Dicey

Good old John Carmack. I love the old-school gamer legends – grandfathers of gaming should always be allowed to weigh in on things. Sometimes they’re right, but sometimes we get to point and laugh at them down the line. Carmack has offered his latest bit of opinion, but only time will tell if he gets derided about it.

Carmack admits that he was wrong about Steam. When Valve initially approached him with the concept of Steam and asked to add Doom 3, he says

We basically said, ‘Are you crazy? This would be nuts to try to kind of tie yourselves to this little, notional digital distribution platform.’ But clearly, Valve has played a good, strong, long game.

So, does he think Steam Machines will be a success? After qualifying that he may be wrong again, Carmack explains that he’s skeptical about a new console OS being a big success.

It still seems a little bit dicey to me, getting everything moved over to Linux, pushing from that side of things.

That said, Carmack goes on to say that if it were anyone else proposing this concept, he’d be “pseudo-scornful” but since it’s from Valve, he is not. I suppose that means we just have to wait and see if the idea of Steam Machines picks up.

You guys know that I’m amped for the Steam Machine – I seriously want one. That said, I’m part of a small and unique segment of society. Will Steam Machines be successful in the general market, or just among “enthusiasts”? I hope it takes off, but I have a feeling I’ll be one a select group of people enjoying those vibrating touch pads.

Last Updated: October 21, 2013

1.1
was reviewed on PC

27 Comments

  1. bandit766

    October 21, 2013 at 11:04

    I’m super amped, even if its just for the novelty of having such a cool gadget setup

    Reply

    • Kromas

      October 21, 2013 at 11:07

      I am super amped just cause steam=gaming and thus SteamOS=Enhanced GL for linux.I have nothing bad to say about OpenGL but then again OpenGL is outdated and horrible (okay it seems I do have something bad to say about it after all 😛 ).Also if valve decides to hire in-house devs just for NVidia/AMD graphics drivers the whole of the linux (well debian linux at least) community will be better for it.

      Reply

      • bandit766

        October 21, 2013 at 11:09

        I remember reading that! It’s gonna be great for Linux gaming as a whole. I gave it a shot a while back but performance was too choppy for my liking. More powerful text commands and a completely new OS was ridiculously fun to play around with though

        Reply

        • Kromas

          October 21, 2013 at 11:12

          Thats why my server happily bounces along with a Linux VM on the side.

          Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 21, 2013 at 11:07

    I’m interested to see how it goes. We still don’t really know that much about it.

    Reply

  3. Tarisma

    October 21, 2013 at 11:10

    Kinda feels like the market is pretty saturated to me

    Reply

  4. Admiral Chief Ninja

    October 21, 2013 at 11:18

    Can’t wait for mine to arrive!

    Reply

    • John's digital rights

      October 21, 2013 at 11:31

      I’ll hate you.

      Reply

  5. oVg

    October 21, 2013 at 11:30

    Reminds me, I still need to play Rage.

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      October 21, 2013 at 12:10

      Wasn’t very good! I personally think you can ignore this game..

      Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      October 21, 2013 at 12:16

      Rather tie some string to a can and run around the garden with it. That’s infinitely more fun than Rage….

      Reply

      • TiMsTeR1033

        October 21, 2013 at 12:19

        AMEN BANANA!

        Reply

    • Rags

      October 21, 2013 at 16:43

      Don’t listen to the naysayers, it is a fun game. Crossbow with exploding arrows are epic. 🙂

      Reply

  6. John's digital rights

    October 21, 2013 at 11:31

    Y U no bring in excellent photoshopping skills and an a Steam machine?

    Reply

    • SaintsRowNigri

      October 21, 2013 at 11:41

      Y u no bring dictionary and check spellingz???

      Reply

  7. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    October 21, 2013 at 11:33

    I can’t wait to get SteamOS on to a small rasberryPi and attached to my TV

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      October 21, 2013 at 14:02

      Just flash some media centre to it in the mean time.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        October 21, 2013 at 14:16

        I have my PC connected currently and it runs XBMC.

        But XBMC and other media centers can’t stream my steam games 🙂 That’s what I’m excited for 🙂

        Reply

  8. silverscorpio

    October 21, 2013 at 11:45

    I am sceptical about the hardware aspect of it. I still say that I will not buy a a steam machine if my pc can handle it. Maybe if my pc is seriously outdated and the steam machine price is right I will buy one. Not at the moment. That being said, I applaude the idea of a gaming Operating System but I feel that it will only work in the long run. Linux adoption by developers will take a long time, if they adopt, and we will only know in about 5 years if it was a success.

    Reply

  9. CypherGate

    October 21, 2013 at 11:56

    It seems cool, but i still dont see that much of a deal with it. Its basically bringing the pc into the lounge which is what the console has been doing all the years already. I know PC games will have great graphics better than next gen etc etc, but really now… There are only a select few games worth playing on pc compared to the variety you get on a console. PC is the master race, but its only good for RTS, FPS games mostly. I enjoy playing games on my console and pc, but i find myself playing on my console cause the games are a lot more varied than on pc. I guess it also depends on what kind of games one is playing.

    Reply

  10. TiMsTeR1033

    October 21, 2013 at 12:11

    Said it once, say it again and again… Steam CRAPROLLER!! *RUNS*

    Reply

  11. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    October 21, 2013 at 12:15

    I stopped listening to Carmack after Rage.

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      October 21, 2013 at 12:18

      I lost respect for him…. Rage was a kak game… I expected soo much more.. Perhaps Doom 4 could change that… Oh hell who am I fooling! Doom 3 wasn’t even that great!

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        October 21, 2013 at 12:30

        Yep, Doom 3 looked pretty but in hindsight the same issues that plagued Rage affected Doom 3 – i.e. the fact that it was weaksauce from a game design, level design to story standpoint. Sure, you could argue that Doom was never about a story, and the closest the franchise ever came to a story was that movie starring the Rock….

        Reply

        • TiMsTeR1033

          October 21, 2013 at 12:37

          Which was a shit movie too…

          Reply

  12. Mark Treloar

    October 21, 2013 at 12:31

    Problem is other cheaper platforms already exist to Stream from the PC. If you want it as a standalone device, then its not going to be any cheaper than getting your own PC, so whats the point?

    Reply

  13. Maxiviper117

    October 21, 2013 at 12:50

    Whats the point, these Steam Machines are actually just custom built PC’s with interchangeable parts like any other gaming PC, you could just build your own gaming pc (steam machine if you will) then just install the Free Steam OS that will made available to anyone. You could save a decent amount building your own.

    Reply

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