Valve has revealed the Steam Machines and the companies that are going to build them, alongside some of the hardware configurations, so the real question now is this: will you buy a slightly overpriced PC with non-descriptive hardware that runs Linux?
Like most online game makers, Valve uses a cheat detection system to protect popular multiplayer games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 from hacks that would give a player an unfair advantage. That Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system was at the center of a potential privacy bombshell earlier today, with accusations that the system was sending Valve a list of all the domains that a system has visited whenever a protected game was played.
Helping usher in the year of the Linux (gaming) desktop, Valve announced its Steam Machine—which will compete with Xbox One and Playstation 4.
When gaming vendor Valve's co-founder Gabe Newell told the Linuxcon USA conference audience last September that Linux is the future of gaming, he also hinted that his company's future consoles would be Linux-powered.
We're still eagerly awaiting Steambox-spec'd hardware in our living rooms but Valve's endeavor into hardware will move on minus one party member, noted inventor / hacker Jeri Ellsworth.
She reported the firing in a tweet earlier today, however any reasons, future plans or possible link to the project itself were not mentioned. When we spoke to Ellsworth last fall, she was working on controller prototypes to address mouse/keyboard use from the couch.
Linux gamers are used to being afterthoughts when it comes to most major game releases, but Valve seems set to change that soon. The company announced a pending beta test for a long-awaited Linux version of its popular Steam distribution service. Valve is seeking to fill 1,000 spots for the closed beta through a Web survey for existing Steam users, asking them to detail their gaming system and experience with Linux.
