The Video Game Critic

There is a bunch of them, I guess. Here is the one that is apparently looking to be the most mass market :

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/07/ces-alienware-reveals-new-steam-machine

Set to launch in the latter half of this year, Alienware's Steam Machine is considerably smaller than both the Xbox One and PS4. With a 8" by 8" square design and roughly 3" tall, the chassis is ultra-compact. It comes equipped with two USB 3.0 ports on the front, but on the back, it will ship with an optical audio connector,and an ethernet jack.

Alienware is once again keeping its plans close to its chest, but the PC maker has confirmed that it will use an Intel-based CPU and a discrete Nvidia GPU. Given its diminutive size, a model from Nvidia's unannounced next-generation of laptop GPUs seems likely. In terms of performance, Alienware says it surpasses both the Xbox One and the PS4 in raw power, and the company is targeting native resolutions of 1080p.

Alienware says the system will be "competitively priced" with Sony and Microsoft's latest consoles and will share more details as the year progresses.


What do you think? Do they have a chance? A niche, at least?

They might do slightly better then the Ouya, but I wouldn't bet on them being a big success.

People who were underwhelmed with XBone and PS4 (People like me) might give this one a whirl.

This is not unfamiliar territory for them.  They were involved with DISCover technology (ApeXtreme proto console) back in 2004/2005 with the release of the DHS 2 & DHS 5.  More info:  http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg00-discover.htm

I'm just really confused at this point, and this is coming from someone who
likes and trusts Valve. I just went to this article:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/444008/valve-confirms-14-steam-machines-with-prices-and-specs/

and they had pictures and specs for 14 different machines with widely varying
looks, power levels and prices. Some of them looked like consoles (and there
were some admittedly cool designs), but a few of them were indistinguishable
from a gaming PC. Prices start at $499 and go up in the thousands of dollars.

I have a hard time seeing the consumer-electronics console crowd be anything
but bewildered by the myriad of possible choices and the PC-knowledgable
crowd is, by the comments under these articles, shrugging their shoulders and
wondering how this is any better than the computers they already own. The 
idea of bringing the PC into the living room seems a little redundant - basically
every decent PC can already plug into your television. I'm typing while
connected to my TV right now, and I can do a lot more with it than play
games. Can I run Photoshop on a Steam Machine, or use it to do
audio or video-editing?

Maybe there is something enticing that Valve is holding back, something beyond the
Steam OS (the attributes of which I admittedly know nothing about) and an interesting
controller; from the reactions I'm seeing to these articles, they might want to
reveal it pretty quickly.

Not convinced the people who are into steam are probably happy with their PC set ups and I cannot see a mass emigration from the console brigade.
Personally I think the more diverse the gaming scene becomes the better it is for gamers, I just can't see a console version of a PC being a big player.

Much like the Ouya, I can't see this going anywhere at all.

Valve is an interesting company, but I do think they are kind of off beat more for the sake of it, and then proud to be obstinate.

They say - different models for different needs - but my needs are not met.

I want a sub $300 steam console, or even a $200 one. Even if it cannot run the latest and greatest full blast - so what? It would cover a lot fo games, and if I am to buy a PC console, I want cheap games.

I have no clue what to think of the Steam Consoles.  If they can make it so it plays PC games flawlessly on the couch like a regular console, it would be awesome.  But I have my doubts. 

One thing good about Steam box, is that it comes which the complete library of Steam Games that have been ported to Linux.  I belive that would be at several least hundred games, with many of them being fantastic games that aren't availible on consoles (Civilization 5 for example).   That would actually be a much better library than what the XBOX one or PS4 currently have. If the steam box is a success, I guess most games on Steam will get ported to Linux to be made available on steambox.  Publishers would think in that scenario that the extra costs to port to Linux would be worth the extra revenue.

However, how is the experience going to work?   That controller is very bizarre.   How good will games made for keyboard and mouse work on it?  I have a fear they might play a lot like emulators on a tablet, with different presses of the pads emulating different keys on the keyboard.  If Valve can convince publishers to patch their games to make the game work better with the gamepad, that may be a solution.

I would hope this thing succeeds, but at the price they are charging for the various models, I am much more happy having my windows based gaming PC, with an HDMI going to the bigscreen.   Right now there are far too many questions.  I am definetly taking a wait and see approach.  I'll let someone else be the guinea pig, but it would be great if this think is actually good.  At the very least, I don't think anyone has tried anything like this.

I can see this being a family-oriented PC Gaming machine, rather than just a mainline hardware.

It can succeed in that aspect, just give it a chance people.