Valve is coming out with these new machines and controllers, thought you guys might wanna check them out. I'll copy-paste from the steam website. Steam Hardware (Move your mouse to reveal the content) Steam Hardware (open) Steam Hardware (close) STEAM HARDWARE PRE-ORDER GET YOURS AT LAUNCH WHEN YOU PRE-ORDER TODAY Presenting a collection of hardware designed to expand the Steam gaming experience into the living room and beyond. STEAM CONTROLLER The Steam Controller is 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. The Controllers are wireless and completely configurable. $49.99 Add to Cart View Store Page STEAM LINK The Steam Link allows existing Steam gamers to expand the range of their current gaming set up via their home network. Just connect your Steam PC or Steam Machine to your home network, plug into a TV, and stream your games to the Link at 1080p. $49.99 Add to Cart View Store Page STEAM CONTROLLER + LINK BUNDLE $99.98 Add to Cart View Store Page STEAM MACHINES PRE-ORDER NOW FROM THE FOLLOWING MANUFACTURERS Steam Machines are stand-alone devices that let you enjoy the Steam gaming experience in one box, providing gamers with a host of hardware devices at a variety of price points and configurations. Customize a gaming experience that best suits your needs while choosing from Steam's thousands of games, user-generated content, and more from any room in the home. ALIENWARE The Alienware Steam Machine combines the awesome experience of console gaming with a massive library of over 1000 games, all in full 1080p HD on your TV. You’ll experience powerful and immersive gaming with the high performance NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX GPU 2GB GDDR5 graphics and Intel® Core processors. Starting at $449.00 Visit the website SYBER Welcome to a new generation of games and entertainment. Break away from the traditional confines of your desktop and enjoy your PC gaming anywhere, from your living room to any place in your home. The Syber Steam Machine is small but powerful and ready to go. Starting at $499.00 Visit the website I can say, for one, I won't be buying any of these. But, in all honesty, they do sound really cool. Obviously there will be bugs, but other than that, they should work well. Tell me what you think!
I actually did pick up one of the Steam Controllers. The main bulk of my gaming has been done with an Xbox 360 wired controller for my PC. I do think it has the potential of being a nice controller, but it's going to take some practice and I don't think that it will be the answer to replacing my keyboard and mouse. It isn't set to ship to me until December 9th so I haven't had any hands on time with it, but I have watched a few video reviews of the unit that make it seem useless for any type of serious FPS gaming. Fortunately, I'm not a serious FPS gamer (except for some CoD Zombies) and it looks like it'll serve its purpose in my house. I'm terribly disinterested in the Steam Machine as my computer is more capable than these things. I've been using it as my living room console for years and can't really see any reason to purchase any of the new-gen consoles. There are a couple of exclusives for each system that I would like to play, but they aren't worth the purchase just for them to me.
Interesting, 89, I have a 360 myself, and all I really have is old games, but I can get decent frames with some games on my Mac, and that's all I really need.
