Valve Unveils Steam OS, Steam Machine and One Other Thing

steam os steam machines

Oh Gabe Newell, I doff my proverbial cap to you. Not content to just have the largest digital distribution network for PC games, Valve is expanding the Steam Universe with an OS, machines and…something else.

Valve kicked off the announcements this week by showing off SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that will guide your magical journey through living-room centered PC gaming wonderfulness. It sounds like you can dual-boot the SteamOS on an existing PC or stream games from your current gaming PC to a Steam Machine running SteamOS and play your games that way.

Speaking of Steam Machines, Valve showed their hand and revealed that they’re working with a few manufacturers to produce a variety of Steam boxes, which will run the gamut in price and performance. There isn’t a set design for the Steam Machine yet, but Valve does have a prototype and you can sign up to be a Beta tester for them. Exciting!

The third item hasn’t been shown off yet, but we’ll get to see what it is on Friday morning. Until then, speculation can be a fun way to distract ourselves. What do you think it is? What do you think of SteamOS and the Steam Machines (that’s my new rock band name, by the way). Sound off!

Source – Steam

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mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

9 thoughts on “Valve Unveils Steam OS, Steam Machine and One Other Thing”

  1. I’m pretty excited to hear about this. I figured it was only a matter of time before we heard something about Linux and Valve. Gabe Newell always expressed a great appreciation for Ubuntu so this is exciting to hear that Valve will now have it’s own flavor of Linux, which means free open source OS with no limitations to what can be done! I blew through the checklist for the Steam Hardware Beta test, as I’d love to get my hands on that hardware. I just have to be over 100,045 people so far in a chance of luck that Gaben will smile upon me.I’m really curious about that third announcement now. I just have to deal with the internet’s stupid “ZOMGZ THREE ANNOUNCEMENTS. HL3 CONFIRMED.” jokes. This news is really good though. Valve wants to shift the paradigm, and make it easier for people to PC game and I like that they want to take that approach and not make it seem like a risky expensive venture.

  2. I am pooping with joy. I was pretty set on getting a PS4, but If we get some pricing details before the launch of next gen, I might have to hold out for a living room machine. I’m pretty sure the third announcement will be a Steam controller, which hopefully is based more on the PlayStation than the Xbox (personal preference)

    Registered for the beta with 65,000+ people already in.

  3. A few months back, someone leaked a pic of a valve employee’s email that mentioned Left 4 Dead 3. So if the third announcement is a game then im in. With the steam box I would like to wait a little, so far it seems like all they have revealed is that they are making it, which we have known for some time. But anyway, Good luck with the beta guys!

  4. Well, I guess its Valve so maybe they truly are on to something with their controller. On the other hand, it doesn’t have very many buttons, so it would be interesting to see how well it actually does work with PC games despite the touch screen, back buttons etc. A huge letdown on the software side of things 🙁

  5. I have to admit, I agree with @Eddy on the first glimpse of the controller. I saw it and my first thought was, “Are those touchpads on the back?” Then I discovered further down that it was the front. It’s certainly bizarre and I don’t want to pass down judgement on it. I’m intrigued and I really want to test it out but that’s hoping I get to test the beta. It’s still concept design so it could change at any given time so only that time will tell. I have to laugh over everybody who assumed that this final annoucement would be Half-Life 3. Seriously people, c’mon… Not to pull a partial quote from Web Zeroes, but, “…perfection takes time!”

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