Will you be getting Valve’s Steam Link?
Valve’s Steam Link is out today. Retailing at $49.99, the device is surely less expensive than the PS4 or the Xbox One. But will it deliver?
Don’t be mistaken: Steam Link in itself is not a gaming device. It is just a streaming platform that connect to your actual gaming machine (an expensive PC) and streams the video directly to your TV, while sending back your local input (keyboard + mouse, or gamepad) to your gaming rig.
This means you get the power of your gaming PC directly to your living room, at minimal cost, assuming you already have the gaming PC.
The number one question with that kind of setup is the ping, or the lag between your input and the visual feedback. There’s bound to have some lag in such a setup, but early reviews say that the experience is good, as long as you use a LAN cable (not Wifi). Gamespresso have only good things to say in that matter: “the latency is almost nonexistent.[…] Think of Steam Link as an Apple Airplay, just stable and well-functioning”. IGN rate the device 7.5/10, and say this is the “most elegant way to get your PC games onto your TV”.
Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers are apparently supported, so if you really want to play with gamepads you don’t necessarily have to buy the steam controllers. I’d personally would like to see how many games are actually playing ok with the gamepads.
From your TV, you can basically control all of the options of the Steam platform, including purchasing games and downloading them. Some reviewers regret that there are no streaming services for video, however the Steam Link basically lets you mirror and control your PC entirely, meaning you can basically start your media player of choice from the TV, and watch movies or listen to music.
Reviewers on Yahoo lifestyle noted that for $49.99, you can’t really go wrong with Steam Link if you have a gaming PC and are looking for ways to connect it to your TV.
What do you think? Is Steam Link going to take over the living room, making our PS4/Xbox1/WiiU obsolete? Or is it going to be some sort of failure just like Sony’s PS TV? Are you interested in the product at all?
At the time of this writing, the product can be back-ordered on Amazon (temporarily out of stock but ships as soon as available)
Hate it
“Is Steam Link going to take over the living room, making our PS4/Xbox1/WiiU obsolete?”
These kind of sentences bother me when there’s such an obvious separation of goals here. The Steam Link is for PC gamers to stream their already-existing PC catalog onto a TV. Dedicated gaming consoles are intended to provide a platform for which games can be made on, and brought to the TV. They serve different purposes and are more complementary than they are competitive. The only people who would really see it as direct competition are those who simply cannot afford gaming in more than one form. (And in that being the case, Steam Link is not a gaming changer; it’s simply an extension of PC gaming.)
Well, i dont own a TV, so what do you think 😛
It might be a good choice for someone who doesnt have a console. The general concensus seems that stability is unreliable, so avoid games like super meat boy.
Requiring a lan connection is not possible for a huge number of potential users.
Well i dont own a TV so what do you think
No i wont be buying it, curious what mod deleted my last post of the same thing >.>
Wait… a mod deleted your last post? But… I can see it just two above.
He was probably mistaken as there is an approval period.
This or take my gaming laptop to the TV and hook it up with a HDMI cable.
I think this is only for people who have their big PC rig in a different room.
Same for me, i have a beast of a laptop.
I feel like this is a waste of money, if i wanted to play on the tv screen i will just bring my rig to the living room, and connect it to the tv via hdmi. simpliest solution, cost? 0
Attempt number 3
I dont own a TV, so no i wont be buying one
Waiting for attempt 4 Taiga.
Yo chill, sometimes the comments take a little while to appear. That’s why sometimes on a popular new article, there will be 5 or 6 people claiming to be 1st
Attempt #69…….. ah ****it.
… buy the steam link, or get a longer hdmi cord.
The money you save with the hdmi cord can be used to get a bluetooth adapter or an Xbox adapter. Then you have greater support for a cheaper setup.
Considering you can just plug your Gaming Rig PC to your TV with a HDMI or DVI cable – spending 50$ for a device like this is simply stupid. People compain about TV’s having input lag too big for PC gameplay – what will the lag be if you use a TV AND network (either LAN or WiFi) together ? Ridiculus.
There is no such thing as a “gaming laptop.”
And yet, I have one, play games on it (most on ultra settings), and over power some desktops… But yet, you say there isn’t…
Funny how your wrong, isn’t it?
However the naivety is some what cute, in a childish way…
Oh ye of little mind. You are but flawed in your thinking!
On to the subject of the blog post: Why would I get this, if I have an nVidia SHIELD Android TV already there, with LAN cable, and no noticeable only lag whatsoever, why do I need this? Yeah… trash.
Gaming laptops are foolish because despite their astronomic cost, they never run as well as a dedicated real PC.
I’ve never been impressed with a laptop’s performance. Even if it matches my rig, it will have cost 4000+ and I paid less than 20% of that.
That’s money you should be putting into a car/house/getting your teeth fixed.
Obviously because you have too much money and dont know how to spend it.
“Oh, hey. Some stranger thinks differently than I. What a blasphemy! He must be an idiot.”
If its anything like PSNow, Vita Remote Play or Xbox One streaming on PC….it’s gonna SUCK….LAG LAG LAG
Well this is complete garbage. post something bout the new blue vita released in us!
It’s going to be blue
I don’t think Steam Link should be compared to the price of a console Wololo ^^; in fact I’m not sure why they even bothered to make this to be quite honest.. Most TVs and Computers come already HDMI and other sources readily available. I know it is to be advertised as a couch experience, but then you would have to purchase a controller, and if you already have a controller you could have easily just connected it to a PC and played from the couch!
Valve making money off of stupid people/stupid reasons never fails though, so I mean.. Good for them!
Waste of money because PC has no worthwhile games, unless you enjoy masochistic F2P games or those boring MOBA/MMO stuff. In which case streaming those titles is either a waste of time or unplayable due to lag.
Using my PC GPU as an example: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB. Has 2 DVI, 1 HDMI(Not Working for some reason) and 1 Display-Port. Simply use DVI as PC Monitor, and use DP->HDMI Adapter with 35Ft HDMI Cable to HDTV and have it be as an Extended Monitor. Simple, easy, and less of a hassle.
Let me see. $50 for this or a $.99 cent hdmi cable (1.3) I can get off eBay… Decisions, decisions… Not.