EricBall

Kinda cool, but I wonder what kind of pricetag it's going to have on it. Also, will it come bundled with Steam Machines or will it be competing with other control options like keyboard & mouse and the Xbox 360 controller? The "Portal 2 Bindings" graphic seems to suggest the Steam Controller is emulating a keyboard + mouse rather than being a pure USB HID. While that might be great for games which don't support game controllers, it adds another layer of complexity - configure Steam Controller to K+M mapping, then configure the K+M to action mapping in the game. I wonder if it will be possible to map both touch pads to directional buttons. Hmm.. how will auto-centering work? With a normal joystick (other than the 5200 & CoCo) the springs return to center when I release. Will the touchpad read center when I'm not touching? Will I be able to rest my thumb on the edge of the touchpad and not send a buttonpress like I can with an actual button? Of all of the announcements, this is the most innovative. But only time will tell whether the Steam OS+Machine+Controller becomes a worthy competitor or a historical footnote.

Uh no. That's 3000 titles which can be streamed and "hundreds" of native titles.

Well that is a whole lot of nothing. Apply to be one of 300 beta testers of a prototype Steam Box. But no actual specs, just that multiple partners will be offering Steam Machines. What do you bet that O+O is something regarding the already announced streaming or family options? Or maybe it's a Chromecast style adapter for streaming. I guess we find out on Friday.

The system requirements of Dota2 are similar to HL on Linux, so are probably indicative of what a Steam Box would require. Thus it's probably competing with the XboxOne, PS4 and PC instead of the $100 micro consoles. This means it won't be an impulse buy and will need a wide selection of titles, published and promised, and in particular exclusive titles to effectively compete with the incumbents.

While this may be what Gabe is trying to do, I just see the downsides to that plan. First, one of the major advantages of traditional consoles has always been uniformity: every one of the 78 million Xbox 360s are identical. So from a development perspective, unless the game requires a specific controller, you have 78 million potential customers and every one of them will have an identical experience. But for Android, Windows, Linux, and (to a lesser extent) IOS and OSX, this isn't the case. So does the developer go with lower requirements to increase the potential market or do the Crysis and only support the bleeding edge? Yes, suites like Unity help to smooth out the differences, but there's still a big advantage. Second, the current system requirements for Steam games on Linux is quite high which will push the system cost up. On Linux, Half Life requires a dual core 2.8 GHz CPU and a decent graphics card (while on Windows it will make due with a 500MHz processor and integrated graphics). A Steam Box won't be able to compete with the $100 OUYA and Vita TV. Plus, other companies won't be able to price a Steam Box as a loss-leader. This is assuming Valve hasn't found a way to run Steam games on the Raspberry Pi...

I'm hoping the next two announcements answer some of the basic questions I have. As a potential customer I need to know the following: 1. What (exclusive) games will it play? 2. How much will the hardware cost? 3. How much will the games cost? Quite frankly there's a serious glut in the future for game playing hardware and I don't have the same glut of time or money to invest in all of them. So if Gabe wants me to "buy into" his vision of a Steam OS future, he's got to do better than all of the other choices - including none of the above where I sit back and buy games for the hardware I do have. Note: I have a Steam account, from when I bought Half Life 1: Anthology, but I don't think I've bought anything using Steam. (Although I did link my PS3 Orange Box purchase.) Addendum: I read the SteamOS announcement and I think, "big whoop". So it's based on Linux - so's Android and my Kobo. It can stream from my PC/Mac to the TV - or I can plug my PC/Mac into my TV and not have any compression or lag. It handles online media services - so does my PS3, WiiU, and even my Smart TV.

Although some items are available below MSRP on the first day, that's not always the case. (And even when it is, the difference is often trivial.) I have to confess I did pre-order the Legend of Zelda Limited Edition Wii U. But I was planning on buying a Wii U anyway . . . (OTOH, by waiting I did get the price drop.)

Thanks for the link cimerians. The PS4 streaming sounds a little better than I would have guessed. It's too bad Sony didn't put more effort into up-res'ing PSP & PSOne games. Maybe V2...

Why not play GTA1 & 2 (PC) for free? http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

I understand the value of preordering - but that assumes there's a value of obtaining something today instead of waiting when the cost may be less and that doing so doesn't impact the enjoyment. What I find amazing is 13 million people decided they couldn't wait to start playing.

As has been splashed all over the news, GTA5 sold $800M in the first 24 hours, the most of any game and far more than any movie. I'm sure than most of the approximately 13 million copies were pre-orders, so it remains to be seen how many more sales will happen over the next month (or however long the advertising blitz continues). But in any case I'm sure Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive are celebrating. What amazes me is with just the first day sales, GTA5 is already near the top of the best selling games list for the PS3 and XBox 360. (Although the exact break between the two has not been given and Wikipedia incorrectly lists it as 13 million copies for the Xbox 360 alone.) This also means one copy of GTA5 was bought for every twelve PS3 & Xbox 360 consoles ever sold! OTOH, I have to wonder why "everyone" decided to pre-order it or buy it on the first day. I'm sure there will be a huge glut of used copies available before Christmas after people complete the single-player game. I'm sure some multiplayer "crews" pre-ordered the game so they could train-up rather than getting pwn'd later by other early entrants.

Thinking more about the Vita TV I think the biggest problem is going to be if Sony doesn't scale the PSP/Vita games to the HDTV panel resolution (720p, 1080i and 1080p). If it tops out at 1080i then a 1080p display is going to look worse than a native 720p display. And while Remote View may be cool for some, I don't know whether the PS4 is going to be sending a full 1080p signal or a quarter (960x540) which matches the Vita's resolution. There's also the naming. While Vita TV is good because it reflects the ability to play (some) Vita games, it may have been better to give it a different brand, like Playstation Mini, so games could be clearly marked as "Vita & PS Mini compatible".

Hmm... use the Wii U GamePad for the bottom touch screen & controls and have the Wii U show the top screen on the HDTV. It would work for some games, but others wouldn't. Fer instance Dream Team has you turn the 3DS sideways for some of the boss fights. Other games use both screens to show double-height graphics.

The Vita TV is a strange duck - almost like an escaped skunkworks project. Some Sony engineers took a Vita and stripped out the controller and display and hooked up a DS3 and a TV thenhad a blast playing PSP games on the bigscreen. It's biggest problem is compatibility with Vita games which use the touchscreen etc. features which don't exist with the DS3 controller. The DS4 controller might provide some additional compatibility, but requiring one might require waiting for the PS4 release - which has been pushed back to to February in Japan. So maybe the Vita TV is Sony's Japanese Christmas present instead of the PS4. IMHO it's biggest advantage is price. $100 (really 10K yen) makes it an impulse buy for many. (Although that price doesn't include the DS3 or memory cards.) However, I suspect a lot of reviews will be "The Vita TV is <negative aspect>, but it's only $100". However, it's possible Sony will listen to these reviews and release an improved version to address some of the complaints. And because others have, I'll mention the OUYA - another $100 console. The big advantage the Vita TV has over the OUYA is the existing software library. But the OUYA is more "open" so will probably appeal more to Indie developers and those already developing for the Android platform. The OUYA will also likely be more favorable to micropayment (aka free-to-play) and advertising supported games. But the Vita TV will appeal more to developers and content providers who want a locked-down platform.

Source: PS Vita TV

I suspect iControllers will have the same problem as almost all add-ons - not everyone has one so game creators avoid requiring them. So I don't think iControllers will have much of an impact on handhelds beyond the damage they are already doing. Pokemon X/Y will be a good indication of a how well a "killer app" can do.

Sega made the jump to software (although they still make arcade machines) after 4 years of losses. Nintendo is still profitable so is unlikely to change in the near future. However, the 3DS and Wii U aren't anywhere near as successful as their predecessors (although Pokemon is finally coming to the 3DS which should boost sales). Plus the continued pressure from the Xbox/PS/PC on the console space and iOS/Android on the handheld space means Nintendo doesn't have a guaranteed winner for the future. Unfortunately, the pressure of "free-to-play" and lower price digital downloads means Nintendo can't assume they could release Mario/Zelda etc on another platform at their current price point (not to mention the piracy problems some of those platforms have). So might Nintendo go the way of Sega? They could, but I'm not certain they would be any better for it. I think there's a market for a "family friendly" console & handheld, but each year it becomes more difficult to stand out from the competition and the number of competitors is far greater today than in the past.

http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/new/ I guess Nintendo realized that most people play 3DS games with the 3D turned off, so they could sell a cheaper system without the 3D screen. My son has a 3DS XL (currently playing through Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) and I admit we generally play with the 3D off. I'll turn it on and IMHO it does add to the games. But in most cases the "wow" doesn't offset the annoyance of having to keep everything steady and I'll turn it off again. However, I wonder if there are any games which will be impossible to play on the 2DS because they require 3D. The commenters on http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/no-joke-new-nintendo-2ds-plays-your-3ds-games-in-2d/ don't like the hingeless form factor. One even pointed out the different control positions (including start & select) may cause problems with some games. Also in the Nintendo news, Nintendo is getting rid of the Basic Wii U and dropping the price of the Deluxe Wii U http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/nintendo-lowering-price-of-32gb-deluxe-wii-u-to-299-on-september-20/ and has announced a Zelda Limited Edition which I guess I'll be getting.

I hope you're buying them because you're a completist collector, not because you expect they will be any fun to play...

The quickstart has the buttons & LEDs for simple I/O. You can also use the same USB connection for serial I/O so you can have text I/O to the Parallax Terminal software. Then there's the header which provides direct access to all of the pins on the Propeller. This is where you will be connecting the Propeller to the Microvision LCD controller. But before you do that, you need to learn to read Dan B's schematics, then spend some time probing the Microvision LCD controller with your mulitmeter to determine the input & output voltage levels. Your objective is to determine whether it will be easy / safe to connect the Propeller directly to the LCD controller or if you will need additional parts. (The Propeller has 3.3V inputs & outputs - connecting the Propeller to 9V will fry the pin.).

SW:KotOR is a decent adventure game (I played & finished the PC version). Unfortunately, to unlock some of the best stuff you have to play through multiple times in a very purposed fashion.

In summary, the demo is better than the game. Many moons ago I downloaded the free demo for my PS3. I played through that demo numerous times, searching for secrets, discovering combos, and finding new ways to wipe out hapless stormtroopers and rebel scum in efforts to achieve the frenzy bonus. So when I saw a kid selling it at a garage sale, I scooped it up (along with Prince of Persia). Now that I'm playing the actual game, I'm pining for the demo. The one thing which is keeping me playing is the story. I want to find out what happens to Starkiller and whether he decides to be more than Vader's puppet. But there are many other things I dislike about the game. The first thing I dislike is in the demo you have access to most / all of the force powers & combos while in the game you only gain them as you advance through the story. So while the demo is basically the first half of the second level of the game, while you're playing the level in the game you can't do cool things like throw your lightsaber or fry someone with lightning. The second thing I dislike is after you gain those force powers some enemies gain immunities to them. So some stormtroopers can't be picked up using the force while others shrug off lightning attacks. So rather than having fun creatively killing them with combos, I find myself wading into the melee swinging my lightsaber 'cause that seems to always work (so far). The third thing I dislike is the game likes to try to overwhelm you with large numbers of lesser enemies, even when you're faced with a minor or major boss. So while you're trying to eliminate one opponent, there are others taking you down (often from long range). And because they are immune to force grip, I can't even throw them into each other. (Not that it's easy to aim those throws.) Starkiller is fearsome at short and medium ranges, but long range needs throwable objects. And the level design often means there aren't any objects you can throw either. (The grab also really needs a "next object" mechanic.) Plus I'm playing this game at only the second difficulty level - I'd hate to play it any higher. Finally, there are the typical complaints with this type of game, i.e. "what do I need to do to open this door?", "how do I defeat this boss?", "#%@ third person camera". Oh, one quirk I found. In the game you can find crystals for your lightsaber (to simply change color, or add powers) and costumes to wear. But when the game goes into a pre-rendered scene you're shown with the default costume and lightsaber color!

The same "problem" happens in the fine art world: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/04/03/judge-eggleston-dispute-collector Collector buys 1980s "limited edition" (1 of 20) 11.75" x 17.38" print of famous photograph for $250,000. In 2012 photographer uses digital technology to make 44" x 60" version which sold at auction for $578,500. Collector sues photographer because he believes the photographer has diluted the value of his print. Ahh, the investment collector discovers he is the greatest fool. IANAL, but if the 1980s limited edition description specified the photograph would never be reproduced again or similar language then the collector might have a claim. In this case the judge rules in favor of the photographer because the 2012 version used a different printing process.

The 3DS and 3DS XL are the current models, the DS/DSi are the older models (although they are still making the DSi according to Wikipedia).

I'm betting the answer is 'cause Nintendo didn't want publishers to continue releasing games for the DS instead of the 3DS.