Pre-installed games

[Chin-Li]

Will steam machine come with our games pre-installed?

[blackout24]

How do you think that would be possible?

[Cooljerk]

At steam dev days, they said this would be possible and entirely dependent on the steam machine manufacturer.

[8BitCerberus]

I guess if you're ok giving your login credentials to whatever OEM is building your Steam Machine, some might offer that. Most likely only the shady ones who would gladly steal your credentials.

I would guess the legit OEMs would refuse to even let you give them your credentials, though, just to avoid the legal hassles that could come up should your ID ever get stolen.

Not entirely sure why you'd need pre-installed games, anyway... it doesn't take THAT long to install whatever game you know you immediately want to play when you get your Steam Machine, and have the rest of them downloading and installing in the background.

[Cooljerk]

the wouldn't need your login credentials. They can pre-install the game in steamOS and simply let the user activate their install on their account afterwards.

[Chin-Li]

Originally posted by blackout24:

How do you think that would be possible?

If valve says it will be possible then it will

[Scientist Dog]

I think is a very good idea for promoting the OEMs Steam Machines. instead of people building their own SM.

Valve could give OEMs all their own games for free (is free for them after all), and maybe the OEMs add some more (to differenciate from the rest).

And you don't need to give your credentials to anybody. The games can come pre-installed and they give you the keys on a card, so you can activate them when you received the machine after login with your account (with the option Add a Game -> Activate a product on Steam). And you can start playing as soon as you log-in, without need to wait for downloading anything.

[Chin-Li]

Originally posted by TheSonicRetard:

At steam dev days, they said this would be possible and entirely dependent on the steam machine manufacturer.

It would be cool cause it's painful to wait for like 2 or more hours for your game to download

[Scientist Dog]

Originally posted by Vibe's Son:

Originally posted by TheSonicRetard:

At steam dev days, they said this would be possible and entirely dependent on the steam machine manufacturer.

It would be cool cause it's painful to wait for like 2 or more hours for your game to download

Not everyone has a 50Mbit/s connection. In same places we/they still have 1Mbit/s connection as something expensive.

TF2 could take a week with its almost 20GB. And it's free, so it can be preload without any problem.

[Chin-Li]

Originally posted by Scientist Dog:

I think is a very good idea for promoting the OEMs Steam Machines. instead of people building their own SM.

Valve could give OEMs all their own games for free (is free for them after all), and maybe the OEMs add some more (to differenciate from the rest).

And you don't need to give your credentials to anybody. The games can come pre-installed and they give you the keys on a card, so you can activate them when you received the machine after login with your account (with the option Add a Game -> Activate a product on Steam). And you can start playing as soon as you log-in, without need to wait for downloading anything.

I meant the games in your library been pre-installed when you get your SM

[Scientist Dog]

Ah ok, I understood you.

The problem with your idea is it only would be useful if you order beforehand (like Dell website). It cannot be practical if you buy it on a retail store.

P.S.: My idea is like a bundle of games pre-installed (with keys) that could come with each Steam Machine. It would be a kind of promotion for buying a OEM SM instead of building one yourself.

[Cooljerk]

ah, as for your revised question, Vibe's Son, about preloading our existing libraries? I wouldn't say that's impossible, but I would say it sounds unlikely for a variety of factors. I'm kinda posting during work, so forgive me if I'm not being verbose, but if you're curious, I could lay out some reasons why I wouldn't expect that to be an option going forward. It's all pure speculation on my part, though, as nobody asked any questions like this at SDD save for the question about bundled games.

[Chin-Li]

Originally posted by Scientist Dog:

Ah ok, I understood you.

The problem with your idea is it only would be useful if you order beforehand (like Dell website). It cannot be practical if you buy it on a retail store.

P.S.: My idea is like a bundle of games pre-installed (with keys) that could come with each Steam Machine. It would be a kind of promotion for buying a OEM SM instead of building one yourself.

I don't think SM will be availabe on retail stores

[Cooljerk]

Originally posted by Vibe's Son:

Originally posted by Scientist Dog:

Ah ok, I understood you.

The problem with your idea is it only would be useful if you order beforehand (like Dell website). It cannot be practical if you buy it on a retail store.

P.S.: My idea is like a bundle of games pre-installed (with keys) that could come with each Steam Machine. It would be a kind of promotion for buying a OEM SM instead of building one yourself.

I don't think SM will be availabe on retail stores

The intent is indeed to sell these machines in retail stores. Definitely not all the boxes, but at least some of them, like the gigabyte brix pro and the alienware steam machine.

[blackout24]

Easiest explanation why this is highly unlikely is because it would raise the costs of production when every Steam Machine has to be customized with each persons personal Steam library.

[8BitCerberus]

Originally posted by TheSonicRetard:

the wouldn't need your login credentials. They can pre-install the game in steamOS and simply let the user activate their install on their account afterwards.

Does Valve have a way to install games without purchasing them? I wasn't aware that this was possible.

Originally posted by Scientist Dog:

My idea is like a bundle of games pre-installed (with keys) that could come with each Steam Machine. It would be a kind of promotion for buying a OEM SM instead of building one yourself.

This sounds like a great promotional idea, to me. It'd be like the occasional offers you can get when buying a new GPU, get a game free. OEMs and developers/publishers can work directly together to provide these games, or they could work with the Humble guys and offer the current Humble Bundle or Humble Weekly sale with the purchase of an OEM Steam Machine, and say $25+ of the SM price goes to that Humble sale.