Steam Sections coming to GameStop, GAME UK and EB Canada - Polidicks

[url]https://steamdb.info/blog/steam-sections-coming-to-retailers/[/url] [QUOTE]Oct 5, 2015 -- GameStop, GAME UK, EB Games, and Valve today announced dedicated Steam Sections launching this fall in GameStop (USA), GAME UK, and EB Games (Canada) stores. The section will feature the Steam Hardware devices launching November 10 (Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines) as well as a variety of Steam prepaid cards. Through the holiday season, GameStop, GAME UK, and EB Games will be the exclusive non-digital retailer for the Steam Hardware products in their respective territories. Steam prepaid cards launched in stores three years ago, and sales performance for those offerings has been increasing each year. [QUOTE] "GameStop, GAME UK, and EB Games are leading retail destinations for core gamers and early adopters," said Gabe Newell of Valve. "Creating a 'store within a store' across North America and the UK is a significant win for getting the first generation of Steam Hardware products into gamers' hands."[/QUOTE] Valve partnered with these leading retailers earlier this year to launch the pre-order for the Steam Hardware devices, offering gamers the chance to receive their gear 30 days prior to launch. That offer sold out in less than a month, and those who pre-order now through the Nov 10 launch will receive free copies of Psyonix's hit title Rocket League and Valve's classic Portal 2. [QUOTE] "Steam has helped grow PC gaming into a leading platform for games," said Bob Puzon, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, the exclusive retail partner in the U.S. for Steam Hardware. "With millions of gamers already enjoying the Steam desktop experience, we anticipate a strong demand for the upcoming Steam Hardware products and are looking forward to serving as the exclusive non-digital retail launch partner." "Steam continues to grow and has become synonymous with PC gaming, and as the UK's number 1 gaming specialist retailer we are excited about bringing these products to GAME in UK," said Charlotte Knight, managing director at GAME. "With the innovation that the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and the Steam Machines give gamers in the living room, we expect to see significant demand for these new products. The first signs of this can be seen with the sold out Early Bird launch of both the Steam Link and Controller on October 16th exclusively at GAME in the UK. GAME are delighted to be partnering with Valve on the new technology and support the continuing growth of this category."[/QUOTE] A leading platform for PC, Mac, and Linux games, Steam offers more than 6,000 titles to millions of gamers around the world. Targeted for release on November 10, the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines are a collection of hardware designed to expand the Steam gaming experience into any room in the home. About the Steam Hardware devices: Steam Controller -- An innovative input device that allows you to play games from all genres, including traditional gamepad style games as well as games usually reserved for play with a mouse and keyboard. Steam Controllers are wireless, completely configurable, and available for pre-order in the U.S., Canada, and the UK for a suggested retail price of $49.99/?54.99/£39.99/$59.99CAD. Steam Link -- The Steam Link allows Steam gamers to easily expand the range of their current gaming set up via their home network. Connecting any TV to your Steam host PC or Steam Machine, the Steam Link allows you to stream your games at 1080p 60 fps, and is available for pre-order in the U.S., Canada, and the UK for a suggested retail price of $49.99/?54.99/£39.99/$59.99CAD. Steam Machines -- Available from Alienware and other manufacturers, Steam Machines can serve as a stand-alone device for enjoying the Steam gaming experience in one box. In addition, Steam Machines have the ability to broadcast and receive In Home Streaming, allowing you to stream your games to a Steam Link, or receive a stream from another Steam Machine or PC. Steam Machines will vary in price, offering a range of hard drive sizes, graphics performance, and more. Available for pre-order in the US, starting at a suggested retail price of estimated $449.99. For more information about the Steam Hardware pre order offerings, please visit [url]http://steampowered.com/hardware[/url] Steam and Steam Link are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the US, Canada, the UK, and other countries.[/QUOTE]

well the Steam prepaid card thing isn't new but finally we get some news on weather the Steam Machine will be a success or not,.

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;48835013]well the Steam prepaid card thing isn't new but finally we get some news on weather the Steam Machine will be a success or not,.[/QUOTE] I don't think it'll be great for early adopters without a beefy pc running Windows somewhere in their house. I just hope it results in more AAA devs (and devs in general) releasing for Linux.

I just wonder who is going to buy it. pc gamers got there pc and guys wanting to play in living room or just hook up a PC/console to a tv anyway

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;48835715]I just wonder who is going to buy it. pc gamers got there pc and guys wanting to play in living room or just hook up a PC to a tv anyway[/QUOTE] That's honestly what I was thinking, unless they provide a proper price/performance ratio (unlike consoles) they will fail.

[QUOTE=Ltp0wer;48835572]I don't think it'll be great for early adopters without a beefy pc running Windows somewhere in their house. I just hope it results in more AAA devs (and devs in general) releasing for Linux.[/QUOTE] Steam Machines are supposed to compete with consoles for the living room(for people who aren't into PC gaming). For people who already won a beefy PC, they made the steam link. No use streaming to a fucking expensive box if you can archive the same result with a 50 dollar device.

Honestly, I think that Steam Machines are just going to be an epic failure, but who knows? That's what they said when steam came out.

[QUOTE=TornadoAP;48835790]Honestly, I think that Steam Machines are just going to be an epic failure, but who knows? That's what they said when steam came out.[/QUOTE] Honestly steam was fail when it came out 12 years ago.

I might pick up a Steam Link, maybe. Most definitely a controller at some point.

I went Amiibo hunting and went into a Gamestop, there's a tiny tiny section with a box for the Alienware Steambox, Steam Controller, and Steam Link. Along with that there were like five disc copies of various dated games beneath them. Glad to see their PC section is growing :v:

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;48835956]I went Amiibo hunting and went into a Gamestop, there's a tiny tiny section with a box for the Alienware Steambox, Steam Controller, and Steam Link. Along with that there were like five disc copies of various dated games beneath them. Glad to see their PC section is growing :v:[/QUOTE] retail pc gaming sections have always been a joke for a while untill steam became what it is you'd have to use amazon/ebay in order to get a good/game you wanted

This means I will actually get to try a controller at some point. Nice.

the only game I can think it's worth getting a controller for is MKX because I just care about K+M gaming

[QUOTE=eirexe;48835731]That's honestly what I was thinking, unless they provide a proper price/performance ratio (unlike consoles) they will fail.[/QUOTE] I think the intimidating part of PC gaming vs. consoles is knowing that a console will at least work as advertised but most people who are not big on PCs and hardware will just think "I don't want to be a PC gamer; building my own PC is too hard and 'gaming PCs' are like $2k each. i will buy a console". Steam machines are there to offer the console experience on the PC. Valve makes money from this not from selling the machines themselves, but from the new customers who are now more likely to get into PC gaming. They chose linux probably because it's more intuitive for them to be able to design their own UI and software on a linux distro than it is on windows. Furthermore, as programming becomes more abstract and higher level, linux gaming becomes easier and easier. Right now, a lot of games are developed on a pre-made engine like unity and unreal which have native linux support; one doesn't need to change and recompile the engine just to port their games to linux. This makes it cheap and trivial to develop for linux. Finally, I think we'll get more linux games because overall I think developers prefer linux as a development environment and use windows simply as a platform for releasing their games. Though game devs could be different

Ahh I was wondering why we had so many different steam prepaid cards coming into shipment this week. (I work at EB Canada) It'll be interesting to see how this fares in stores.

[QUOTE=Prez;48836776]Ahh I was wondering why we had so many different steam prepaid cards coming into shipment this week. (I work at EB Canada) It'll be interesting to see how this fares in stores.[/QUOTE] Yeah I was confused when suddenly more cards started to show up. It also explains why some stores are moving things around to make room for "something".

I think Steam Machines will fail because they are not standardized. There should be a maximum of three Steam machines, something like "casual", "medium" and "hardcore", with the revision released every two years or something. Then in the Steam game store, where the system requirements are, it would say which steam machine is recommended: SM Medium 2017 edition, SM Hardcore 2015 edition. It would also serve developers as a type of benchmark for optimizations.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48836404]I think the intimidating part of PC gaming vs. consoles is knowing that a console will at least work as advertised but most people who are not big on PCs and hardware will just think "I don't want to be a PC gamer; building my own PC is too hard and 'gaming PCs' are like $2k each. i will buy a console". Steam machines are there to offer the console experience on the PC. Valve makes money from this not from selling the machines themselves, but from the new customers who are now more likely to get into PC gaming. They chose linux probably because it's more intuitive for them to be able to design their own UI and software on a linux distro than it is on windows. Furthermore, as programming becomes more abstract and higher level, linux gaming becomes easier and easier. Right now, a lot of games are developed on a pre-made engine like unity and unreal which have native linux support; one doesn't need to change and recompile the engine just to port their games to linux. This makes it cheap and trivial to develop for linux. Finally, I think we'll get more linux games because overall I think developers prefer linux as a development environment and use windows simply as a platform for releasing their games. Though game devs could be different[/QUOTE] Except the current Steam machines being released are more expensive than the current generation of consoles.

[QUOTE=AntonioR;48837650]I think Steam Machines will fail because they are not standardized. There should be a maximum of three Steam machines, something like "casual", "medium" and "hardcore", with the revision released every two years or something. Then in the Steam game store, where the system requirements are, it would say which steam machine is recommended: SM Medium 2017 edition, SM Hardcore 2015 edition. It would also serve developers as a type of benchmark for optimizations.[/QUOTE] no there should be jsut one, ( maybe have one with more gb or something ) that what a consol does right you just get the thing and you're good to go,.

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;48835715]I just wonder who is going to buy it. pc gamers got there pc and guys wanting to play in living room or just hook up a PC/console to a tv anyway[/QUOTE] Well, my little brother's PC just died and the only PC he has now is one of those monitor-integrated-into-PC ones that are shit so I mean I guess I could just buy him a Steam machine and install Win10 on it for shits and giggles.

The Steam Machines that GameStop will be selling are just Alienware Alphas that glow blue instead of red, but they are $50 less than the Win10 equipped Alphas. If they do end up carrying them in stores I'm sure it'd only be the low end i3 models.

[QUOTE=Ltp0wer;48835572]I don't think it'll be great for early adopters without a beefy pc running Windows somewhere in their house. I just hope it results in more AAA devs (and devs in general) releasing for Linux.[/QUOTE] Are there a lot of people who would buy games for Linux? Are there a lot of games for Linux? Is Linux harder to use than Windows? I've been thinking of getting Linux if I can afford it.

[QUOTE=TheNerdPest14;48837807]Are there a lot of people who would buy games for Linux? Are there a lot of games for Linux? Is Linux harder to use than Windows? I've been thinking of getting Linux if I can afford it.[/QUOTE] [url]http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=linux&page=1[/url] 120 pages of steam games that support Linux. I think Steam OS is a Debian derivative and Debian along with others like Mint are pretty similar to Windows. It's a little bit harder than Windows but you can save $100 on the Windows license.

[QUOTE=gk99;48837740]Well, my little brother's PC just died and the only PC he has now is one of those monitor-integrated-into-PC ones that are shit so I mean I guess I could just buy him a Steam machine and install Win10 on it for shits and giggles.[/QUOTE]. or you could just build him one it'd be cheaper

[QUOTE=Valiantttt;48835773]Steam Machines are supposed to compete with consoles for the living room(for people who aren't into PC gaming). For people who already won a beefy PC, they made the steam link. No use streaming to a fucking expensive box if you can archive the same result with a 50 dollar device.[/QUOTE] Even then, if you look at the producers' other products there's a very good chance you'll find something roughly equivalent (e.g. with Windows + Steam preinstalled instead of Steam OS) that has a much better price/performance ratio. For now it seems like they want to milk the distorted competition created by Valve's platform promotion.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48836404]I think the intimidating part of PC gaming vs. consoles is knowing that a console will at least work as advertised but most people who are not big on PCs and hardware will just think "I don't want to be a PC gamer; building my own PC is too hard and 'gaming PCs' are like $2k each. i will buy a console". Steam machines are there to offer the console experience on the PC. Valve makes money from this not from selling the machines themselves, but from the new customers who are now more likely to get into PC gaming. They chose linux probably because it's more intuitive for them to be able to design their own UI and software on a linux distro than it is on windows. Furthermore, as programming becomes more abstract and higher level, linux gaming becomes easier and easier. Right now, a lot of games are developed on a pre-made engine like unity and unreal which have native linux support; one doesn't need to change and recompile the engine just to port their games to linux. This makes it cheap and trivial to develop for linux. Finally, I think we'll get more linux games because overall I think developers prefer linux as a development environment and use windows simply as a platform for releasing their games. Though game devs could be different[/QUOTE] Honestly, at least in my country getting a PC built by the same store you are buying the PC from is prett cheap and you are guaranteed that it will work, they can even install windows for you if you buy a copy/provide a key.

[QUOTE=eirexe;48842467]Honestly, at least in my country getting a PC built by the same store you are buying the PC from is prett cheap and you are guaranteed that it will work, they can even install windows for you if you buy a copy/provide a key.[/QUOTE] Around where I live, there are no stores like this.

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;48835013]well the Steam prepaid card thing isn't new but finally we get some news on weather the Steam Machine will be a success or not,.[/QUOTE] I've been in Game stores in multiple places around the country, so yes, it is new.

[QUOTE=eirexe;48842467]Honestly, at least in my country getting a PC built by the same store you are buying the PC from is prett cheap and you are guaranteed that it will work, they can even install windows for you if you buy a copy/provide a key.[/QUOTE] Ha, here you don't even need a legal copy of Windows.

[QUOTE=AntonioR;48842995]Ha, here you don't even need a legal copy of Windows.[/QUOTE] I mean as far as I know you just tell them to install a windows "trial" wink wink. The stores aren't even near me, you buy the thing on a internet store, iirc pcomponentes is the biggest. I never bought any PC that way, but I heard they do it fantastically.