Steam Link, Steam Machines & New Valve Controller Launch Nov

Valve made an announcement today that may make quite a few gamers happy.

"Steam Machines, Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux PCs will be able to take advantage of a new product announced at GDC called Steam Link. Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network. Supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency, Steam Link will be available this November for $49.99, and available with a Steam Controller for an additional $49.99 in the US (worldwide pricing to be released closer to launch).

Steam Machines from partners Alienware and Falcon Northwest are being shown, with Machines from a dozen other partners slated to release this November. Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs. Epic will give a demonstration of the newly announced Unreal Tournament running on a 4K monitor driven by the Falcon Northwest Steam Machine. "We love this platform," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "Whether you're running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience, this brings world-class gaming and graphics to televisions with an open platform true to Valve's PC gaming roots.""

The whole Steam living room mix will launch this November. I find the announcement of a little $50 streaming box to be very interesting. Because of the price I think this will convince a few Steam users that are on the fence about playing games in the living room to give it a go. It's a nice price point too because you can get the new Steam controller and Steam Link for $100 which can stream your entire Steam library to.

So what do you think, are you going for a Steam Machine or does the Steam Link seem more interesting to you or are you going to hold off on buying either?

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/04/2015 at 05:19am

Since you asked....hehehe. My interested in a "Steam Machine" hasn't really changed since we last talked about it. However, this Steam Link seems like a neat idea. For me, it could mean that I could hook a Steam Link up to my 50" Plasma, instead of my 20+" monitor. The Steam controller would then come in handy. Sure, I could probably hook my PC up to my TV, just like I had done with my old PC, but I only used it for outputting video, which I now do with my PS3 and PS3 Media Server. If I were to do that idea now, I'd probably want a wireless keyboard and mouse, because I've been enjoying the keyboard and mouse game configurations. Although, that hasn't been the case with every Steam game that I have (Risk of Rain, I'm talking about you). I have been wishing I had a bigger monitor lately. It could be interesting to see and try out, perhaps. Anyway, I've kind of rambled a bit. All in all, I think it could be a way for my son to use his Steam account since his PC stopped functioning.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/04/2015 at 06:32pm

If the Link performs as well as they claim (and pending many tests on that "low latency"), I'd much rather have that, which would support my existing system, than a completely new computer. Eventually, I'd go full SteamOS, when I could afford to have multiple high-end computers in the house. Until then, Steam Link sounds like a nice option.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 07:23pm

Yeah, this is the cost effective way to go. I still want a Steam Machine, but that $50 box may do all I need. Especially if it has support for streaming media of all kinds from my other PCs. There are still some games that don't stream well, but that may be that they're poorly optimized or my rig can't handle the encoding on top of playing it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 08:38pm

Here is the new Steam Controller.

https://steamdb.info/static/img/blog/57/IMG_20150304_100101.jpg

I'll create a new post when a better image surfaces.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:07pm

Someone playing the new UT in 4K on a Steam Machine -w the new Steam Controller.

https://twitter.com/WesPhillips/status/573193120390623233

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:09pm

Engadget has a video showing off the new Steam hardware.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/steam-machines-are-coming-this-fall/

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:21pm

Wow, the new UT looks amazing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 12:20am

Yeah, it does. A modern cross platform UT game will be great. Can't wait.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 01:53am

Found some new UT screenshot http://m.imgur.com/a/Vo9J1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 06:08pm

Valve has a list of all the Machines on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Travis Admin wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:46pm

I was coming here to post that. I'm officially priced out. Hello Steam Link!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:49pm

Wow, so many of them! The Alienware one costs much less than I expected. I expected it to cost about as much as some of the others in the $1-2k range.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 08:36pm

The pricing makes sense to me, essentially the gamut of PC level pricing... because they are PC's.

I am thinking about Alienware, but I need to look closer at the other ones. I love the wide array of choices and prices.(I won't buy them all but I appreciate having options.)

JaBo wrote on 03/05/2015 at 11:25pm

Oh, I just posted my steam machine question in the other controller thread before seeing this. So this little device essentially is supposed to have a better quality stream? I've used my laptop to stream a game to my TV from my desktop and it's definitely hit or miss on the game and quality.

Man, what about the Falcon Tiki "Storage: Up to 8 TB of SSD" Amazeballs!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:33am

It isn't quite the gamut of PC pricing. There are lower priced models that could still push out current gen quality, which is what I was hoping for. BUT it is totally reasonable pricing, just not for me personally.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:36am

I'm not sure about "better quality" stream, but it handles Streaming without having to use a separate PC/Mac. And yeah, I've had hit or miss quality as well. I think it's when rendering the game is topping out your gaming rig, so encoding the stream is choppy.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:59am

Travis: Yeah, I agree. After spending more time looking at the Machines themselves and the specs, you are right. The high covers things well, but the low end isn't (specs wise) impressive. I want something that is on par with a PS4 and some machines have some of those specs but not in terms of CPU or RAM. I think the reason why the lower end(I just mean cheaper options not quality) suffers some is because they need to fit the goods in a lower form factor case and make some profit. Seems like for something fairly decent I may have to spend $600 which is more than I thought i'd have to spend.

That said the Alienware is cool but the first version is 4G RAM with a dual core intel chip. Not sure how well that would perform compared to a PS4 with double the memory and 6 more cores.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 04:37am

That's one spot where console makers have an advantage. The PS4 might have launched with $700-$800 worth of hardware in it. Console makers always take a major loss at first, but then it starts printing money after a couple of years when their costs go down but the hardware stays the same.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2015 at 03:45pm

Interesting hands on with the new Steam Link. After thinking about it, I am unsure if I am going Steam Link of Steam Machine.

http://www.pcgamer.com/steam-link-hands-on-valves-best-shot-at-the-living-room-costs-50/

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