Let's think about what happens if SteamBox gets a big market share...

According to this logic PS3 only games would ocst more than multiplatform games.

Why are you making all those assumptions? I don't see the data at all to support any of your theories. Games have dropped in price since the 90s so be thankful, they are pushing to leak more money out of customers as is with "special deluxe" editions and the like. I don't see that changing at all with the release of a new hardware platform.

Games are more casual because they make more money like that, ARMA is a great franchise, but unfortunately lots of people don't have the patience to learn how to play it, so you have to fill the market with games that sell copies. I am a bit worried that they will cater to controller only types of games, but perhaps they will want to push keyboard/mouse from steam directly to ensure "pc likeliness"

Steam is a digital distribution company as it stands... they allow 3rd party sales such as amazon, humble key sales etc. etc. there's no way thy would change this, too many customers would be upset.

I for one, am looking forward to this change, I try not to jump to conclusions, but it's unavoidable. I respect your opinions, but I really don't agree with the majority of them.

A) there are sales
B) gamepad FTW
Nope, no Tf2, please.
no simulators? NOOOOOO!!
C) ehm...no?

Good idea!

lol all that slippery slope

Don't be so pessimistic ;)

Dont bother i created a thread just like this and i got hatemail..... Close topic and dont bother

Proof-http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/Fe1R5/steambox-do-you-realise

A) What the hell?

B) What the hell?

C) What the hell?

You for serious? you think just because Steam introduced an optional console with an OS then all the developers and their mothers will go for that and just forget about PC as if it never existed? Valve didn't say they shutting down their desktop application. -___-

I see console game prices going down in an effort to compete with steam's dirt cheap game prices that (until now) had never been any kind of threat to them.

You're forgetting something. All the new consoles are running on x86-64 architecture, the same as Windows, Mac, Linux, and SteamOS. Meaning that as long as your Game Engine is cross-platform (most are these days), and you remembered to do certain things when making it, all you have to do is flip a few switches when compiling the game. Not much extra effort needed for porting anymore, besides beta/bug testing. So no supporting SteamOS/Linux doesn't take much more effort. Devs are just being lazy, or started making their game before the Linux Gaming Fire started picking up.

The only reason Steambox will pull marketshare is IF its CHEAP. By shear design it will require an always on internet connection else the tiny box device won't have the processing power to run the AAA blockbusters. Its intended to run in the same genre as OnLive, or so I've been lead to believe, so it requires cloud servers to process everything.
Even the console market doesn't want always online so will steambox increase prices? Maybe... in the same way GBA caused those SNES carts to get more expensive.

Just my $0.02

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to use a keyboard and mouse with a steambox if you so desire. It is in fact a PC. In a box. Running linux.

'I hope you like more CoD clones designed for pads.'
Actually, Black Ops is fully compatible with a controller :P (You dont have any chance against keyboard/mouse users though)

*

Hell naw, that's some flawed logic, son!
A) Each platform pays for it's version of a game... (duh, let's make this game for pc, and ps4 users will pay more)
B) Yup, 1 platform doesn't focus on K+M, let's stop making games that uses K+M ever! :D
C) Conspiracies! bla bla, control everywhere! x_x

They mention that the SteamBox will allow keyboard and mouse support on the FAQ.

If you knew about the SteamOS then you'd realize that it's Linux-based. Steam is just trying to push Linux. If more games use OpenGL then Linux would get more support.

A) No. Competition will drive the prices down. Porting costs aren't in issue since they are small and valve will provide the tools for seamless integration. Maybe the costs will be even less than porting to M$ Windows.
B) Steambox doesn't necessarily require a gamepad, just saying.
C) No one forces you to use SteamOS or Steambox. Games will still be available for Windows. Furthermore the platform is said to be "open source" and they promised to release the source code.

Are you always this alarmist?

To be honest in my opinion i don't care for SteamOS or whatever steam box , all i want is to play my games on my laptop , as is.

If Steambox does get a big market share, M$ would definitely have to step up on Windows gaming, which would be better for all.

Dear lord! You're right! Everything is rubbish and we're all doomed. Born so ungraciously into lives we didn't ask for only to be told they're tough and then we lose them in the end and to top it all off, Steam's branching into hardware is going to ruin everything. Surely there's nothing more inspiring of crippling levels of pessimism than that!?

I mean, if we exclude the fact that Valve's track record has always been to stir shit up in the industry and base their entire money making tactics on having a loyal and happy user base - I think it's unlikely they're going to go all Microsoft on us and start trying to FUCK US - Hard, and in punishment of the heinous offence of buying their stuff. If we exclude that, then we still live in troubled financial times with the world in tatters, an ever widening gap between rich and poor and the possibility of endless wars and revolutions. Of course there's always the chance some dumb bastard is stupid enough to jump into an illegal war with Syria, or Iran - in which case the Cold War restarts and this time with some significantly worse potential outcomes. There is a possibility that the human race, in the very near future, will do its best to kill itself.

If it doesn't then it seems almost certain that evolution or freak cosmic events will take care of things. I mean, we're probably overdue a good meteorite impact or, I don't know, a massacre at the hands of some ruthless space cat pirates.

If that's not enough then, really, the worries about SteamOS and whatever the Steam hardware is pales in comparison to the potential outcomes of the universe. I mean, there are many current models, but there are many theories. Say, for example, that the universe's expansion is such that it expands beyond the point at which gravity can pull it all back again? Then, the seemingly fixed law for an increase in entropy over time will almost inevitably lead to a complete heat-death of the universe. Perhaps, though, the universe is not expanding into such a state. Perhaps what is known as a 'Big Crunch' will occur, essentially a reverse Big Bang process whereby gravity attracts all matter in the universe back together again until it's a weird tiny bundle of theoretically infinite temperature. Maybe it'll Bang out again, maybe it won't. Either way, I figured a fatalist like you might like to know. You won't need to worry about these things of course. Our own sun will burn out and leave us nothing but a frozen wasteland any way - floating ceaselessly in a dead solar system in a beautiful galaxy. Well, that is until the Milky Way crashes with Andromeda and potentially leaves the planet we call home a tiny, frozen, dead little rock floating, lonely and sad, in space forever...Well, until <see heat death of universe and big crunch - Or possibly black holes.>

Still, always look on the bright side, eh? :)

Keyboard and mouse will be allowed on Steam Machines/Steam OS. They will encourage developers to support gamepads. Some games can't be played with a gamepad and that's fine. I think Steam will just be more up-front about what inputs will be allowed. Can we all agree this alone is for the best? Remember Atari — surely I'm not the only one old enough to. Each game told you which peripheral to use. Atari had a bunch, and it wasn't a problem. This problem you're trying to invent, Atari solved it 30 years ago.

Valve can't control Linux. Any game that works for "Steam OS" will work for Ubuntu and the hundreds of other distros. Steam OS will be just another beginners' Linux like Lindows/Linspire was meant to be. Steam OS will just have gaming-oriented themes and stuff, and I'm sure gamers happy with Ubuntu and the others will add the Steam OS stuff on their own. Canonical might even produce a "Gaming Edition" of Ubuntu that is basically Steam OS with their branding. That's the beautiful thing about Linux. You can do stuff like that.

In any case, if you ignore Steam OS and never buy a Steam Machine or the new controller, Steam will continue to work for you same as it did last Friday (before any of this was announced).

It's an operating system built around Steam. You people are going crazy over this.
It's not going to be the big game changer people will want it to be.

A) SteamBox will probably drive console prices down. As for PCs, with all the humbly-bundly-10-games-for-a-dollar stuff (not only indies, as we've already seen), prices are already hitting rock bottom and will stay so in the foreseeable future.

B) Consoles did already that to PC market, i don't see how more casual can certain games go (see Dragon Age 2).

C) Steam is already as locked as it can and will be. Also, you can't really "lock" a linux system that much AFAIK.

"Games become more expensive"

Disagree, if that was true PC games would be the same price as 360 games, many still are 10 dollars or more less.

"Games become even more casual"

What? TF2 was on consoles and if you ask me its almost as casual as you can make an online shooter.

"Steam becomes even more of a locked platform"

It's open source. OS don't take up much room, most linux platforms are super tiny....