Steam Machines
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Watch the Steam Controller play more than a dozen games
YouTube channel Trial By Game issued a slew of Steam Machines and Steam Controller videos in the last week. Using its prototype hardware, the channel delivered 23 related videos to date, many of which show the Steam Controller in action with games like Surgeon Simulator 2013, Metro: Last Light, Civilization 5, Bastion and Super Street Fighter 4. We included a few more of the channel's videos after the break. Valve announced its hardware and accompanying operating system in September prior to kicking off the selection process for its 300-person hardware beta program, which Trial By Game seems to be a part of. Valve created its own video to demonstrate the Steam Controller in October, but as with Trial By Game's looks at the game pad, the controller shown isn't final hardware. The Steam Controller's final form will feature a touchscreen between its circular trackpads.
What a Steam Machine looks like
When new hardware arrives, gamers the world over become bitten by a precocious little parasite called "the unboxing bug." So it is with Valve's hardware prototypes, the Steam Box / Steam Machines. Reddit user colbehr received his hardware from Valve yesterday, and has posted an exhaustive photo-inspection of the unit for all to enjoy. So, let's dig in: Big? Seems fairly substantial. Black? Like midnight at the bottom of the ocean. Box? Boy, you better believe it. And there you go! Valve has given hardware beta testers a big, black box to toy around with. It also came shipped in a wooden crate, like something hauled out of that place in the Indiana Jones movies where they keep The Ark of the Covenant and James Woods. Mind you, this is a hardware beta, and we don't know if this is what the units will look like when they're available for purchase. Check out more angles after the break.
SteamOS now available for download
As promised for today, Valve has released its custom operating system, SteamOS. SteamOS is a custom version of the Linux operating system, so if you're looking to tinker around with it be sure to give this FAQ a gander first. Valve is also sending out Steam Machines to 300 beta participants starting today. SteamOS is part of Valve's three-pronged approach in bringing PC gaming into the living. In addition to SteamOS, there are also Steam Machines - custom affordable pre-built PCs designed to play Steam games - and Valve's customizable Steam Controller.
Steam Machines ship to beta participants on Friday
The first round of 300 beta Steam Machines and controllers ship out on Friday, December 13, Valve announced. Selected beta testers will be notified today around 5PM ET. These anointed ones will find a few games running on SteamOS in their libraries and badges on their Steam profiles marking them as participants. SteamOS will go live once the hardware ships on Friday, downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. Additionally, the in-home streaming beta will begin soon, Valve notes. Steam Machines are due to ship commercially in 2014. Expect more information about Valve's hardware initiative at CES in January.
Steam Box prototype from iBuyPower [Update]
Wow. This is a prototype Steam Machines box from iBuyPower, courtesy of our friends at Engadget. The box comes in two flavors (codenamed "Gordon" and "Freeman," of course), as the center strip is either clear or black when not illuminated with varying colors. Much glow. While iBuyPower wasn't willing to share the specs of its version of the Steam-powered hardware, it said the system will run Steam games at 60 frames per second in 1080p. The system is expected to be ready for a 2014 launch, and the two prototype models currently run an early build of SteamOS, the operating system Valve announced would be on its own Steam Machines hardware. Both were announced alongside a Steam Controller in September. Very Steam Box. Much update: The Verge reports that the system will include a "multicore AMD CPU and a discrete AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card" and comes with a 500 GB hard drive, bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. That CPU is very core.
Steam In-Home Streaming locks down the host computer
Valve has published a Q&A on Steam In-Home Streaming, the company's experiment on streaming games from one PC to any other in the house – specifically, the living room. While the Q&A is light on info, it does at least clarify two points regarding computer functionality while streaming and playing streamed games over the internet. While it's engaged in streaming, no one will be able to use the original PC serving games through In-Home Streaming. "No, your computer is dedicated to running the game and input is coming from both the remote client and the local system. It would be very confusing if someone were trying to use the computer at the same time," the Q&A reads. In addition to that, Internet streaming is "currently" not supported. You'll have to rely on local network streaming to enjoy the functionality when the beta launches before year's end. Steam In-Home Streaming is one piece of a three-pronged solution Valve has proposed for getting PC games into the living room. The company hopes to create an open gaming network, combining streaming with customizable Steam Machines and a Linux-based SteamOS. The In-Home Streaming beta will be opened to random Steam users pulled from the In-Home Streaming community group.
Adventurous sizing puzzler Scale tips past funding goal
Imagine Portal, but in a whimsical dreamscape, and with a gun that can make anything larger or smaller at will. You're getting closer to imagining CubeHeart's Scale, a game that will transcend imagination and enter reality after achieving its $87,000 Kickstarter goal this week, with just days to go. That means the ambitious-looking first-person puzzler is on its way to PC, Mac, Linux, and Steam Machines. Scale is based around a prison break, admittedly a very bizarre-sounding prison break. The game's heroine is Penny Prince, the inventor of a powerful resizing device who accidentally uses it to destroy the entire east coast. She's convicted on more than 9 million counts of "Depraved Heart Murder," but manages to construct a makeshift version of her invention and use it to escape. The game seemingly follows her exploits as she searches for freedom - and her confiscated cat. There's still time for CubeHeart to hit some stretch goals, with the $100,000 target for Oculus Rift support looking eminently realistic. At the other end of the Scale, the $200,000 goal for a PS4 version looks out of reach.
Steam In-Home Streaming beta opens this year
Steam will begin the beta for its home streaming system this year – what's left of this year, at least – with candidates chosen at random from members of the Homestream group on Steam. In-Home Streaming will allow users to stream games from one computer to any other in the same house, Steam says. Steam In-Home Streaming is the backbone of Valve's Steam Machines, its customizable gaming hardware, and SteamOS, its Linux-based operating system. With all of these pieces, Valve hopes to create open, in-home gaming networks connecting the desktop to the couch.
Valve won't develop exclusive games for SteamOS, Steam Machines
Half-Life 3, if it exists, will not be exclusive to Valve's SteamOS or Steam Machines, nor will Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3 or Team Fortress 3, if those games are in the works. Valve will not develop a game exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines, designer Greg Coomer told IGN. "You won't see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us," Coomer said. "We're not going to be doing that kind of thing." Valve spokesperson Anna Sweet added, "That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that's exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines." Sweet doesn't even want third-party games to be exclusive to Steam products: "Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms. Because we think that customers are everywhere, and they want to put their games wherever customers are." Engadget did some open-box surgery on the Steam Machine prototypes Valve is sending out to 300 beta testers, and it went hands-on with the Steam Controller. Coomer told Engadget to expect more information on Steam Machines at CES in January.
Valve showcases a handful of prototype Steam Controllers
Valve recently showed off a few of its Steam Machines and Steam Controller hardware precursors to our friends at Engadget. Among the group of hacked-together gadgets was a motion controller that used pieces from the Razer Hydra controller described by designer Greg Coomer as "a Frankenstein" game pad. That particular prototype controller broke apart with "gyroscopes or magnetic sensors in either path, to sense orientation and position." As seen in Engadget's photos, other prototype controllers featured touch pads similar to the official Steam Controller unveiled in late September, and others still even had large trackballs. We'd like to think that Valve was developing its own Golden Tee machine at one point with those controllers at the forefront. Coomer also discussed a prototype device that acted as a "communication and input core," which hasn't been completely shelved by the company just yet. Resembling a phone, the gadget wound up being "more abstract and farther removed from anything people were familiar with," and ultimately introduced "noise to the experience of playing your games."
A look inside Valve's Steam Machine prototype
Our techie pals at Engadget went hands-on with Valve's Steam Machine prototype, and by hands-on we mean they surgically investigated the thing, as the above image attests. The company's new line-up of gaming machines will support the Linux-based SteamOS, and are coming in multiple forms next year via third-party manufacturers. What Engadget took a look at is Valve's own prototype, which is going into the hands of just 300 beta testers. "Really we just wanna have confidence that all the customers on Steam are having enough options, and that the price/performance spectrum is as fleshed out as Steam customers want it to be," Valve designer Greg Coomeer told Engadget when pushed on the Machines' availability outside of beta. "And right now, the indications that we have from the lineup that we're gonna be talking about at CES, is that they are gonna have enough choice. So we're gonna continue to treat this as a test platform and see how that goes." So, more news on the Steam Machines at January's CES trade show. That's two of Valve's big three September reveals covered, just leaving the Steam Controller. Well, Engadget has you covered there too, so head that way for a hands-on look at the twin-trackpad peripheral.
Steam surpasses 65 million users
Valve announced that its Steam platform now has 65 million users, with the last 12 months alone bringing a 30 percent increase in active accounts. Steam reached its current milestone as Valve prepares to launch Steam Machines, an initiative that aims to bring PC gaming to the living room with dedicated hardware, a platform-specific operating system, and a gaming-optimized controller. Currently, Steam hosts over 3,000 downloadable games from a broad spectrum of publishers and independent developers. "The main goal of Steam has always been to increase the quality of the user's experience by reducing the distance between content creators and their audience," said Valve president Gabe Newell. "As the platform grows, our job is to adapt to the changing needs of both the development and user communities. In the coming year, we plan to make perhaps our most significant collaborations with both communities through the Steam Dev Days and the Steam Machines beta."
Valve demonstrates Steam Controller in new video
Valve issued a video demonstrating its Steam Controller today. The game pad, which features two track pads in lieu of joysticks, is used for its series of Steam Machines, announced in September. The controller shown in the video isn't final hardware, but rather a prototype controller lacking a touchscreen to be included in Valve's hardware beta program. Among the developers that have seen the controller, Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat said it was able to execute some of the game's more demanding moves on the pad.
Team Meat offers hands-on impressions of Valve's Steam controller
Team Meat's Tommy Refenes wrapped his mitts around a 3D-printed prototype version of Valve's recently announced Steam controller, and offers up an insightful set of impressions regarding the precision and performance of its unique dual-trackpad setup. Refenes first tested out Valve's controller with his studio's hyper-difficult platformer Super Meat Boy. "The configuration they had set up was simple enough," he explains. "The left circle pad acted as the directional buttons, the right acted as a big giant jump button. The big problem with touch pads / touch screens is you never know when you are actually over a button or pressing it. Valve has tried to rectify this by having some adjustable haptic feedback fire when you press one of the circle pads. Throughout my play session the haptic feedback helped with the problem, but wasn't enough to solve it." Despite reporting issues with the prototype controller, Refenes notes that he was still able to pull off some of the game's more demanding techniques. "The button configuration worked fine for SMB," he writes. "I was able to get to the Salt factory no problem. I was able to sequence break C.H.A.D. by getting the keys before he could do his attacks. I was even able to do the bandaid the super fast way in the second level of the hospital shown here."
Weekly Roundup: Surface Pro 2 hands-on, Xperia Z1 review, Valve's SteamOS efforts and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
This week on gdgt: Apple's new iPhones, Loewe's Speaker 2go and Steam Machines
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Harrison: Microsoft is watching what Valve does 'with great interest'
With this week's SteamOS and Steam Machines reveal, Valve's grand step into the living room might make the other major inhabitants uneasy. Microsoft's corporate VP Phil Harrison acknowledged the Steam creators in a recent interview with Eurogamer, saying that "Valve is a very impressive company, and obviously we're going to be watching what they do with great interest." While the Xbox One's impending launch is set for November 22, Harrison recently said in his Eurogamer Expo keynote that the console will be around for ten years. Valve's Steam Machines doesn't seem to impact that projection. "I think the death of the video game console was prematurely announced," Harrison continued, going back to an earlier question in the interview about the future of gaming consoles. "Clearly there is a lot of excitement around gaming in the living room on the biggest screen in the house, often times connected to a great sound system and creating that real intensely high quality game experience with a very powerful CPU and a very powerful GPU." "Our point of view, clearly, is that Xbox One is the best incarnation of that, but competition is good," he said. If Microsoft wants to watch Valve's approach closer, its best bet is getting in on the Steam Machines hardware beta, which includes the Steam Controller announced today.
Steam Machines beta program includes controller, sans touchscreen
The 300 individuals selected for Valve's Steam Machines hardware beta program will receive one of Valve's fancy new controllers as well. Along with the controller announcement today, Valve specified how the beta program controller will differ from the final version. The controller will not include the clickable touchscreen in the center, which will be replaced with four buttons. Additionally, the beta program controller will require a USB cable instead of being wireless. It's a small sacrifice the chosen 300 will have to make, but at least they'll have their hands on the first Valve-created Steam Boxes. We're still calling them that, right?
Valve reveals Steam PC game controller
Valve has revealed a new controller optimized for Steam and Steam Machines devices, concluding this week's string of announcements aimed at bridging the gap between PC gaming and the living room. The peripheral will support the full catalog of Steam games released to date, and will include legacy support for older titles that lack controller support. Contrasting "traditional gamepads," Valve's peripheral uses two trackpads, rather than the dual-analog setup common to consoles. Balancing the lack of physical sticks, Valve's controller uses haptic feedback, "allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement." The controller additionally features a touch-enabled surface with a high-resolution screen. The screen can also be clicked as a button. When a player taps the touch screen, its display overlays on top of the game itself, eliminating the need to look down at the controller during gameplay. According to Valve, "The screen allows an infinite number of discrete actions to be made available to the player, without requiring an infinite number of physical buttons."
Valve's Steam Machines beta hints at new controller
With two of Valve's three big "living room" announcements already in the books, there's a chance that the third one, due Friday, revolves around a controller for its SteamOS-based Steam Machines hardware. Among the hardware's beta program eligibility forms is an agreement all beta testers must abide by, which states that Valve "has developed and produced prototypes of entertainment system hardware and software, including a set-top box running custom software and a game controller." Valve's Steam Machines FAQ also addresses the hardware's to-be-revealed controller, noting that the hardware's various forms will be compatible with mouse and keyboard controls, and that the company will "have some more to say very soon on the topic of input." Now that we know the Steam Machines' controller exists, we can start cooking up predictions on what it will look like. Our guess: It will have three analog joysticks.
