One year ago, at CES 2014, Valve introduced a new kind of gaming PC, a Linux game console with a gamepad designed to be good enough to replace a mouse and keyboard. 14 PC manufacturers were on board, each creating a Steam Machine in its own image. And then... crickets. What the heck happened?
The Alienware Alpha sounds awesome. It's smaller and more powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One. It doubles as an actual Windows PC! But be warned: it's not as easy to use as a game console, not as foolproof. It's not nearly the slam dunk I was hoping it would be.
Hint: it's the one with the USB ports.
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Now that Steam Machines have established all one needs to play computer games via Steam is a small box, a controller and a screen, the SteamBoy combines those three things into one portable gaming system.
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It's been six months since bouncing baby PS4s and Xbox Ones started landing on doorsteps, and things are still... transition-y. Titanfall runs great on Xbox 360, Borderlands is staying last-gen, and PS4 is getting a Last of Us port. What do you think? Are you optimistic, or are you regretting your purchase?
Seems like Valve's Steam Controller has been evolving since the minute they first showed it to us. The latest version adds more conventional face buttons along with the big, already-iconic touchpads. It's being put through its paces at GDC this week. Let's see how this puppy performs, shall we?
Valve just sent us this image, a more clear depiction of the latest Steam Controller prototype that they detailed back in January.
The strange-looking Stream Controller Valve introduced to us in September was innovative, ambitious, and unworkable from a backwards compatibility standpoint. Today Valve announced the release version of the controller will drop the screen in favor of a d-pad and standard controller buttons.
Valve has been in the software business for a long time, and they've gotten pretty good at it. In 2014, the PC gaming giant will be launching their first official piece of hardware: The decidedly odd, innovative Steam Controller. What will happen when a company steeped in software releases their first piece of…
During Valve's CES 2014 event last night, the company released a brochure featuring images, prices, and specificiations for 13 third-party Steam Machines. Let's take a look-see!
Maingear's Steam Machine didn't make it into Valve's brochure. At 4.5 x 4.23 x 2.34 inches and weighing less than a pound, it's pretty easy to miss.
Valve's interesting, innovative new Steam Controller has caught a lot of eyes while simultaneously raising a lot of eyebrows. How exactly will this thing work? Will it really make traditionally mouse & keyboard PC games playable in your living room?
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The first Steam Machines will ship on December 13, Valve said this afternoon. Three hundred beta testers will win their very own high-powered Steam Machines, complete with crazy trackpad controllers and free SteamOS games.
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Valve is developing a new service that will allow you to stream games between two computers, and any Steam user can sign up to enter the beta right now.
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On January 15 and 16, Valve is holding a special event. I'm not invited. You're probably not, either.
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Steam Machines will start launching next year. One of Valve's proprietary Steam Controllers will ship with each one. And you shouldn't expect to get your hands on any of Valve's prototypes... unless you're one of the 300 lucky people selected for the beta this year.
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Via The Seattle Times, here's your first look at Valve's Steam Machine prototype—a super-high-end machine that will be sent out to 300 beta testers later this year. (Those are Valve employees standing with it: from left to right, Eric Hope, Anna Sweet, Greg Coomer and D.J. Powers.)
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Starting today, Nvidia's Shield Android gaming console adds the ability to stream gameplay from a gaming PC to your television set. It's incredibly cool. Want to see?
Valve has confirmed to Maximum PC that Steam Machines won't only use Nvidia graphics cards, despite that being the only brand announced to go out with their recently-announced prototypes. Valve says Steam Machines will be commercially available with AMD, Nvidia and Intel graphics hardware.
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When Valve officially announced their Steam Machines two weeks ago, they skimped a bit on the details—we know that there will be a wide variety of living-room-centric PCs, and we know they'll run the Linux-based SteamOS operating system, but we don't know much about specs, or prices, or options.
