New Steam Machines announced by ZOTAC, SYBER and others

[HEXUS]

Valve also announces Source 2, Steam Link and VR 'lighthouse' tracking.

Read more.

[MrFawlty]

Never mind all that, what about Half-Life 3?

[shaithis]

2015, the year of Valve....It's been all go there recently!

SteamBoxes
Multi-platform support
VR
Source2
Greenlight

Maybe they will win me back with all this, I have been put off source-engine games for a while due to the way they look, they have needed the new engine for over 5 years IMO, although I guess now is probably a good time to re-write due to all the new APIs appearing (hell, it's like the 90s again!)

[Jowsey]

Well, I was already interested in a steam controller, so another £50 or so for a cheap box to stream it to my living room tv? Sounds pretty good to me, to be honest.

I wonder why there is so many USB ports though...

[shaithis]

I wonder why there is so many USB ports though...

Cheap to add and pretty much all wired peripherals will be USB. Controllers, HDDs, keyboard, mouse, IR receiver, DVB-T/S/C tuners, scanners, optical drives, etc

[Jowsey]

Cheap to add and pretty much all wired peripherals will be USB. Controllers, HDDs, keyboard, mouse, IR receiver, DVB-T/S/C tuners, scanners, optical drives, etc

I'm with you on why you'd want them on a normal computer, but why on a stream box from steam?

I thought SteamOS was fairly locked down and is only really useful for gaming/game streaming. Therefore nearly all of the above can't be used with SteamOS.

I can kind of understand if you want a mouse, keyboard and maybe a external hard drive with your music on but I think they could have went for a more 'clean' look without them all. Plus, surely if you can play pc games with a steam controller, you should be able to do anything a mouse can with simplicity?

[shaithis]

There are Steam boxes out there today that are running Windows 8.1. These are not all "stream" boxes.

Just looking at the first spec mentioned in the article:

GTX 970M graphics processor. Other specs we were told about include the ability to hook up four displays, the inclusion of a 64GB M.2 SSD and a 2.5-inch 1TB HDD and 802.11ac wireless.

Sounds to me more like a full-on PC in a small case, rather then a Roku.

[DDY]

I thought SteamOS was fairly locked down and is only really useful for gaming/game streaming. Therefore nearly all of the above can't be used with SteamOS.

I wouldn't consider SteamOS to be locked down, at least in its current form, the GNOME desktop and virtually everything else you'll find on Debian is still easily accessible from Big Picture mode.

[DanceswithUnix]

USB is the universal charging interface these days. I had to buy a USB powered switch to keep my PS3 controllers etc charged as the Wii and PS3 don't have enough ports on them.

[Jowsey]

There are Steam boxes out there today that are running Windows 8.1. These are not all "stream" boxes.

Just looking at the first spec mentioned in the article:

Sounds to me more like a full-on PC in a small case, rather then a Roku.

I was referring to the $50 streaming device, didn't make that very clear!!

I wouldn't consider SteamOS to be locked down, at least in its current form, the GNOME desktop and virtually everything else you'll find on Debian is still easily accessible from Big Picture mode.

I did not know this! Thanks

USB is the universal charging interface these days. I had to buy a USB powered switch to keep my PS3 controllers etc charged as the Wii and PS3 don't have enough ports on them.

I agree, but I didn't think in this situation the number was warranted, guess I'm wrong!

[Dooms]

I was referring to the $50 streaming device, didn't make that very clear!!

Well the steamlink only has 2 USB ports and we don't know exactly what it will do.

Even if its 100% a streaming device the 2 ports could be used for 2 controllers. If it also is going to have sort of media playback then you open the world to external HDDs. And what about their new VR? Guess thats going to have to plug into something

[sam3]

people complaining about too many usb ports?

They are pretty well hidden if you don't plan to use them (two are on the back and one on the side).

If you plan on using a mouse and keyboard that's two ports gone and a third can be used for a game controller etc (xbox 360 controllers etc needs a dedicated dongle) if you don't plan on buying a steam controller.

Although the steam controller hasn't been released yet I'm still pretty sure a real mouse will be better in certain games fps, dota etc so its nice to have the flexibility.

I'm not even sure if this will be running full steamos - it could just be an arm based system purely dedicated to streaming games with no ability to playback games locally (it could be running android for all we know like nvidias streaming/box console?)

[Ttaskmaster]

If you plan on using a mouse and keyboard that's two ports gone

Unless you get a keyboard with a built-in USB hub, in which case you get 3 things plugged for just the one port...!

Plus, surely if you can play pc games with a steam controller, you should be able to do anything a mouse can with simplicity?

Have you TRIED playing mouse-centric games with a controller??!!
Games like Dragon Age and FTL could have you flinging this console out the window within minutes!!

[mtyson]

Here's another Steam Machine that's just hit our inbox, from Maingear:

[bluepumpkin]

The Steam Link is what I have waited for as i have a full sized pC already but surely there should be wi-fi

[directhex]

Have you TRIED playing mouse-centric games with a controller??!!
Games like Dragon Age and FTL could have you flinging this console out the window within minutes!!

Have you tried playing mouse-centric games with Valve's controller? It really works. Played Civ 5 with wife when she was in hospital & couldn't sit up to use a mouse, swapping the controller between us in a hot-seat game.