Will major game companies latch on to Steam OS and Steam Box?

[Fireaxe]

Given Valve are a major game company, one could say at least one already has.

 

[The White Hunter]

Yeah it means they can use somebody elses horrible DRM and not their own.

 

[PinkiePyro]

well this is the first I have heard of valve making a steam OS as for the steam box why the heck not plently already cross-platform so I say its a safe bet they will at the very least "test the water"

 

[Something Amyss]

This is an interesting phenomenon in the PC world. Anyone remember how long people clung to XP after Windows 7 came out (I'm ignoring Vista for reasons)? And when games stopped supporting XP remember how many people screamed about having to upgrade to a new OS?
Maybe you don't, but I do. I also remember in the business world how long people clung to XP (and older os'es/gui's) and in fact people STILL use extremely out of date programs and OS'es.

Now not saying that SteamOS will be the standard going forward, hell Microsoft might reverse their App Store position if they realize nobody wants it and just make a Win7 version of 8 (8 being the equivalent of Vista in my analogy). And a lot of folk don't care for linux derivatives, myself included. I'd only use it if everything I currently own would work on the SteamOS, otherwise they can go jump off a bridge. I do own games from other sources, both disc based and digital based, and prefer the overall compatibility inherent in Windows 7.
Like the post quoted above, I want to see a real reason to switch OS'es, not just because its got the Steam label on it. For all the faults of Microsoft's OSes, I've stuck with them for over 20 years. And yes I know how to operate Linux and Unix based OSes, I dislike them immensely for many reasons. I don't know what SteamOS has yet, but I don't think it will replace Windows for me or many other folk.
Just sayin'.

My dad's still on XP. Like, I sometimes forget about the previous divide, but at the same time, I wonder if the parallel's apt. One of the main reasons I saw people shun Vista was about the jump in system reqs. I'm sure people hated it, but I'm wondering how many as opposed to the Win8 deal.

I'm not sure, or anything, I'm just curious. I don't recall there being the same sort of obstacle to using 8, just a disdain for it. Which also existed with Vista, of course.

Anyway, I will try it, I don't think I'll like it, but it'd be nice to see an possible alternative. At least as far as gaming goes. But again, I am skeptical as to whether it catches on with devs/pubs.

 

[GiantRaven]

If it's guaranteed that every game I'll want to play is going to work on it, then I'm interested. Otherwise, no.

 

[Albino Boo]

Given Valve are a major game company, one could say at least one already has.

They are a major retailer but not a major producer. Valve haven't put out a AAA title in years and only have 2 franchise to their name. For SteamOS to be successful its going to need some of the major franchises from EA, Activision and Ubisoft to be ported.

 

[Fireaxe]

They are a major retailer but not a major producer. Valve haven't put out a AAA title in years and only have 2 franchise to their name. For SteamOS to be successful its going to need some of the major franchises from EA, Activision and Ubisoft to be ported.

Unless we count The Sims (a game targeted at those outside the Steam OS target audience anyway), none of those 3 have a game that outsold Half-Life 2 (and only one that outsold Half-Life, which was released in 1998 before Steam existed) on PC.

Blizzard has put up a few better selling titles (and they are kind of part of Activision now) but they're now rapidly pissing away their reputation for quality with PC gamers due to some recent products being awful, and it would be a bit surprising if they manage another Diablo 3. Plus Blizzard doesn't use Steam now, so there's no way they'd use Steam OS unless it became super popular (they'll probably never use a third party digital distribution system given their own network). Plus Blizzard puts out sequels even slower than Valve does.

If Valve is aiming where I think they are anyway, their objective will be to build up on indie titles and their own products (possibly HL3) -- much the same way Steam was until around 2007 when they got some big devs along for the ride with some big releases (having carried it on the back of Half-Life 2 and indie titles until then). Plus if they can put out an easier to work with mechanism than DirectX, some devs will go for it due to the sheer simplicity.

Also worth noting that EA DICE already expressed some interest in Steam OS.

 

[Albino Boo]

They are a major retailer but not a major producer. Valve haven't put out a AAA title in years and only have 2 franchise to their name. For SteamOS to be successful its going to need some of the major franchises from EA, Activision and Ubisoft to be ported.

Unless we count The Sims (a game targeted at those outside the Steam OS target audience anyway), none of those 3 have a game that outsold Half-Life 2 (and only one that outsold Half-Life, which was released in 1998 before Steam existed) on PC.

Blizzard has put up a few better selling titles (and they are kind of part of Activision now) but they're now rapidly pissing away their reputation for quality with PC gamers due to some recent products being awful, and it would be a bit surprising if they manage another Diablo 3. Plus Blizzard doesn't use Steam now, so there's no way they'd use Steam OS unless it became super popular (they'll probably never use a third party digital distribution system given their own network). Plus Blizzard puts out sequels even slower than Valve does.

If Valve is aiming where I think they are anyway, their objective will be to build up on indie titles and their own products (possibly HL3) -- much the same way Steam was until around 2007 when they got some big devs along for the ride with some big releases (having carried it on the back of Half-Life 2 and indie titles until then). Plus if they can put out an easier to work with mechanism than DirectX, some devs will go for it due to the sheer simplicity.

Also worth noting that EA DICE already expressed some interest in Steam OS.

Activision is the maker of call duty the biggest pc FPS of the current era. EA with battlefield is the second biggest, Battlefield doesn't even appear on the windows version of steam, why are EA going to port to steamOS? The only title by a AAA 3rd party developer that is confirmed currently is the latest Total war game.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

My question is will you average computer gamer Use Steam OS to play computer games. And will Major Publishers bother to port there games to a Linux based system.

You aren't supposed to. It's the OS for the steambox. They only released it so people could see how it works. No one is going to install it on their PC. It only plays games. It does nothing else.

So absolutely no-one would be interested in a free streamlined OS dedicated to playing games?

Captcha: you don't say!

I'm following progress of the SteamOS, if only to see if it'll be worth creating a dual-boot with it.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Here's the thing.

AMD and Nvidia are the actual leverage here. They don't like Microsoft taking over everything by locking windows down. Its bad for business, and hurts their bottom line when Microsoft throws all these fees around and even uses Direct X for more control.

They would love to leave that behind. In fact, Microsoft's bloated windows OS is the reason they need to optimize their hardware all the time. Its cheaper to not support windows at all at this point.

No hardware support? No driver support. No driver support, and games start running like shit. When games run like shit, PC gaming dies.

So with AMD and Nvidia on board, developers are forced to support linux. Its the drivers that devs need to make sure their games run smoothly.

Valve doesn't need to do anything. microsoft pissed off so many people with their descent to Apple tactics they are all just leaving. Microsoft is collapsing, and that is the reason Ballmer is no longer CEO.

Welp I guess if windows 7 is so bloated beyond compare and now devs are now forced to support Linux instead of windows, then that's it for me and PC gaming.

I've said before that I have no interest in Steams OS which includes Linux (Honestly do not like any of it at all) and if AMD and Nvidia decide to not bother with windows anymore then I'll have to consider that as flipping me the bird (Bought windows 7 and Nvidia GPU so my money went to them) and I'll happily bounce back to handhelds, the Wii U and PS4 if I can't feel comfortable with where I want to game.

I'll also let you know that I'm well aware of the Steam OS and what Gabe sets out to do (people who love Linux over Windows), no matter of convincing will get me to like something I know I fully do not like to begin with even if a few think it's much better I go with their way of gaming.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Linux will end up become easy and supported sooner or later when people start actually caring about it. Its only a matter of time. No amount of doom saying will change that. Everything will end up being alright.

and besides, why is Linux the evil party here? Its just a free open source OS that a lot of stuff is built on. Built by fanatic that is die hard against closed systems. I don't see the issue compared to a corporate monopolistic hold on everything.

I don't see Linux as evil in the slightest, I love gaming on windows 7, Linux being easy and supported sooner has nothing to do with me not liking Linux, I just don't like it, just like how I don't like to use Nokia,Samsung,Apple and the new Windows phones.

One phone being easier to support than the other or being easier to use doesn't automatically mean I should flush my money I just spent on one phone to jump to another, I love my Moto phone and it's been good to me for 6-7 years strong, I've no desire to hop onto an android or Apple phone any time soon when what I have works for me.

When windows 7-8 is no longer supported then I'll be moving onto something else in life that interests me, Linux has none of my interest at all, regardless of it's eventual ease of use, I can just not like something like the guy down the street who just doesn't like me at all and I'm dandy with that.

 

[Albino Boo]

They are a major retailer but not a major producer. Valve haven't put out a AAA title in years and only have 2 franchise to their name. For SteamOS to be successful its going to need some of the major franchises from EA, Activision and Ubisoft to be ported.

Unless we count The Sims (a game targeted at those outside the Steam OS target audience anyway), none of those 3 have a game that outsold Half-Life 2 (and only one that outsold Half-Life, which was released in 1998 before Steam existed) on PC.

Blizzard has put up a few better selling titles (and they are kind of part of Activision now) but they're now rapidly pissing away their reputation for quality with PC gamers due to some recent products being awful, and it would be a bit surprising if they manage another Diablo 3. Plus Blizzard doesn't use Steam now, so there's no way they'd use Steam OS unless it became super popular (they'll probably never use a third party digital distribution system given their own network). Plus Blizzard puts out sequels even slower than Valve does.

If Valve is aiming where I think they are anyway, their objective will be to build up on indie titles and their own products (possibly HL3) -- much the same way Steam was until around 2007 when they got some big devs along for the ride with some big releases (having carried it on the back of Half-Life 2 and indie titles until then). Plus if they can put out an easier to work with mechanism than DirectX, some devs will go for it due to the sheer simplicity.

Also worth noting that EA DICE already expressed some interest in Steam OS.

Activision is the maker of call duty the biggest pc FPS of the current era. EA with battlefield is the second biggest, Battlefield doesn't even appear on the windows version of steam, why are EA going to port to steamOS? The only title by a AAA 3rd party developer that is confirmed currently is the latest Total war game.

With AMD and Nvidia support. Publishers are forced to support linux now. Not even EA is stupid enough to piss off the companies that allow it to exist. No publisher is. Just like they couldn't risk pissing off microsoft with the xbox and Direct X.

and PC FPS? COD isn't popular on PC. Other games like Battlefield and TF2 are, but not COD.

Mate DirectX is king and has been so for 10 years and AMD and NVIDIA are not going to annoy the one of their biggest customers with the xbox. Just look on steam and see how many AAA games are on linux and the highest version of linux coming at 0.36% os steam user base. http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ If you add up all the poeple playing the varoius call duty games on steam it also out strips the people playing TF2. http://store.steampowered.com/stats/.

 

[aozgolo]

I think many people are losing sight of the more practical purpose behind SteamOS, it's not intended to be a "Microsoft competitor" though I'm sure that helped grease the wheels a bit for Valve to put money into it, it's got a much more interesting capacity:

Basically it allows for gamers to build or buy an open source game console. I've been a big fan of the Playstation through it's first 3 iterations, that being said I hate Sony products in general because they use cheap parts and generally don't last as long. What if back then I could have bought a Playstation made by Toshiba that still played my PS games? Well Sony wouldn't haven gotten my money for sure.

SteamOS allows not just end-users to build their own SteamBox, not just Valve to sell their own SteamBox, but for video game consoles to be on par with other home entertainment devices like Blu-ray Players or Streaming Content Providers that allow the end user the access to the same media offerings but let them CHOOSE which manufacturer they prefer.

So it's less about being an "operating system competitor" and more about bringing an important step towards modernizing consoles in line with other media devices.

So do I think major game companies will support it? Yes, perhaps not initially, but unlike any other "platform", the SteamOS doesn't have a shelf-life, basically 20 years from now, while sure we may be seeing SteamOS 5.0 on some devices, it will still maintain compatibility with the same games that are available for it now. It will cause a bit more distress for some companies as releasing for windows and linux based systems involves more money, but I can see it as being a justifiable cost. Not to mention porting to both is way more cost effective than porting to pre-8th Gen consoles.

 

[Laughing Man]

why is Linux the evil party here?

They aren't, Valve are the bad guy in this story, they are creating an OS that will, if it catches on result in a fragmmented PC market when in fact their is no need for it. EVERYTHING about Steam OS is redundant it has ZERO features that make it a must install over a Windows 7 or Windows 8 install, it is a compromised system that requires that you still have access to another PC to stream your full gaming library. Now I've got no issue with Valve wasting their time on this project but before they go wandering in to the world of full fledged OS development perhaps they would like to get their current shit sorted first, Steam on the PC is a bloated mess and anyone who has tried to do anything on it over the last few days can see just how massively tits up Steam can and does (EVERY FUCKING YEAR) go. As it is I can close Steam and opt to do something else but if it's at the heart of my computers OS, what then? Like I said it has no features that make it stand out, it is stupidly difficult to get set up and working, it has ZERO benefits to anyone using it. So why?

With AMD and Nvidia support.

Nvidia support is clearly based around the development of their Android based shield system but since the vast majority of Nvidia revenue is still firmly tied to the PC hardware market and since the vast majority of that gaming market is using a Windows based PC, it is going to take a seriously big event to see Nvidia start supporting Linux over Windows. The reality is that for this whole Steam OS thing to take off it is going to require a big company to make a serious investment in the OS, we are talking something along the lines of

- Nvidia directing all future support to Linux and Linux only
- MS doing something so stupid that it locks out the OS totally, like charging for DirectX development kits or making it so a rival DD service cannot be installed on their OS
- Valve releasing HL3 and making it a linux exclusive, this last one is the real clincher, it speaks volumes if Valve don't have enough faith in the sales potential to make the game an exclusive, mind you saying that the whole streaming nonsense is already speaking volumes about that fact.

Like I said I have no issue with Valve wasting time and money on this if Steam as it was was perfect, it isn't though not even close and it's a decade old now so seeing them waste time on a whole OS dedicated to it, well no. The only winning fact is knowing that Valve will pull the plug on this long before it becomes a money sink hole putting that could put the company at risk.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I'm waiting until the January sales before I try Steam OS out, because I'm buying my new PC then. Steam OS is either going to be the game changer (if you'll pardon the pun) or just another evolutionary dead end in gaming. I have high hopes though, seeing as they actually managed to convince the GPU manufacturers to play nice with Linux, something most people thought would never happen.

I doubt I would use Steam OS outright though as you can't currently dualboot.

Please tell me this is just an early release issue and not planned. I still need Windows, as much as I wish I didn't.

 

[Requia]

Because of the effort into making it play existing PC games it'll probably be a big deal for companies that make games that don't currently play well on consoles (I've seen reports from beta testers who say the controller works well for Civ V for example), and for companies who consider mods to be a big selling point (Bethesda has complained about this), since it'll be the only console that supports them.

 

[Requia]

I'm waiting until the January sales before I try Steam OS out, because I'm buying my new PC then. Steam OS is either going to be the game changer (if you'll pardon the pun) or just another evolutionary dead end in gaming. I have high hopes though, seeing as they actually managed to convince the GPU manufacturers to play nice with Linux, something most people thought would never happen.

I doubt I would use Steam OS outright though as you can't currently dualboot.

Please tell me this is just an early release issue and not planned. I still need Windows, as much as I wish I didn't.

It's just a flat out lie. You have to be both malicious and very clever to break dual booting, all of the tools for starting Linux are OS agnostic. It's possible that either it doesn't work with windows 8 (which would be because of Microsoft's DRM, not Valve, and workarounds were in development for that last I checked) or that there's no GUI tool for dual booting, in which case you'll need to get one from somebody else.

Edit: And here's the tool you'd need: http://directhex.github.io/steamos-installer/

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I'm waiting until the January sales before I try Steam OS out, because I'm buying my new PC then. Steam OS is either going to be the game changer (if you'll pardon the pun) or just another evolutionary dead end in gaming. I have high hopes though, seeing as they actually managed to convince the GPU manufacturers to play nice with Linux, something most people thought would never happen.

I doubt I would use Steam OS outright though as you can't currently dualboot.

Please tell me this is just an early release issue and not planned. I still need Windows, as much as I wish I didn't.

It's just a flat out lie. You have to be both malicious and very clever to break dual booting, all of the tools for starting Linux are OS agnostic. It's possible that either it doesn't work with windows 8 (which would be because of Microsoft's DRM, not Valve, and workarounds were in development for that last I checked) or that there's no GUI tool for dual booting, in which case you'll need to get one from somebody else.

Ah, well that's saved me some worry. I'm still going to wait for them to polish it a bit though, as I can see myself getting frustrated with early versions. I've dabbled with linux, but I doubt I have the technical know-how to live with SteamOS at the moment.