows 8.x at 31%. Linux continues to fall, despite the Steam Machines "everybody wants", and sits at under 0.9% now. Gabe must be shaking his cheeseburgers in anger.
 
It's been almost two years since Steam has been on Linux and it's gone nowhere and the Steam Machine is now coming out at perhaps the worst possible time with Windows 10 likely being the main focus of the PC world in 2015. A release that's pretty much almost certain to be much better received than 8 which was kind of the launching point for Steam Machines in the first place.
 
Megalith said:
I'm more worked up by the thread bait title.
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Prepare for a nasty VM.

Protip: Just gotta go with the flow on the 'bait titles. Every blog and news site does them these days. Sucks but its reality.

Yeah, the "pretty much dead" line is totally out of context.
 
pxc said:
Captain Obvious must have taken the day off. Thanks for filling in, Wasielewski.

The last Steam hardware survey I saw had Windows 8.x at 31%. Linux continues to fall, despite the Steam Machines "everybody wants", and sits at under 0.9% now. Gabe must be shaking his cheeseburgers in anger.
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I don't think that trying to draw a parallel between Linux share on Steam, and the demand for Steam Machines has much in common, its basically like saying "derp why would anyone want a PS4, cuz FreeBSD on Steam its nonexistent" before the PS4 launched (PS4 runs a modified FreeBSD 9.0 called Orbis)

Linux isn't the reason people are interested in Steam Machines.
 
"Pretty much dead", well, I guess that's one thing steam boxes and origin both have in common. LOL!!!
 
pxc said:
Linux continues to fall, despite the Steam Machines "everybody wants", and sits at under 0.9% now. Gabe must be shaking his cheeseburgers in anger.
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Linux gaming is awesome if you have a long weekend to install the game and actually get it to work by the end of day three.

In short: Linux gaming is like being circumcised with an assault rifle.

Messy.
 
DPI said:
Linux isn't the reason people are interested in Steam Machines.
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Then what is the reason? Steam on a living room PC? Nothing new available today. Which was kind of this guys point. Ok, the controller is new, but they'll work with any living room PC running Windows.
 
Alienware has a Steambox on the market right now selling in Walmart for $500. I'm sure they are just flying off the shelves. :rolleyes: Especially when the employees are telling people garbage like it is going to receive an upgrade that allows it to play PS4/Xb1 and WiiU games. Yes I have had several employees at several stores actually tell me that. It would be laughable if it wasn't so scarily misleading to those who aren't tech literate.
 
heatlesssun said:
Then what is the reason?
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Steam straight up without worrying about the backend. I don't care of it's running on AppleOS or even Windows 95. If it's pretty much an upgradeable console with Steam Sale pricing I can see how it could fare well.
 
Steam machines were never going anywhere... for a few reasons

1. Manufacturers feel that in the PC market they can gouge when adding the word "gaming" to a piece of hardware.

2. Games that thrive on PC need a KB/M hands down (no I'm not talking about FPS). MOBAS is just a huge market so you would essentially be asking people to buy two PCs.

3. The market that would even look to a steam machine (at a $400ish price point) are probably just going to get (already have) a Xbox/PS4/WiiU. A steam machine capable of pushing the visuals that make PC gaming awesome would cost far too much to be successful.

4. Every publisher is now wanting its own steam and therefore pulling their titles from Steam. See EA with Origin and I think I read Ubi is next. Activision will soon follow. They all want what steam has and will use their popular IPs to get it.
 
pigwalk said:
I don't care of it's running on AppleOS or even Windows 95. If it's pretty much an upgradeable console with Steam Sale pricing I can see how it could fare well.
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It would also have a much larger selection of compatible games if it ran Windows 95 as opposed to SteamOS.

On the down side, you wouldn't have access to all the pixel roguelike artistic crafting side-scrolling Indie games that make up 99% of Linux titles.
techrat said:
I'm more worked up by seeing Steve's name.

*touches nipple*

That big hunk of hot texas beef.
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His mighty biceps are quite alluring.
 
I think Steam is the last nail in the coffin for linux gaming.

If valve couldn't make it, no one will.

Not that bad IMO. at least it was a wake up call for MS and they started doing something about it.
 
I feel like l am the only one who wants it to succeed.
 
I think Linux will kill the "official" Steam machine. Most games on steam wont work with Linux.

On the other hand, Windows Steam in Big Picture mode is almost perfect.

If Valve wants the steam machine to succeed, they need to ditch Linux.
 
DPI said:
God forbid they broke convention and status quo and tried something new. The controller differentiating itself from other consoles is just something people expect of a console - part of its personality.
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If EA put out a touchpad controller you would be pointing and laughing. Slap a Valve logo on a trackpad, and the Internets proclaim it to be the future of gaming.

Also, if touchpads give the Steam Machine personality, then that giant dent on my car's fender gives it character.
 
leeleatherwood said:
I think Linux will kill the "official" Steam machine. Most games on steam wont work with Linux.

On the other hand, Windows Steam in Big Picture mode is almost perfect.

If Valve wants the steam machine to succeed, they need to ditch Linux.
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Im not saying Linux is bad, I am just saying that by going with Linux, most of the Steam Library will not work, this is counter productive to its success.
 
griff30 said:
I feel like l am the only one who wants it to succeed.
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You probably are!

Steam OS was a hedging of bets just in case Microsoft's new Windows Store took off. Now that Windows Store has crashed and burned, even Gabe has stopped waving the banner.

I mean, we all know how shitty the driver situation is on Linux (that never changed no matter how much they tried to dress-up the pig), and even though Valve tried to help, they can't move a whale all alone.

I don't see anybody else making the effort to help, do you? And that truly is the issue with Linux: since it's a free OS, you have to either get the programmers interested, drop tons of your own cash, or nothing happens.

The OS X port might stick around, but we all knew that the Linux gaming platform was dead from day one.
 
griff30 said:
I feel like l am the only one who wants it to succeed.
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You are definitely not the only one. There are lots of people, just not many in this very short thread. Probably very short because the people who like Linux and/or think Steam machines will do well don't really want to validate what they are thinking because of the crazy Windows fans in here. Everybody knows the world would be better off with more competition, and that Microsoft will do almost anything to stop competition in its tracks. It is nice that most games run well on Windows, but everything else about the situaton reeks of patheticly slow progress in the world overall because of Microsoft. Anyway, Linux is not dead, nor is Linux gaming, and Steam will always eclipse Origin by a large margin. Steam has that space on lock, and EA/Origin are just pissy about it. Steam and Linux gaming are only going to get better in the future.. As for drivers on Linux.. We can only hope they improve them a lot by the time Steam machines come out.
 
I'd still rather have an upgrade-able Steam Machine type concept in my living room instead of having a console that's out of date the day it's released with a 7 year upgrade cycle holding back the look and feel of the games that I play. It's unfortunate that this concept isn't getting traction.
 
crusty_juggler said:
If EA put out a touchpad controller you would be pointing and laughing. Slap a Valve logo on a trackpad, and the Internets proclaim it to be the future of gaming.

Also, if touchpads give the Steam Machine personality, then that giant dent on my car's fender gives it character.
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Not sure I agree with that statement. There is a need a for a better couch controller for traditional KB/mouse titles. I think most gamers would be open to a good solution regardless who makes/markets it.
 
heatlesssun said:
Then what is the reason? Steam on a living room PC? Nothing new available today. Which was kind of this guys point. Ok, the controller is new, but they'll work with any living room PC running Windows.
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The reason is because not enough games are available on Linux. But not too long ago it was for many other reasons.

#1 Cause linux sucked. Before Valve got involved the OS was a mess for gaming. It was a mess in general. But through their influence that changed rapidly. Linux today is very different from Linux 1 or 2 years ago.

#2 Drivers sucked. Particularly graphic drivers. Even though people associate Nvidia for ultimate driver quality, the truth is their drivers suck on Linux too. A lot of that has changed especially with AMD and Intel. The drivers still need work. AMD and Nvidia have their bases covered but it's Intel who's really holding back Linux. They barely have OpenGL compliance. AMD though even has functioning open source drivers as well as their Catalyst.

#3 Just not enough games being made. Valve has done all they could to get people to port their games but that's not working as well as they thought. A lot of games are just never going to make it to Linux or Mac. Valve has a hard time addressing this issue. The best they could do is live stream games from your Windows PC. That's seriously a bad solution.

Valve's not stupid. Releasing SteamBox right now would get hugely negative reviews. Customers would get angry. I mean a lot of popular titles right now just don't exist in Linux. You buy this machine you'll find half your library or more just isn't there. At this point Valve is hoping to do two things. Release Half Life 3 for Linux exclusively, which would do the trick. Or find a better way to get Windows games to be more compatible on Linux, cause Wine isn't cutting it.

Mind you that Origin CEO is basically saying STFU we aren't supporting Linux. They're feeling the pressure but they don't wanna port a bunch of their games to Linux. Especially when it won't increase sales and they'd still have to work with Valve with their SteamBox's. As shitty as Origin is you need them on Linux. Half of everyone games is from EA unfortunately.
 
MisterHipster said:
You are definitely not the only one. There are lots of people, just not many in this very short thread. Probably very short because the people who like Linux and/or think Steam machines will do well don't really want to validate what they are thinking because of the crazy Windows fans in here. Everybody knows the world would be better off with more competition, and that Microsoft will do almost anything to stop competition in its tracks. It is nice that most games run well on Windows, but everything else about the situaton reeks of patheticly slow progress in the world overall because of Microsoft. Anyway, Linux is not dead, nor is Linux gaming, and Steam will always eclipse Origin by a large margin. Steam has that space on lock, and EA/Origin are just pissy about it. Steam and Linux gaming are only going to get better in the future.. As for drivers on Linux.. We can only hope they improve them a lot by the time Steam machines come out.
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it's such a great concept, an upgradeable console, but it really has to be cheap and have zero maintenance issues, and have tons of games to really take off. it's true what someone else said though, if valve can't make it work, it's hard to imagine who could.
 
Ashbringer said:
Valve's not stupid. Releasing SteamBox right now would get hugely negative reviews. Customers would get angry. I mean a lot of popular titles right now just don't exist in Linux. You buy this machine you'll find half your library or more just isn't there. At this point Valve is hoping to do two things. Release Half Life 3 for Linux exclusively, which would do the trick. Or find a better way to get Windows games to be more compatible on Linux, cause Wine isn't cutting it.
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The thing is though regardless if the game runs on Windows or Linux, the money made is the same. Valve isn't going to make any money from SteamBoxes. So I don't see how releasing a game that probably isn't the title it used to be for Linux only would make economic sense for Valve.
 
So you only reach "enough" status after you have over 9k?
 
Skillz said:
So you only reach "enough" status after you have over 9k?
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The app gap problem is just a tough one. Windows Phone is getting hammered by it. Hard to get developers to develop for platforms with no market share. Hard to get market share without apps.
 
Skillz said:
Uh...

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?os=linux

I see 66 PAGES of games available on SteamOS/Linux.

I think you might want to refine your statement.
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Yes, 1632 is alot.
But that is only 17% if you do the math.

So, if I had a Linux based Steambox, I would be unable to play 83% of games available on the Steam Platform.

That sucks, and if you were to tell anybody if you bought a $100 cheaper Xbox that they would be unable to play 83% of XBox games, they would not buy it. Steam should be no different.
 
heatlesssun said:
The app gap problem is just a tough one. Windows Phone is getting hammered by it. Hard to get developers to develop for platforms with no market share. Hard to get market share without apps.
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Yet consoles seem to do just fine with getting developers to make new games for their newly launched consoles.

Steam Machines haven't even been released yet and they've already got over 1600 "games" that are available when it does launch.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Yes, 1632 is alot.
But that is only 17% if you do the math.

So, if I had a Linux based Steambox, I would be unable to play 83% of games available on the Steam Platform.

That sucks, and if you were to tell anybody if you bought a $100 cheaper Xbox that they would be unable to play 83% of XBox games, they would not buy it. Steam should be no different.
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Right. When you buy a new console in nearly all circumstances you're unable to play any previous generation games on it. The exception is only with the few consoles that have had backwards compatibility. Even those consoles haven't had a 100% success rate with playing previous generation games and they've sometimes not even lasted the next generations consoles entire life. IE: After the first revision that backwards compatibility gets removed or severely limited until it's eventually removed.

You guys do realize the Steam Machine hasn't even been launched yet, correct? Games that will be targeted towards it will be pushed as such. Saying that you're only able to play 17% of titles available to it is ridiculous. You'll be able to play 100% of the games available to it.
 
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