igoka

March 06, 2012 at 2:07am

I don't know what to think . Everybody knows Valve works on Steam client for Linux. Maybe there will be some kind of " Steam Distro " ? Maybe this maybe that , who knows. I know one thing for sure Valve has history of making some pleasant surprises and it's full of geniuses . If their are making some product it's usually top notch. Gabe is not an idiot. So let's just wait and see.

Wingzero_x

March 05, 2012 at 10:51pm

I have had some form of Steam box since around 2004ish. It had an AMD Athlon 2800+, and ATI Radeon 9800AIW. Currently my Steam box has an Intel i7 875K, and a Radeon 5870HD.

This should tell you that I really don't see a market for it. Given the specs, that look to be quite expensive. I can't see the XBOX /PS3/ Nintendo crowd going for it, and as illustrated above the PC gamers already have their Steam boxes.

Also given the history; who remembers the ironically named Phantom box?

So really other than licensed cases, keyboards and mice or perhaps a boutique PC built on the theme ala Alienware. I can't believe this is anything more than vaporware. Which coincidentally is exactly what steam is.

fung0

March 05, 2012 at 10:19pm

By off-handedly criticizing the 3DO, you only show how deeply you've bought into the propaganda from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. And how far you've strayed from your own editorial mandate.

In fact, the 3DO was a decent platform. More importantly, it was the last hope for the console world to escape its current frozen logjam of proprietary silos. The failure of the 3DO probably set gaming back a good 20 years. Imagine a desktop world tightly controlled by Mac OS, with no Microsoft or GNU/Linux. Or a smartphone world with no Android. Ugh.

Sure, the open alternative tends to have a few more rough edges than the proprietary padded cell. But it ALWAYS represents the maximum potential for innovation. This is something I really should not have to point out to a publication styling itself 'MaximumPC.'

If (gods grant) there is a Steam Box, will you be any wiser? Will you throw your weight behind openness and innovation? Or will you snidely nit-pick it to death?

kixofmyg0t

March 05, 2012 at 6:55pm

Core i7?

Will. Not. Buy. It. EVER.

yammerpickle2

March 05, 2012 at 6:09pm

I hope it is true, and I hope it is a commercial success. It removes the excuses from companies for not focusing on PC gaming.
PC’s are too diverse and hard to develop for.
Well here is a new basic minimum system requirement to shoot for. For those of us with bigger budgets and willing to build our own that means we will have PC games, and hopefully can up the setting to get more eye candy and FPS, but at least the game will be based on minimum PC hardware spec.
Software developers complain about piracy.
Steams DRM is not perfect, but is still a nice standard that offers a certain amount of piracy protection.
Software developers complain about cost.
Steam is a great way to go direct digital distribution cutting down on cost.
Console gamers complain about cost of PCs.
Well standardizing system requirements will allow for a certain economies of scale and lower prices for PC based Steambox.

Since they have USB and it is to be an open standard it sound like it would be able to use normal mouse, and keyboard. Giving it HTC capability would be easy. With PC it might even be able to be upgraded in a simple and easy way, instead of the very lengthy upgrade cycle of consoles where the whole system is scrapped.

RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS

March 05, 2012 at 5:08pm

Look at what Microsoft put into the XBox and sold for $350. This is possible: a console that is really a PC dedicated to gaming.

I wouldn't look at it unless it allowed for mouse and keyboard input. I'm not playing a shooter with a damn kiddie console controller and aim-assist.

The Corrupted One

March 05, 2012 at 5:07pm

Now, Valve might take the Amazon Kindle route and take a loss at each sale and rely on content for profit.

davidtuerk

March 05, 2012 at 4:57pm

This will be interesting to follow... But with a core I7 and 8 GB of ram the thing is going to be upwards of $1,500. Would be cool. But in today's economy it does not seem possible.

Much rather see HL3 ;D

dc10ten

March 05, 2012 at 3:40pm

the only thing i'm left wondering if steam plans on running through windows, or if steambox will work as an OS kinda like chrome.

THAT could be interesting... an OS solely dedicated to gaming, (as that's more or less what consoles have).

Obsidian

March 05, 2012 at 2:09pm

This will be a hard market for Valve to get into. To push any of the newest games at above playable framerates at HDTV resolutions 1920x1080 isn't a challenge with even the middle-line of current processing power and video technology. The bottom end of hardware needed might be a reasonable price for a basic set-top-box form factor Steam box.

Valve should take gaming to a NEW level and develop a dedicated 3-monitor (or multi-monitor) rig that can deliver Steam games in surround mode with up to WHUXGA 7680×4800 resolution. This would deliver something that we can't get right now due to drivers/game-engine/graphics technology only sparsely supporting multiple display devices.

If Valve does move into the hardware game it may allow two or more players on one rig. Maybe traditionally on one display in split screen; but how cool would it be to be able to do it on two displays? With PC graphics card tech this could be possible. To really compete with the social nature of consoles two or more players on one system would be a good step (this might be hinted at in the article for a reason they are building their own usb/interface devices).

Questions before any of this conjecture is useful:

• Baseline Unit Price?
• Different Trim Levels?
• Controller Price and Input Device Choices?
• What OS, can/could Windows be ditched?
• GoogleTV failed, can you pull off something like this?

 

Typo91

March 05, 2012 at 2:03pm

yea AMD APU, cheap mobo, 8gb of ram, cheap harddrive, case w/ powersupply combo, cheap keyboard/mouse combo, HDMI cable. like around 300 bucks and your done. Play 99% of the games on steam at 60fps.

praack

March 05, 2012 at 1:48pm

actually about anything will play a game from steam -just what game?
so it is about branding the name not really :building: the box.

a push in line with current gaming GD's with various steam colors come quickly to mind

if they stay with one company it will likely fail. if they go with more than one - then it will promote- have the software already loaded and be found useful

Trooper_One

March 05, 2012 at 1:24pm

Assuming the hardware is equally 'good' b/w a SteamBox vs PC, then I choose the following:

1) If the SteamBox can do Steam games and other functions (eg. full Web, other non-steam title games, office, and other applications) at the same price or better than a PC, then "YES"; (hey, you get a nice, slick case with a Steam stick on it too)

2) If it's #2 and it allows switchable components, then it's a definate "YES" and bye bye PC 4ever.

3) If the SteamBox can only do Steam games and has no other functionality, then "NO";

someuid

March 05, 2012 at 1:20pm

I'm a big proponent of Steam. The DRM doesn't get in my way, I get access to games quickly without having to visit stores in the hopes they have copies, I get access to lots of indie software and I can move my entire game library to a new computer quickly and easily rather than having to download again or install from media.

Despite my support of them, I don't like this idea at all because it is controller based. This will give game companies even more reason to do such crappy console-to-pc ports. It will also give them reason to code a game for a narrow band of specs and not cater to anyone with slightly lower/higher specs.

We'll see more games coded to support 60fps regardless of detail, and expect the player to use a controller rather than a keyboard/mouose.

I hope Steam has some sort of program in place to ensure game companies do not slouch by coding for an ever smaller, more narrow set of hardware specs.

I can see problems with Steam introducing a design spec called, say, Level 1. Games are written to run on it just fine. Steam then releases a new level of specs to take advantage of hardware advances and call it Level 2. Then the game companies, wanting to keep sales at maximum, still code their new games for a Level 1 box while leaving the extra processing power of a Level 2 box unused. Players won't have reason to buy a Level 2 box and hence programmers won't have reason to write for a Level 2 box. We'll end up in classic console hell. Everyone stuck on old hardware.

Something has to be done to ensure that when a higher spec box is released, game companies are proded along to take advantage of it and players are prodded along to buy the better box. If not, it will really destroy PC gaming as we know it.

zaternine

March 05, 2012 at 1:19pm

This box is perfect only for those who buy their computers from your local electronics store and would like access to pc titles. Is it for me? No not at all. I have my main PC for FPS type games and then I have another rig hooked up to the big screen for games such as Limbo, Shank and NFS. I made the mistake of buying the Alienware MP3 player and boombox/dock when it came out, I wont do that again. Lets hope Steam does it right and makes a great product that can help the gaming developers to come out with better games.

firefox91

March 05, 2012 at 1:10pm

I think this is a brilliant idea. This could go a long way to really bringing PC gaming back the top. Console players like consoles because they are simple to setup and operate. If you give them the power of a PC with the simplicity of a console, it could be a console killer. Ideas like this just make me love Steam even more than I already do.

TommM

March 05, 2012 at 12:58pm

I think it's a great idea. Depending on the guts you would have a better visual experience than today's stand-alones, access to PC-only DLC and mods, and of course the full Steam catalog which is huge.

My only concern is would it be upgradeable so you wouldn't have to buy a new box ever 4-5 years like a regular console. Be nice if you could just slap in a new video card, RAM, etc.

Be interesting to see what they come up with.

gmvolk

March 05, 2012 at 12:35pm

That could be interesting. I wonder what kind of OS they would be running on it? Until firmer hardware specs were out, hard to say how much it would be worth, I probably would not pay much more than current console prices for one.

Captain_Steve

March 05, 2012 at 12:27pm

Actaully; my gaming rig is a Steam box. It serves the single purpose of playing games. Everything else I do on this machine.

Not really getting the whole purpose of the Steam Box to be perfectly honest. Is it for people who play consoles because they're too stupid to work Steam on computers? Really trying to wrap my head around this in a way that makes it make sense for a purpose that isn't stupid.

zepontiff

March 05, 2012 at 12:21pm

I'm building a steam box right now. Its called a Llano based HTPC.