Valve's Big Reveal This Week: SteamOS, Steam Machines and Gamepad

This week Valve dropped of trio of big reveals. We’ll break it down and tell you what it's going to mean for your gaming future.

First off is the SteamOS a completely free operating system specifically designed to work on small living room computers on your TV. You can play thousand of games from Steam with it's OS or if a game can only be played on MAC or PC you can stream the game to you SteamOS machine and play away.

Next is the Steam Machines. Killing off the long-hyped "Steam Box" name Valve says that they are not making a Steam Machine but lots of manufactures are. Steam Machines will be available in a variety of different price and power ranges depending on your gaming needs but all with natively run SteamOS.

Lastly Valve whipped out this crazy new gamepad. The Steam Controller has no thumbsticks but two high-resolution clickable thumbpads that raise the bar in accuracy in games. It also features dynamic feedback and touch screen you'll never have to look at since when activated it projects an overly onto your screen.

It's hard not to get excited about a micro-console that might actually live up to it's hype and using a service that many PC and MAC gamers already have. We can't wait to get our hands on a Steam Machine and see if it’s worth the hype.

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SteamOS is Linux based open operating system that anyone can change and help make better. Valve hopes to use the collective knowledge of its users to make a stable and inclusive platform for their Steam delivery service.

Steam has long held that Linux will be the future of gaming since its non-proprietary so any company can develop software and hardware that works for the operating system that is free of charge.

Because SteamOS will be open, any hardware developer, for instance, micro-consoles or small gaming computers, can now be intergraded into our living rooms much faster because developers can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.

After two years of waiting and endless speculation about Valve’s "Steam Box" project, it has announced the release of Steam Machines. These are small personal computers running Valve’s SteamOS operating system is designed to function directly with your television.

Valve will be shipping out 300 Steam Machines by different manufactures later this year in a hardware beta test to a very lucky few that make it. See details for entry into the Steam Machine Beta here.

The Steam Machines themselves will be produced by several different manufactures with different speeds and specifications. Valve stated, "beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from.” Besides picking up one of these retail versions, tech savvy consumers can build there own machines and install Valve's free Linux-based SteamOS operating system.

Valve also announced its new Steam Controller. Valve said that it had been developing a new type of input device for the Steam Machines for some time now. What resulted is a high resolution, high fidelity touch controller.

The dual trackpad interface used by the player’s thumbs is clickable and almost as high-resolution as a desktop PC’s mouse.

The Steam Controller's haptic feedback is not a traditional rumble system but a new weighted electro-magnet attached to each of the trackpads that can not only change in frequency but direction of movement as well.

The controller also features a touch screen that can be used to navigate all games in steam but also can be clicked like a giant button. Gamers won't have to look at the controller screen to see where their touching as when the pad is activated an overlay will appear on the screen the main screen.

In-home streaming will allow users to stream Windows and Mac games from their other computers onto a Steam Mahines. Users just run Steam on their existing computer and then your SteamOS machine can freely stream those games or media over your home network and onto your TV.

Hundreds of games are already running natively on SteamOS with announcements promised in the coming weeks promising AAA titles in 2014. Access the full Steam catalog of nearly 3000 games and desktop software titles all via in-home streaming.

SteamOS also offers free integration into the Steam Cloud featuring automatic saves and updates to everything. Using the cloud service users can switch from one computer to another, regardless of operating system or location and know that your presences and progress will all be saved.

This will come in handy as Family Sharing is in beta right now allowing users to share their entire library with those in your house or abroad. While only one user can only play a shared game at a time, individual game progress and preferences will be held in the Steam Cloud.

So as of this week Valve has officially unveiled it's plans to invade your living room and change the world of the console as we know it. Why would one of the best-loved software companies in the world take this huge leap? Valve sees it's flagship Steam not only as a delivery platform but coupled with the openness of SteamOS it's a console that, anyone, anywhere with an internet connection could build, program and use themselves and never have to buy a physical game or worry about rights because the Steam system has been tried and true to this point.

Lifting the lid of proprietary games and system exclusives Valve is offering a future of universally playable games that offer the same high-quality AAA titles that we see from Microsoft and Sony on their flagship systems.

Get in the beta now and grab your free Steam Machine.