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Valve scoops 14 companies to make Steam Machines in 2014

Valve has been pushing out its Steam Machine project for the past few months, combining the hardware (Steam Machine), software (Steam OS) and Steam Controller together to make a customisable console to beat the incoming next generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

It looks like the marketing pitch worked, as Valve has announced fourteen different partners that will work on Steam Machine in 2014. The list has Alienware, Alternate, CyberPowerPC, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, GigaByte, iBuyPower, Maingear, Material.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen, Zotac.

Alienware is the obvious highlight of this list, the others are mostly big custom PC makers, who have little branding compared to Alienware. The Steam Machine will be customisable and both users and OEM partners can add different parts to make it higher or lower quality.

All Steam Machines will come with the Steam Controller, but there are some partners wondering about how Steam OS will fair and are preparing to dual-boot Windows OS onto their machines, to make it a more familiar and usable interface for some customers.

Valve’s Gabe Newell has already said he is not afraid of the Xbox One and finds Apple to be the biggest threat to Steam, pushing out the Steam Machine and Steam OS is a way to cultivate gamers into one channel, instead of playing on Windows for PC and Xbox for console.

The Steam Machines have a variety of prices, anywhere from $400 to $2600 with specs ranging from a AMD Radeon R9 to the Nvidia 780 Ti, one of the top GPUs behind the Nvidia Titan. No big PC manufacturer has joined in the Steam OS battle, but we didn’t expect them to given the level of customisation they would need to offer.

Anyone thinking Steam is a small fish in the water against Xbox and PlayStation would be wrong, Valve has already announced around 60 million signups since Steam’s launch, more live users than Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Valve announces first version of Steam OS will be available this Friday

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Valve is preparing to kickstart the Steam Machine project this Friday, as the company has announced the 300 lucky winners of the beta testing for the Steam Machines will receive their gaming console and controller this Friday, alongside the launch of Steam OS.

The 300 lucky winners will be getting Steam Machines with Nvidia Titan GPUs and all the high-end specs, alongside the Steam Controller and Steam OS. They will also be getting a new special badge to show they have won, allowing everyone to message and spam the users.

On the subject of Steam OS, the OEM will be available to download on Friday for any user, although Valve explains it is probably worth holding off until 2014 for users running Windows or Linux.

This means Steam OS is more than likely a hard port to grab at the moment and the average gaming scrub will not be able to download the OS without running into problems. Valve has said the start version will be for beta testers and hardware partners looking to implement the OS.

Steam OS is still a big push in the gaming world and if Valve is able to grab a large majority of the Windows PC gamers, it may really downgrade Windows, to the point Microsoft will need to start seriously considering free deals or a new ethic entirely to bring gamers and users back onto their platforms.

We still do not know who the hardware partners will be and what Valve is planning to do when Steam OS becomes readily available for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Will Valve look to entice every PC gamer who runs Steam, the same way Google offers out Chrome when an IE users starts browsing.

It does seem like a big concept and with Valve’s 60 million users it may be the right time to make this platform more than just a simple application. The OS may not draw in as many users, but it will be a better way to experience all that Steam has to offer.

Valve preparing to reveal third party Steam Machines at CES 2014

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The Verge has gained heaps of information from their recent hands on with the Steam Machine, Steam OS and the Steam Controller, including dates and information surrounding Valve’s TV gaming project.

The mass amount of information surrounds topics Valve has already discussed or hinted at, but the overview of the platform makes it all the more real and close. Looking at the comments made by several journalists on the Steam Controller shows promise for Valve, the only major problem being the need to adapt.

One of the most exciting bits of information on the article was about the third party Steam Machines being built by Valve’s secret hardware partners. No official hardware partner has been named by Valve yet, but they hinted at more than one coming to CES next year in January.

Valve will also not bundle Half Life 3 and other first party games onto Steam exclusively. We may see Valve announce their next line of video games when the Steam Machines are released, but they have said the games will not be exclusive and will be available on other platforms.

This may make the Steam Machines less valuable in terms of exclusive games but Valve already has 65 million Steam users and plenty of people begging to be an early adopter of the platform, its not as if the company is desperate for buyers and needs to resort to making games exclusive.

Overall the Steam Machine looks well on its way to becoming a contender in the TV space. Valve’s co-founder Gabe Newell has often talked about Steam entering the TV space and how to get PC gamers onto the platform, this is their big move.

Challenges do face them but Valve is pushing new ideas and features to compete against the PS4, Xbox One and other possible TV/gaming projects coming in the next year, including something from Apple and Google.

Steam Machine specs revealed by Valve

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Valve has announced the technical specifications for the Steam Machine, the new Steam console being developed by Valve, which will be sent out to 300 lucky beta testers by the end of the year.

The announcement was posted on Steam’s forums by Community Manager Greg Coomers, who detailed the specifications for the three hundred testing units, meaning the Steam Machine is likely to change specs before final release.

Here are the official specs:

GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

This looks like a powerful console, with 16GB of RAM and 3GB GDDR5 for the graphics card, it will make for some impressive gaming. The CPU range is a little odd, but i3 can normally hold its own on medium graphics levels.

We are glad to see Valve isn’t going easy on the storage, with 1TB of internal storage and Steam cloud storage availabilities, there should be enough for more than a few HD games installed on the Steam Machine.

GPU specifications are sound, the Nvidia Titan series packs a serious punch and anything above the GTX660 can handle most games without problems, the GTX780 is one of the most impressive GPUs on the market today.

The Steam Machine will come alongside Steam OS, the new Linux-based operating system for games. Valve has said it is committed to the Linux platform and hopes more video game studios will start porting games onto Steam Linux.

There is the Steam Controller as well, which we believe Valve will bundle with the Steam Machine. Valve has worked hard to make sure the controller is compatible with keyboard and mouse games, with unusual trackpads where the analog sticks sit.

Valve’s three announcements: Steam OS, Machine and Controller

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Valve has made three important announcements regarding the Steam ecosystem and they all seem to configure around the idea of making a PC console, similar to the Xi3 Piston released a few months ago.

This move has been rumored for a while now, with the Steam ecosystem becoming a large flowing mess of indies and AAA studios building games to run on really powerful PC hardware.

Some believed Valve’s third announcement would be three new games for Steam, these would be Half Life 3, Portal 3 and Left 4 Dead 3. This is a little fantasy many have had for a while and it may still be possible when Valve implements all the hardware and software to create the perfect Steam Box.

Essentially Valve will build everything, Steam OS is a Linux-based gaming operating system, similar to Android but for games, not mobile. Valve will work on Linux and develop a gaming user interface familiar and simple for users, we could see this bootloaded as a second OS.

They will then built a Steam Machine (or Box) with different component options, like a normal computer range the price will start at around $499 for the cheap model all the way up to the thousands for a premium build. Valve has said they will cut the price with video game optimisation.

The controller is the third announcement and allows users to play Steam games without using the keyboard and mouse. Keyboard and mouse are seen as the elite gaming controller simply because of the accuracy, precision and amount of buttons, but most casual console gamers prefer the gamepad.

The Steam controller is a new peripheral that tries to mimic the mouse for older games, with two buttons for the mouse clickers and two rounded haptic sensors for movement, instead of the traditional analogue sticks.

This is a big move by Valve to enter the living room, as the next generation consoles are preparing to launch. The question is will Valve have any exciting exclusives for Steam, ones that run much better on the Steam Machine – we will have to wait and see.