I can not tell a lie. I want Steam in the living room. After seeing what the Wii U, XBox One and Playstation 4 have to offer I am more interested in a Steam console than anything. Lately some news from Valve has surfaced that they are going to forgo Valve Developer days and instead have a large footprint at GDC as reported by Gamasutra.
"Steam Dev Days was a great way to brief a large number of Steam developers. This year our focus will be a bit different, so we are planning a larger than usual presence at GDC. So, there will not be a Steam Dev Days this year, but we will certainly consider doing it again in the future."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233656/No_Steam_Dev_Days_this_year_says_Valve__look_to_GDC_instead.php
Some other news also surfaced about the new Steam controller and Valve possibly rebranding Steam Machines to Living Room PCs.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/steam-controller-design-reportedly-finalized-more-/1100-6424515/
As I read the news I decided to get in touch with people in the Cheerful Ghost community and see what they think about it. I clipped out some bits from our conversations and had fun collecting everyones thoughts. Thanks to everyone that responded!
GregoPeck: I'm probably not as excited about Valve news as the rest of you guys. Sure, I'm interested in seeing what they do with their controller and Steam Machines, but I doubt I'll buy either. That is most likely due to the fact that my PC is a beast.
I can understand Valve's fans being disappointed at them not having a "Dev Days." I don't know what GDC is, but I think if they intend to have a huge presentation there, then fans will probably have something to get excited about. In a way, I think of it as if Nintendo had their own similar day and decided not to have one, but instead have a large presence at E3. I would be disappointed, but I would look forward to E3. That said, when it comes to E3, I pretty much only pay attention Nintendo.
I look forward to what Valve comes out with and what you guys think of it, but that's about as far as my interest goes.
AdamPFarnsworth: I'm very, very interested in finally getting firm details and a name (of sorts) for this system. I think the term "Living Room PC" is a great name, as it'll be so open, all systems could be different. "Steam Box" or "Steam Machine," whilst sounding pretty cool, sounds like there's just one version (to the uninformed). It's pretty widely understood that every PC has different specs, and you can't assume all PCs will run/work the same.
I absolutely cannot wait for the Living Room PC. I suppose I could hook up my laptop to my tv, but my laptop stays mostly in my office, and I want to game in my living room. Having just bought a Wii U, I know that if a system is available to me in my living room, there is a much higher chance of me playing it versus me going up to my office to play a game.
Travis: ...Since we don't *know* what's coming we can't exactly look forward to it yet. But here's my speculation-riddled fanboy diatribe.
Valve announcing that they're skipping Developer Days and bringing a major show to GDC is a good thing. It means we have to wait a little longer before any trickling information, but if they're bringing a full plate to GDC that means they're ready to talk about what we've been waiting to hear about. SteamOS, Steam Machines, that awesome and bizarre controller... we've been without any solid info for quite some time.
The one thing we do know is coming (assuming the sources are accurate) is the new controller, and I really want to see that in action. What I really want is to hold it in my hand and use it but that's not happening any time soon :)
I hope the controller works. That's my big concern. It's a major change from any kind of game controller we've ever seen, and if it works it could be revolutionary. If it doesn't, I worry that will have some effect on how popular Steam Machines (I'm going to keep calling them that until they officially change it) will eventually be. The big draw of that controller was that you could map it to functionally play PC games that have no controller support. If that works, the dream of full-on PC gaming on the couch is closer to reality.
beansmyname: Travis already said it best: hard to figure out what to look forward to when there's nothing being announced. With that in mind, I'll speculate wildly about what Valve may have in store at GDC.
The controller has to make an appearance. It's been the highlight of Valve's "Ten Foot" initiative from the start. After a few iterations, Valve appears to have finalized the design so this almost seems like a no-brainer. Even better would be an announcement that the controller would be available for purchase by mid-summer or even at the time of announcement.
If Steam Machines are no longer a thing, as Origin claims, perhaps all of the work on In-Home Streaming is also being used to create a Steam game streaming service, like PS Now or OnLive. That would be a huge gift for those of us who run Linux exclusively as we wouldn't need a Windows box to run the non-native games in our libraries. This would also open up the possibility of streaming to mobile devices.
There's also the 3's: L4D3 & HL3. Either one COULD make an appearance, however, I'd be really surprised if Valve was able to keep either of those under wraps for this long. Just wishful thinking on my part.
jdodson: If Valve drops news on a new game I think the Internet will explode in glee. I mean, I know I would. With that, I'll be picking up a Steam console this year and i'd prefer to not have to build it but if I can't find something I love then i'll put it together myself. That said, I am looking forward to hardware from Alienware and Origin. It's possible someone else might come out the gate with something good so I am keeping my mind open. It's great plugging in my laptop to the TV and playing games with it but it's getting annoying to have to keep doing it over and over because it takes way more effort to get that going than i'd like. A dream setup would be something I just press to turn on and can grab a controller and go.
And as Bean said above, SteamOS/Linux has an impressive amount of Steam titles and I imagine that number will blow up after Steam consoles hit the market. Many people online seem to nay say Steams living room efforts and this negativity I really don't understand. Everyone might not buy one right away but you can't argue with an already existing built in library of games you may already own. Plus it's super open hardware, so what's not cool about that?
"Steam Dev Days was a great way to brief a large number of Steam developers. This year our focus will be a bit different, so we are planning a larger than usual presence at GDC. So, there will not be a Steam Dev Days this year, but we will certainly consider doing it again in the future."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233656/No_Steam_Dev_Days_this_year_says_Valve__look_to_GDC_instead.php
Some other news also surfaced about the new Steam controller and Valve possibly rebranding Steam Machines to Living Room PCs.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/steam-controller-design-reportedly-finalized-more-/1100-6424515/
As I read the news I decided to get in touch with people in the Cheerful Ghost community and see what they think about it. I clipped out some bits from our conversations and had fun collecting everyones thoughts. Thanks to everyone that responded!
GregoPeck: I'm probably not as excited about Valve news as the rest of you guys. Sure, I'm interested in seeing what they do with their controller and Steam Machines, but I doubt I'll buy either. That is most likely due to the fact that my PC is a beast.
I can understand Valve's fans being disappointed at them not having a "Dev Days." I don't know what GDC is, but I think if they intend to have a huge presentation there, then fans will probably have something to get excited about. In a way, I think of it as if Nintendo had their own similar day and decided not to have one, but instead have a large presence at E3. I would be disappointed, but I would look forward to E3. That said, when it comes to E3, I pretty much only pay attention Nintendo.
I look forward to what Valve comes out with and what you guys think of it, but that's about as far as my interest goes.
AdamPFarnsworth: I'm very, very interested in finally getting firm details and a name (of sorts) for this system. I think the term "Living Room PC" is a great name, as it'll be so open, all systems could be different. "Steam Box" or "Steam Machine," whilst sounding pretty cool, sounds like there's just one version (to the uninformed). It's pretty widely understood that every PC has different specs, and you can't assume all PCs will run/work the same.
I absolutely cannot wait for the Living Room PC. I suppose I could hook up my laptop to my tv, but my laptop stays mostly in my office, and I want to game in my living room. Having just bought a Wii U, I know that if a system is available to me in my living room, there is a much higher chance of me playing it versus me going up to my office to play a game.
Travis: ...Since we don't *know* what's coming we can't exactly look forward to it yet. But here's my speculation-riddled fanboy diatribe.
Valve announcing that they're skipping Developer Days and bringing a major show to GDC is a good thing. It means we have to wait a little longer before any trickling information, but if they're bringing a full plate to GDC that means they're ready to talk about what we've been waiting to hear about. SteamOS, Steam Machines, that awesome and bizarre controller... we've been without any solid info for quite some time.
The one thing we do know is coming (assuming the sources are accurate) is the new controller, and I really want to see that in action. What I really want is to hold it in my hand and use it but that's not happening any time soon :)
I hope the controller works. That's my big concern. It's a major change from any kind of game controller we've ever seen, and if it works it could be revolutionary. If it doesn't, I worry that will have some effect on how popular Steam Machines (I'm going to keep calling them that until they officially change it) will eventually be. The big draw of that controller was that you could map it to functionally play PC games that have no controller support. If that works, the dream of full-on PC gaming on the couch is closer to reality.
beansmyname: Travis already said it best: hard to figure out what to look forward to when there's nothing being announced. With that in mind, I'll speculate wildly about what Valve may have in store at GDC.
The controller has to make an appearance. It's been the highlight of Valve's "Ten Foot" initiative from the start. After a few iterations, Valve appears to have finalized the design so this almost seems like a no-brainer. Even better would be an announcement that the controller would be available for purchase by mid-summer or even at the time of announcement.
If Steam Machines are no longer a thing, as Origin claims, perhaps all of the work on In-Home Streaming is also being used to create a Steam game streaming service, like PS Now or OnLive. That would be a huge gift for those of us who run Linux exclusively as we wouldn't need a Windows box to run the non-native games in our libraries. This would also open up the possibility of streaming to mobile devices.
There's also the 3's: L4D3 & HL3. Either one COULD make an appearance, however, I'd be really surprised if Valve was able to keep either of those under wraps for this long. Just wishful thinking on my part.
jdodson: If Valve drops news on a new game I think the Internet will explode in glee. I mean, I know I would.
With that, I'll be picking up a Steam console this year and i'd prefer to not have to build it but if I can't find something I love then i'll put it together myself. That said, I am looking forward to hardware from Alienware and Origin. It's possible someone else might come out the gate with something good so I am keeping my mind open. It's great plugging in my laptop to the TV and playing games with it but it's getting annoying to have to keep doing it over and over because it takes way more effort to get that going than i'd like. A dream setup would be something I just press to turn on and can grab a controller and go.And as Bean said above, SteamOS/Linux has an impressive amount of Steam titles and I imagine that number will blow up after Steam consoles hit the market. Many people online seem to nay say Steams living room efforts and this negativity I really don't understand. Everyone might not buy one right away but you can't argue with an already existing built in library of games you may already own. Plus it's super open hardware, so what's not cool about that?
When is GCD?
GDC is March 2nd - 6th.
Rock on, thanks