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SteamOS

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Re: SteamOS

#361

Post by davidhollander »

wonderzombie wrote: post #343
rkalla wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Juho, great call-out with the "Steam-related carrot", I hadn't really thought down that path but you are absolutely right. Valve could easily offer big discounts in their split with the publishers for the first few years for Linux sales. My (possibly very incorrect) assumption was that the profit from the Linux sales were so low as to not matter, but maybe they can provide a catalog-wide carrot... something more sign…

This is likely to be coupled with some manner of hardware launch, as well. I am skeptical that the name "Linux" will be a particularly useful term in that context. Couple that with my skepticism that they're actually shipping much if any traditional Linux userspace software, and it's even less useful to compare potential SteamOS users to traditional Linux users. Other than that I agree that with Valve as a patron the…

What are your definitions for "traditional Linux userspace software" and "traditional Linux users"? Do you consider Android to be "Linux"?

Re: SteamOS

#362

Post by josh2600 »

msy wrote: post #110

Add in Netflix (or a competitor) integration and you've got the potential to put all 3 major consoles on the ropes in a few years. Given Halflife 2 launched steam my bet is HL3 will be used to launch this.

Please... No more HL3 fake launch announcements. Please.

If HL3 comes out as a SteamOS exclusive; well that would be quite the coup.

Re: SteamOS

#363

Post by xal »

deletes wrote: post #241
skriticos2 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the iconography on the main page I'd guess the second announcement will be Steam hardware and the third one will be Half Life 3 (second circle indicates software product again?). Pure speculation on my side here. http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/

We know that the circle represents the SteamOS. The brackets int the second announcement must represent SteamBox. The third announcement has two circles with a plus sign in between which has to do something with connectivity to other players. Probably an equivalent of Xbox Live. ( My bet for the name is SteamPipe :) ) If Half-Life 3 was represented it would have to be a sign inside the circle as it is mainly a single…

The third icon could be O: Steam OS + O: Orange Box 2. Orange Box 2 may include Half Life 3 and more.

Re: SteamOS

#364

Post by sbarre »

jlgreco wrote: post #223
sbarre wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Gigabit ethernet in the home (or really fast wireless) should make this pretty feasible even with twitch-based action games (we can hope!)

With twitch-based games you'll have to convince twitch-based game players of that. These are people that look up latency specs on wireless keyboards because they think that makes a difference.

And I would bet that they are enough of a minority that it financially doesn't matter. They will keep playing on their finely tuned rigs with old CRT monitors anyways.

But the average person who wants to play the latest Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto over that kind of streaming system? There are lots of those (including me).

Re: SteamOS

#365

Post by rkalla »

baldfat wrote: post #226
rkalla wrote: post #26

This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time portin…

"porting their AAA releases to this platform" Play Station 4 is running a modified a Free BSD 9.0 on x86 architecture. So the work to go from a BSD base to Linux I imagine is MUCH easier than what it has been in the past in my opinion.

Actually an excellent point; just dug up some info, didn't realize Orbis was based on FreeBSD. Would absolutely agree that for both the engine companies (Unreal, Crytek, Unity, Frostbite, etc.) since they are already going to FreeBSD, being able to target SteamOS as a secondary platform with minimal effort would be huge. Then hopefully abstract that effort away from the publishers as much as possible so if Capcom/Microsoft/EA/Activision decide to go SOS, it is minimal work.

Re: SteamOS

#366

Post by rkalla »

math0ne wrote: post #251
rkalla wrote: post #26

This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time portin…

I think the point is that AAA titles are at a low time low of market share. Indie titles could carry this platform by itself.

I hate commenting in extremes, but I am willing to bet a large volume of the blood in my body that this is false and the platform would be a total failure if this was their only play (indie games).

One GTA 5, for example, is equivalent to the sales produced by every indie game, combined, multiple times over. Even Minecraft with some $30-40mil is a miniscule fraction of what GTA 5 did opening _day_ and will eventually do in its lifetime.

Definitely chose extremes here, but I imagine the equation looks the same with any other AAA title compared to the entirety of indie titles combined.

Re: SteamOS

#367

Post by Anonymous9823 »

DigitalSea wrote: post #346
rkalla wrote: post #26

This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time portin…

If they announce Half Life 3 as an exclusive launch title for Steam OS, I think there are a lot of people who would give it a shot. Steam is a very influential and well-connected company, don't underestimate them.

It's an operating system, there are not going to be exclusive launch titles. Unless of course, you think Valve is going to release HL3 only for Linux users, but that idea is absurd.

Re: SteamOS

#368

Post by rkalla »

jsz0 wrote: post #263
rkalla wrote: post #26

This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time portin…

Aren't games pretty damn portable these days? It seems like most non-firsty party titles are all multi-platform now. I don't know anything about game development but they must be developing with portability in mind.

As suby mentioned, off-the-shelf I think these engines support multiple platforms, but it is surprising (to me) how many big, non-1st-party games don't make it across all the platforms in a timely fashion. That signals to me that it isn't as easy as we might think.

Re: SteamOS

#369

Post by rkalla »

sefy98 wrote: post #294
rkalla wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Juho, great call-out with the "Steam-related carrot", I hadn't really thought down that path but you are absolutely right. Valve could easily offer big discounts in their split with the publishers for the first few years for Linux sales. My (possibly very incorrect) assumption was that the profit from the Linux sales were so low as to not matter, but maybe they can provide a catalog-wide carrot... something more sign…

This was my thought also. Offer $100 in games with the console, or release hl3 only on the console. I'm really glad you guys pointed out this was a console launch because I tried to point it out on reddit and got shut down... http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1mywq0/steamos_annou...

Argh, that can be frustrating. I for one certainly agree with you :D

Re: SteamOS

#370

Post by lbenes »

lelandbatey wrote: post #332
rkalla wrote: post #26

This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time portin…

Honestly, I think that what Valve's going for here is they're trying to generate hype around a "new platform" that's actually an existing platform that's underutilized. Valve sees that there's a lot of what's effectively free RND work going into Linux as a platform for gaming, but that no one's taking advantage of that. I think SteamOS is just going to be a highly tuned distro, since Valve really doesn't have the man…

Valve has the resources; it's more a issue of internal commitment, which I agree they don't seem willing to make. To make SteamOS a serious contender to NXE Dashboard or CellOS they'd need to:

* Develop a XrossMediaBar like UI

* Devote resources to Wayland or Mir to reach production quality

* Create a new audio subsystem, or bring OSS v4 up to date for Linux

If I heard something like Valve dedicating 5 programmers on Wayland and 2 on OSS, SteamBox could be a serious contender for my next console purchase.

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