News - Valve rumoured to be working on 'Steam Box' console

[HEXUS]

Could a content delivery system and base hardware profile boost the gaming industry?

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[brasco]

It'd be a shame if one of the better PC devs goes fully AWOL :\
To be fair they've more than dipped their toes with the orange box, portal et al. Maybe they're holding off HL3 for a console exclusive?!

cheers
brasc

[cheesemp]

Well I guess it depends if its just a Windows PC with a badge and a spec thats good enough to run games for a few years (i.e. work with games developers to ensure they all work on that spec)? In which case it might work. Otherwise I can't see it making an impact as it'll cost to much to replace a 360/720 or PS3/4.

[edvinasm]

It would be great to shock Sony PS and MS XBox nexg gens. Every console owner and FPS player dreams of getting native KB/mouse support. That alone can shift the balance to Valve side. Never mind possible high price. Plus, all the accessories and Media Centre PC possibility? Full fledged now, unlike PS3 and XBox 360 with limited codexes etc.

[Arthran]

Well I guess it depends if its just a Windows PC with a badge and a spec thats good enough to run games for a few years (i.e. work with games developers to ensure they all work on that spec)? In which case it might work. Otherwise I can't see it making an impact as it'll cost to much to replace a 360/720 or PS3/4.

If its just a highstreet aimed games-box running windows 8 (maybe with a few custom tiles) it will be easy to get on with for average users (looks like xbox due to windows 8) and so easy to develop for. Would be a good plan imo

[Scribe]

From what we gather, it's not clear at this stage if the offering will be a 'console' or a 'platform' or a bit of both. It would be nice to be able to use the end result as a full-blown PC as opposed to something that's stripped down.

Offering both choices may be a good idea to help boost the PC industry whilst creating a clear market entry point and to attract gamers who aren't as PC tech savvy.

[crossy]

Maybe I'm being dumb today, but I'm not clear what the intention is here. Is it a competitor to PS4/Xbox720/WiiU or merely something akin to a "Certified for Steam" badge for various PC's?

If it's the "Certified for Steam", (or "Steam Experience Index"), then that'd be a good thing I think - as it might make life easier for developers to have defined platforms to target, and life for users easier since they might be able to gauge how well a particular purchase will work on their particular hardware.

On the other hand, if it's a full blown console then first off I don't see it doing well enough to be considered seriously; secondly what OS would it run; and thirdly I'd be a bit wary that this might divert valuable development resources from PC-based Steam.

[Kumagoro]

It would make more sense just to pay to have a certified sticker and come installed with steam like with norton etc.

[shaithis]

I just cannot see it taking off at all.

If they make titles "Valve Console Only", then they are going to lose way way way too much money from software licensing.

If they have it as a competitor to a Wintel platform, then it's going to have to be subsidised to tempt people in.

Either way, they lose money in the short term for a massive long-term gamble.......why don't they just stick to what they do best?

[Jedibeeftrix]

great idea, i however will continue to roll-my-own steam boxes for gaming.

i wouldn't even object if they specified it to highlight games-for-windows certified games, so they could guarentee good controller support.

you could of course buy and run any steam game, and anything else, but there would be a click-thru one-tick license.

[Noxvayl]

Taking into account Valve time I doubt this is going to become available any time soon, this is concept stage information as far as I can tell.

However Valve do take notice of their community so I doubt they'll release something that would upset them, like a console in the traditional Xbox/PS3 sense. Perhaps they think current consoles aren't good enough(quote below suggests that) and seek to do something worthwhile for console gamers that bridges the gap between computers and consoles; maybe they think a home entertainment system, that can play games and do everything a PC does, has a suitable niche for them to exploit; or they just find the restrictions of each individual platform is a hindrance to gamers and would prefer something more open that can do everything and have decided to research the possibilities of that sort of product.

It could be any one of those reasons, all of them together, none of them or some selection of them and others. Either way Valve are working on it and they won't release anything they wouldn't be happy using themselves, and so far everything they've done has surpassed my expectations. I eagerly await the results of this project.

I just cannot see it taking off at all.

If they make titles "Valve Console Only", then they are going to lose way way way too much money from software licensing.

If they have it as a competitor to a Wintel platform, then it's going to have to be subsidised to tempt people in.

Either way, they lose money in the short term for a massive long-term gamble.......why don't they just stick to what they do best?

I doubt they are concerned about making a small loss on researching the possibilities of such a system: Newell has clear questions about Apple's strategy, telling the The Seattle Times "On the platform side, it's sort of ominous that the world seems to be moving away from open platforms," adding that "They build a shiny sparkling thing that attracts users and then they control people's access to those things." - Taken from> http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/284...gaming-console

All we know is they are considering the possibility, it might never actually become a product we can use. I doubt the research done will go to waste anyway, they'll have gathered some useful data that will be able to inform other decisions.

[Ross1]

A standard PC with windows may be a tough sell, while a standalone platform presents a whole heap of problems ... directx being a major one I can think of. Would ms allow them to use it on their own platform given it would be directly competing against the next xbox console? If not then it might be hard to persuade many developers to make games for another new platform, Even if they do, is that even good news for the consumer, who may see games spread more thinly due to the extra platform.

[Noli]

They should make sure to have a few fixed hardware specs (a la Win Phone 7 or iphone) rather than leaving it open ended a la Android, which will leave console style buyers confused as to which games each specific box can run. Would also allow developers/reviewers to state that a particular game will run well on anything "Valve Box v3 or above" etc.

As I've stated before, you can get keyboard and mouse to work with xbox360 but take the point that not many people necessarily know this. I guess it would prompt even more support of gamepad control systems within PC games too.

Being able to support 1080p mkvs (unlike 360) and torrents etc right out the box would be awesome, but then that should be easy if it's just a dressed up PC like it sounds it would be.

[Jedibeeftrix]

trinity A10 65W

four cores at 3.4GHx + turbo
384 shaders at 760MHz
8GB of DDR3 1866

put it in a small console style box with windows 8 (metro interface) with steam integrated and you have a winner!

[Noxvayl]

A standard PC with windows may be a tough sell, while a standalone platform presents a whole heap of problems ... directx being a major one I can think of. Would ms allow them to use it on their own platform given it would be directly competing against the next xbox console? If not then it might be hard to persuade many developers to make games for another new platform, Even if they do, is that even good news for the consumer, who may see games spread more thinly due to the extra platform.

In order to support Mac OSX Valve have added OpenGL to the Source engine. Admittedly OpenGL is not as pretty as DirectX but it is an open standard that works on every computer OS including Linux distros. Creating a system supporting it will greatly improve the consumer's life because they no longer get restricted to Windows if they want to play games.

No need to persuade developers to use it because a lot already do. If there is a platform that will provide many new customers if they use OpenGL I think that will make the decision for them. At the moment the possible increase to your possible customer base is not enough to justify OpenGL over DirectX.

I hope this project uses a custom Linux distro designed for gaming but the dominance of DirectX will probably prevent that from happening.

[crossy]

They should make sure to have a few fixed hardware specs (a la Win Phone 7 or iphone) rather than leaving it open ended a la Android, which will leave console style buyers confused as to which games each specific box can run. Would also allow developers/reviewers to state that a particular game will run well on anything "Valve Box v3 or above" etc.

Still think that a Windows7-style "Experience Index" would be better - heck, if it doesn't already do it (haven't used Steam enough to know) then add some kind of benchmarking tool to the Steam client, so it could automatically mark games that your system was too weedy to run and - better still - tell you what bit of your kit was "deficient".

trinity A10 65W
four cores at 3.4GHx + turbo
384 shaders at 760MHz
8GB of DDR3 1866
put it in a small console style box with windows 8 (metro interface) with steam integrated and you have a winner!

Nice spec, don't like the idea of Windows8 since I strongly suspect that Microsoft wouldn't give Valve a good price on the licenses needed*. At the risk of "gettin' ma geek on" how about a Linux variant or a KindleFire-style Android fork? It'd help to keep the end-user price down.

(* wasn't there varied rumours that the next gen XBox will also be powered by some kind of Windows8 variant?)