Valve's Steam Box Is Real, But Let's Not Get Carried Away

So yup, Valve really is going to sell a "Steam Box." By now you've probably heard this news but I'm going to cover it anyway because it's a story that seems to get bigger with every retelling and I'm here to bring us back down to earth.

Back story: The Spike TV Video Game Awards happened over the weekend and Jason Schreir over at Kotaku got a chance to interview Valve's Gabe Newell. Newell talked about PC gaming in the living room and in the course of that conversation he casually mentioned that Valve was going to be creating a locked down box that runs Linux and Steam's Big Picture mode.

And that's really all we know. Newell is really interested in bringing the same games that we're playing on the PCs in our office onto our living room TVs. This is, of course, absolutely feasible today. I do it, lots of you do it. All it takes is a relatively modern PC with an HDMI port and you're done.

Newell said he "expects companies to start selling PC packages for living rooms next year." Well, Alienware already sells such a package and I'm sure other companies do as well. The only difference is that it doesn't come set up so that Steam's Big Picture mode starts on boot-up.

Newell says Valve is going to get into this space but that their "hardware will be a very controlled environment." My guess is that this means a closed system where you can only install software via a Steam client that works essentially as the face of the OS. He also implies this machine will be Linux based since he says their next step is to get Steam for Linux out of Beta and then to get Big Picture mode working there.

And that's about it. To sum up:
1) Newell thinks PC manufacturers will start selling packages designed for the living room in 2013, which is a safe bet since PC manufacturers are already doing this.
2) Valve will eventually produce a locked-down gaming machine for the living room and it will probably run Steam as an OS and be based on Linux

At this point Valve's idea sounds a little like the Ouya to me. Granted Valve has more pull but when Activision announces the Linux version of the next Call of Duty I'll start to believe. Until that time a Steam Box based on Linux is going to be limited mostly to Indie titles. That's not really a bad thing these days since all the interesting work is being done in the Indie space, but I just don't see the Steam Box really competing with the Xbox 720.

Do you?

Whats the point of this then?

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Look at the game industry as a democracy if you can.

Don't concern yourself with political parties or anything beyond what matters, votes.

In the eyes of the developer, a vote is cast when you purchase, rent, or enjoy their game.

In the eyes of a company, a vote is cast when devs create projects for your platform.

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are at crossroads as to what will win the most votes.

The Xbox has a solid platform that is easy for developers to create, but expensive to maintain.
The Playstation 3 is too complex for some devs altogether.
The Wii U lacks a cohesive environment, and specs scare away devs.

Valve knows what the developers want. Valve also knows what the consumers want.

The Steambox will be friendly to developers to create, more cost efficient for patches and updates, while offering the same robust social features found on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. There are already quality AAA games on Steam as many big name publishers have been on board.

In theory, Valve should win out and shut down the competition. But it won't. Why?

Similar to real world politics, some people will vote for people based on familiarity, tradition, or some other irrational logic. People will still buy Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo because they have big names and are popular for what they have done and not what they are doing.

So yeah, the Steambox has a great opportunity to fail, but if it succeeds in any marginal form then the next iterations will most certainly damage the big three.

The current iteration of Steam having AAA does not mean the Steam Box will. You are forgetting that they will run on two different OSes.

Where are all the diehard PC guys that were in the other thread? I thought they would have a strong opinion on this.

these pc guys ride hard for anything they feel will dethrone consoles

My point isn't about the games, but the people who make them. If they are down, then Steambox has a chance.

You look at all of the consoles that have failed or are faltering now. They lack support in due part of poor hardware, piracy, and lack of install base.

Valve is ran by great minds, and I believe you're short sighted in believing that the name of the game is all that matters. It's the people behind them. A new AAA game can be made from scratch for any platform.

I am in here with my pc hooked up to my hdtv



Pc >> !!ty consoles


Enjoy your 5 fps unplayable choppy ugly texture dump truck games


[pic]

I wonder why they're not in here then?

I'm sorry man, but you haven't answered a single question.

For the PC guys out there:

This console won't have upgradeable parts. Why would you want it?

You won't be able to mod games on this. Why would you want it?

You won't be able to run games on max settings. Why would you want it?

There won't to do things in game such as have 64 players in Battlefield. Why would you want it?

Why would you leave PC gaming behind for another limited console?

I'm sorry man, but you haven't answered a single question.

For the PC guys out there:

This console won't have upgradeable parts. Why would you want it?

You won't be able to mod games on this. Why would you want it?

You won't be able to run games on max settings. Why would you want it?

You won't be able to do things in game such as have 64 players in Battlefield. Why would you want it?

Why would you leave PC gaming behind for another limited console?

Probably due to the fact your article states nothing except that it might have Linux as its main OS.



Holy !! [pic] You got all that out of the main article [pic] I thought you said not to get carried away but people just straight up making !! up to prove their point [pic]

Dude, you're a !!ing idiot.

You're going to attempt to pigeonhole Steambox into a !!ty criteria to prove a point?

Have fun with that.

I've clearly did more research on the Steam Box than you. I've read several articles and they all say the same thing. The OS and hardware will be locked down. The one thing that differs is that some reports say that it may run a x86 version of Windows, but all reports say that the console will still be locked down. If you took a moment to read the article in my original post, Newell even says the console will be a controlled environment.

All you really need to do is Google "Steam Box" to see what I'm talking about. Why would I lie to you or anyone else on here just to prove a point? You aren't that important.