Is the Steam Machine a PS2 or a 3DO?
During this week the amazing Half Life series making company Valve has said they will release big news. The big news is that Valve is making a PC/Console with new controller style. This is not an analysis of what Valve wants to do, that part is already figured out when you realize who they have been defeating already.
The computer as a console has been attempted before several times. In fact at one time computers were expected to replace the consoles after the Atari crash. A Personal Computer as a gaming machine has been part of the gaming culture since the Nintendo was called the Family Computer.
In fact, two of the biggest companies today are computer companies that also make consoles. Sony is an electronics hardware company that owns Movie Production companies, and prebuilt computers. Microsoft is the software king of computers. If you are reading this, you are likely using a product either company has invented or made.
At one time Sony worked with Nintendo to make the Super Nintendo. The Audio chip for the SNES has the Sony label on it. They separated ways after designing a system together, which would go on to be the Playstation. Sony used the system as a way to introduce the new audio system of Compact Discs, and CD-Rom players. It worked amazingly well.
Because of this, the Playstation 2 was built to promote the DVD player. Not only that the PS2 could work with a hard drive and linux. This meant that the console could be used as a PC.
With this in mind, Microsoft had their own hardware people design the XBox. In an article interviewing one of the hardware people, it is revealed.
“Berkes and Hase were among a group of four who first pushed Microsoft to develop a Windows-based gaming system to compete with Sony's PlayStation 2, which was luring game companies from the Windows platform in the late 1990s. The other two were Seamus Blackley, who left in 2002, and Kevin Bachus, who left in 2001.”
Steam is the most used PC Gaming program around. If you play modern PC games, you have an account on Steam. Not only that, you will find many of the same games that a PS3 or XBox 360 would have. It allows you to sign onto any computer, and buy, download, and play games. There are caveats, the game may have hardware requirements, and thus a lower powered computer will move slowly.
Valve has been building up the Steam program since the release of Half Life 2. It has many features on it that make it useful to play along. Last year, Valve released Big Picture mode. This allowed anyone to use their PC as a console. It took some extra hook ups such as a controller, and an extra monitor, but it works just fine.
In other words, the Steam program has been competing with Sony and Microsoft for the PC on your TV market. They have also been slowly winning. It almost feels like the owner of Valve is watching us play. (Sorry, I had to throw in that link somewhere.)
If Microsoft or Sony were to leave the market, Valve would pick up that market very quickly. There are rumors that either company could go under soon. In fact that will be another article for today.
A software company entering into the hardware business has two big stories within it, and they are both disasters. The first is that of Microsoft and the Xbox 360. The second is the 3DO.
Microsoft tried to save money by designing everything for the Xbox 360 in house. They did not have people who knew how to design some of the inner workings of the system, and it led to a very large recall. Obviously Microsoft was able to sail over these troubled waters eventually. The infamous Red Ring of Death is still common with the system even today.
The 3DO was a much larger disaster, and ruined the career of the system’s creator. Trip Hawkins was one of the original Apple Employees. He founded Electronic Arts, and turned into a very successful company. He then took what he knew, and created a console called the 3DO. It had exciting graphics, and some of the best EA made games of the time. It was also $700, and was never made by the 3DO company. They released their product out to other electronic companies, like Panasonic, and allowed them to build 3DO systems.
Why would a software company do something like this? Because that is how a software company views a system such as the Dreamcast, or Wii. It is not a system, it is the box that plays what the 3rd party wants it to. In fact, Electronic Arts continues to work to have exclusive rights to games even today. In an interview, someone tells the story of how Electronic Arts wanted to be the only sports game company for the Dreamcast. They were either exclusive, or they would not make games for the system.
Valve has come out playing the field a bit different. They continue to support windows for their Steam program. They have an Operating System that works very well with Steam, and is titled SteamOS. They also have a console like PC that will play SteamOS, and comes with an odd but intriguing controller. The Steam Machine will not be manufactured by Valve, but several companies are signed on to make different versions of it. In other words, it seems to be following the ways of both the PS2 and 3DO. It has several factors on why it could win, and several that show it could lose. Basically, will it be a 3DO, or a PS2?
