Gamer's Source: 1-7-14

Another day, another dollar...for someone at least. Welcome to Gamer's Source, a daily news segment with the top five news stories in gaming today. As always, there are opinions and speculation, so feel free to share your own in the comments. Without further ado...



NUMBER One!

At CES last night, Valve announced 13 different types of Steam Machines. Each is being made by a different PC manufacturers, including Alienware and CyberPowerPC and ranges in price from $499 to all the way up to $6000. The company also offered some hands on time with the new controller that will ship with the gaming devices. 

Valve announced these machines a while back, but it's still rather confusing as to who they are targeting with these devices. The typical PC gamer either buys a fancy rig or makes their own, and typically avoid controllers like the plague AND can hook up a PC to their TV. Anyone who wants to get involved with PC from scratch will not drop this kind of money to invest into a system they can play in their living room when PS4 and Xbox One are cheaper and far more accessible. Valve is a strong company with crazy ideas that typically work out for them, so only time will tell.

NUMBER Two!

Today at CES Sony announced it's brand new streaming service, PlayStation Now. The service is built off the Gaikai infrastructure (which Sony obtained through it's purchase of the streaming service in 2012) and will allow users to stream PSOne, PS2 and PS3 games on Sony's PS4 and PS Vita systems. Surprisingly, this service will also be available on smart phones, tablets and smart TV's. A beta for the service will launch next month with the service rolling out sometime this summer.

This is great in so many ways. Sony is not only adding to the benefits of owning it's platforms, but also future proofing itself for the future by introducing it's expansive game library to non-Sony platforms. There are still questions of course. Though eventually a large catalog will roll out, for the time being a small roster will be released, but has yet to be determined. PlayStation Now will be a subscription service, but just how much it will cost and whether or not it will be rolled into the companies current subscription service PlayStation Plus is still yet to be determined. Exciting nonetheless.

Number THREE!

Sony also announced today that the company has sold over 4.2 million PS4's by the end of 2013. On top of that, over 9.7 million PS4 games have been sold to players both digitally and at retail.

Numbers are numbers, and this is just another tinkle in the pissing contest between Microsoft and Sony.

Number FOUR!

Sony Entertainment Online chief John Smedley spoke to Reddit today about the company considering wrapping all of it's subscription fees for it's online games into one monthly fee of $14.99. Though there is no confirmation yet, this would allow players to play it's games under one fee, allowing for more players to play across all SOE online games.

This could be a great step for Sony. Online fee for MMO's pay for servers and maintenance, but the fee type is also slightly archaic. It's nice to see Sony taking steps to future proof itself and also help it's consumers with new business models that will keep them coming back for more.

NUMBER FIVE!

Humble Indie Bundle X has been announced today. The bundle will include Papo & Yo, Runner 2 and Joe Danger 2: The Movie. As usual, users pay what they want and receive the bundle of games, but pay more and receive some extra games to along with them. The bundle will last for the next 13 days.

These bundles are always a great deal and help not only give money to the developers, but also to different charities. GO BUY SOME GAMES!!!!

As always, comment below and keep the conversation going...