First Images of the Steam Box Released

Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times

Valve, the Bellevue based company which announced the Steam Machines a couple of  of weeks ago, finally has the first prototypes. Seattle Times published an article about it earlier today.

Valve's Steam controller is currently being manufactured in-house by Valve employees themselves

The final Steam Controller design, announced in late September, does not feature thumbsticks, but rather two trackpads that Valve says support a variety of games and genres, from first-person shooters to strategy games
 
While it is unclear how 65 Million Steam Users will take Steam Machines, it certainly is interesting, with the release of the PS4 and the Xbox One less than a month away, Valve's entry will be something to look out for.   

Valve's Steam Machine prototype will feature the following system specifications:

• GPU: some units with Nvidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
• CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
• RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
• Hard drive: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
• Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
• Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

Greg Comer from Valve said, “you won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.” as Valve announced that they wont be making "SteamOS Exclusives"

The Seattle Times report suggests that a "variety" of Steam Machines, as well as entertainment applications for the system, will be announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. Units will then go on sale sometime in mid-2014, though not everyone will have to wait as Valve said it was going to ship 300 of these Steam Machines to Steam users, free of charge, for the purposes of testing.

Images by Ken Lambert / Seattle Times.

Source 1, Source 2.

- Sephie

OPRainfall

Anime Sky

 

Tsundere PH

Half Life 3 Trademark: True or False?

After the internet buzzed about Valve applying for the Half Life 3 trademark, the application was taken down and now ceases to exist. Fans of the well loved game series will appear to be let down again as Valve has withheld comment.

From ValveTime:

We can now confirm that the "Half-Life 3" trademark has been removed from the Trademarks and Design Registration Office of the European Union (OHIM) website. The entrant appears to have disappeared entirely after only being listed on the website database for little over a week, allowing us to identify that the trademark's listing was more than likely a hoax intended to generate fake buzz for a game which is unlikely to appear for several years. Returning readers may remember when we had discussed how the "Half-Life 3" listing was previously never officially checked or authenticated before its removal.

On October 2nd 2013, a brand new trademark filing appeared on the same site, this time for "Portal 3", which is listed under the trademark number of "012190286". While this new filing should almost definitely be taken with a rather large pinch of salt, we can confirm that the "Portal 3" listing appears to have been appropriately examined by OHIM, unlike the previously listed "Half-Life 3" trademark. Thanks to the recent sneak peak into Valve's Jira account, we can confirm that there is currently no "Portal 3" development team within the company, highlighting that this brand new listing is also very likely a hoax of some kind, regardless of whether or not it has been officially examined. We'll keep you posted if and when we learn more.

On the bright side, the "Half Life 3 Confirmed" meme can continue on.

~ Ametis

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/01/half-life-3-trademark-filed-by-valve?utm_campaign=fbposts&utm_source=facebook

Left 4 Dead 2: Dual Broadcast

Join Aceman20001, Ametis, and company as we try out luck again at L4D2 at 9pm central.

Aceman20001: http://www.twitch.tv/aceman20001

Ametis: http://www.twitch.tv/ametisrising

~ Ametis

Steam OS Update

With the announcement of the Steam OS, there's been a lot of speculation (and there still is) on what exactly this new product will do. Today, on the steam group, an update was sent out with the hardware specs. These new systems that they're working could easily be built from home and are fully customizable should you feel the need to buy the bits and pieces.

For those of you not so hardware savvy who won't be changing out the entire machine as soon as they get it, here are the beta specs:

More to come on the controller later, but for now this is enough to get me as excited as a little kid on Christmas.

~ Ametis

Half Life 3 - Confirmed?

It finally happened.

Though no comments from valve, (except this one that we can't be sure is true... I mean "Slobbering Shit-Wizards"? Really? At least it's good for a laugh.) this was posted here with the pictures above and below.

We're not quite sure if this is a sick prank, an actual confirmation, or just Valve renewing their license.

But once again:

IT BEGINS.

~ Ametis

OPRainfall

Anime Sky

Steam Box Announcement

Yesterday: the Steam OS and now today: the Steam Box. Rather than releasing one machine, Valve is apparently releasing multiple.

Entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all world. We want you to be able to choose the hardware that makes sense for you, so we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines to market during 2014, all of them running SteamOS.

Not only that, but before these machines are released, you could be eligible for testing one of them. Only 300 people will get this lucky chance and the way to do it is as follows:

THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:

Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility

1. Join the Steam Universe community group

2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions

3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already)

4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven't already)

5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

This will then apparently give you a badge and you'll be in the running for the beta testing of the new system.

Aside from the beta, you should expect these new systems in stores (all with different specs depending on what experience they plan to provide) in 2014.

~ Ametis

Coffee Hour: 9/24/13

Join us for coffee hour tomorrow morning at 10:30 central time where we'll be diving into the great debate of Xbox One, PS4, or the newly announced Steam OS. Eric, Sephie, and myself will be there bright and early debating which of the next gens will be the best of the best.

And for those who have missed any of our past broadcasts:


Coffee Hour #1

Coffee Hour #2

Coffee Hour #3

~ Ametis

OPRainfall

Anime Sky

Valve Announces the First out of Three

Valve has revealed the first of what it teased last week, a 'Living Room' version of Steam that runs of the Linux code, Guess Gabe Newell, Co-Founder of Valve, wasn't kidding when he said that Linux is going to be "The Future of Gaming"

SteamOS is going to be available soon as a Free and Stand Alone Operating System that is "Built around Steam" 

According to the Valve Site

With SteamOS, openness means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation.

Valve has emphasized that SteamOS "achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases."

The Next Announcement comes out September 25, Wednesday at 10 AM PST.

With the SteamOS being 'unexpected' what can we expect from Valve soon? Half Life 3 or the long awaited SteamBOX? Hit us up with your suggestions on the comment box below.

Source : http://goo.gl/ft2ZOH

- Sephie

OPRainfall

Anime Sky