Steam Machine

As of today, there are 1,699 games on Steam compatible with Linux. That's just one game short of a 1,700 of a significant milestone. But why the obsession with numbers on a platform traditionally associated more with servers and render farms and very rarely modern games? Because Valve has placed all its Steam OS eggs in one Linux basket and the adoption of the operating system in this market will ultimately seal the fate of what is perhaps the company's biggest, not to mention riskiest, business venture.

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Valve has made some interesting moves over the last few years, first announcing their own Linux-based OS specifically tailored for gaming, and then stepping into the hardware business. So far, they have only released a controller, and a streaming box, but they have started partnering with a few different companies to make “Steam Machines.” These are small, yet powerful boxes that run their special SteamOS, and give you more of a console-like experience. Today, ZOTAC has shown off their first Steam Machine, dubbed the ZOTAC NEN.

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Don't bother going out and buying a several thousand-dollar Steam Machine, Valve says you already have one at home. Requirements for installing SteamOS on the computer you already have are relatively low - just so long as you've been upgrading over the past couple of years. Installing and customizing SteamOS will require that your computer be wiped out - but once you do that, you'll be ready to roll. In other words: the Steam Machine you have at home isn't going to be your main desktop - it'll need to be a machine you don't use that often.

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Back in September of 2013, Valve revealed SteamOS - now it's time for action. Here in June of 2015, just a bit under two years later, Valve's revealed the final iteration of the Steam Controller, the key to the system - the one component you can't buy anywhere else. Every other piece of this gaming environment can be had elsewhere, or run on a PC you've got at home. After months and months of preparation, Valve's presented a system they hope will take over your living room. Is it too late? Has the company lost all momentum? Is SteamOS dead in the water before it launches in ernest?

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Valve's SteamOS operating system is coming, complete with the Steam Controller and Steam Machines and the Steam Link. Today pre-orders have opened up for the lot of these devices, starting with the Steam Link, the Steam Controller, and two Steam Machines right out the gate. Valve suggests that pre-orders will receive their hardware starting October 16th while the rest of the SteamOS collection will be released to the public this November. That's November for the general release of SteamOS for the public, for everyone.

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Steam Machines are back in the spotlight after Valve revealed its big plans for gamers later this year. But while we approach with caution due to last year's disappointing turnout, some of the rising supporters rallying around Steam's ecosystem are quite interesting. You have small mini PCs dressed up as Steam Machines, ready to conquer the living room. And then you have bigger, hulking boxes that would still look nice somewhere near your TV. Maingear's upcoming Drift is one of the latter. It may not be a Steam Machine, but it might very well be.

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If the stars align, Valve will really be announcing about a dozen Steam Machines come November this year. Of course, that was the promise last year and we all now what happened. Still, it seems like partners are getting back on track, and one of those is ZOTAC. The company that has recently been putting out mini and pico PCs has just announced that they are completely on board the Steam Machine thrust with a new SN970 gaming PC coming to its catalog soon.

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It's GDC time again and PC gamers are in for a treat. As expected, Valve is making a big splash but it has more than just virtual reality in mind. To push the PC gaming industry even further, Valve is announcing the availability of the Source 2 engine, which any content creator can get their hands on. It has also disclosed a new hardware product called Steam Link for streaming any and all Steam content. Of course, there's also the SteamVR platform and, surprise surprise, Steam Machines.

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One cannot say that Gabe Newell and Valve are without vision or ambition. At the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March, the company will be delighting the public with updates on its foray beyond digital game distribution and into gaming hardware. While there will indeed be many eyes on its Steam machines and controllers, perhaps the spotlight for that week will be taken by a "previously unannounced" SteamVR hardware system that will put the company in race towards that still young and still unverified virtual reality market.

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A leaked vision of the next SteamOS "Steam Controller" this morning reminds us that it's been nearly a year since Valve took to CES 2014 and brought us our first look at Steam Machines. Here 11 months later and the finalized version of SteamOS has not yet been released. Instead we've got the latest version of the Steam Client Beta update with an image which reminds us of how much we've seen - not a whole lot. Not that the final version is going to be all that different from Big Picture Mode in Steam, that is to say.

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Those who have pre-ordered Alienware's foray into the almost oxymoronic realm of "living room PC gaming" now have something to look forward to in the coming days. Dell has announced that the Alienware Alpha is now shipping to those early adopters and can also be bought online as well as from select retail partners. Some of that crowd, however, might be disappointed to hear that the gaming rig is indeed not shipping with SteamOS, considering Valve is quite behind schedule, and instead runs completely on Windows 8.1
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Intel might be a name you'd associate more with desktop and laptops, but the chip maker has had its own line of small factor PCs as far back as 2012. Strangely called the Next Unit of Computing or NUC, these boxes seemed more like a hobbyist's toy, Intel's answer to the growing popularity of ARM boards. Leaked slides about the next generation NUCs, however, hint that Intel is dead serious about this line, to the point that they might very well be part of a living room gamer's arsenal.

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