Steam Boxes announced!

[Humbug]

Yeah but I think it would be a mistake to mention the specs this far out. There are about 3 possibilities I can think of off the top of my head that can happen from mentioning the specs too early.

 

1) People will be put off by low specs and then Valve will have to raise the specs afterwards which will cause their accountants' heads to explode because they will have to keep the promise of the price of the machine.

 

2) They will announce good specs and then when it comes time to launch, they might not be able to follow through because of cost reasons

 

3) They announce specs now and in a year something better comes out

 

I think it would be a mistake if they committed right now to any sort of specs because a year can be a big deal in computer technology. And their stuff isn't going to be out until next Fall probably at the earliest.

 

I don't think people will freak out too much about specs as long as it's decent mid-range gaming PC stuff. The reason people worry about it in the consoles is because consoles are fixed hardware for the entire life-cycle. Whereas these are a collection of different upgradeable PCs.

[themodernagenb]

Do you think OEMs will have an easier or harder time selling this game console over a normal PC?

[Humbug]

Do you think OEMs will have an easier or harder time selling this game console over a normal PC?

depends on the eventual number of games that run natively on Linux

 

and can we stop calling them steamboxes? This was a name coined by journalists.

[beebskadoo]

I am actually interested to see the Hardware implementations that these vendors roll out. I mean is it going to be existing tech just shoehorned into a SFF system or is it going to be Custom Motherboards with a custom Graphics card? I mean Mini-ITX can only go so small. If they're aiming to compete in the living room than I think a custom hardware solution is necessary to retain the form factor they desire. Who knows...

Thoughts?

[Kuzma]

My mistake don't know how I missed them I'm sick of no effort being put into news posts just so people are first at least samdb did it right

I put some info into it V_V

[Humbug]

I am actually interested to see the Hardware implementations that these vendors roll out. I mean is it going to be existing tech just shoehorned into a SFF system or is it going to be Custom Motherboards with a custom Graphics card? I mean Mini-ITX can only go so small. If they're aiming to compete in the living room than I think a custom hardware solution is necessary to retain the form factor they desire. Who knows...

Thoughts?

But Valve wants them to use regular PC components so that they are upgradeable like regular PCs. That's a key selling point vs consoles, if they take the 'pc' out of steam machines then they are screwing themselves.

 

Ultimately it will be upto each hardware vendor, I guess there will be everything ranging from budget implementations to high end rigs.

[TymmVonD]

I keep thinking about the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, and how it had modular hardware tacked on. It was smart, but Sega is no longer in the hardware business.

 

Buying into the between console and PC has no exclusive pros. PC has multitasking with work/productivity, social, entertainment, upgradeable, and high quality gaming.  Console has the bare minimum.

 

I couldn't imagine when I moved from PS3 to PC, if I had the option to go in between. I feel I would've been selling myself short.

 

The only thing I believe we can honestly gain from this is similar to what effect Google Fiber has on the market. It pushes innovation. If this works. We can expect to see consoles' life spans diminishing.

 

But then again, why didn't we see this happen this generation with the migration from console to PC. PC didn't push consoles to innovate. Look at the hardware in these new machines. Yes, they have better RAM, but this was coming to PC regardless. DDR4 is just around the corner.

[beebskadoo]

But Valve wants them to use regular PC components so that they are upgradeable like regular PCs. That's a key selling point vs consoles, if they take the 'pc' out of steam machines then they are screwing themselves.

 

Ultimately it will be upto each hardware vendor, I guess there will be everything ranging from budget implementations to high end rigs.

It's to the point that the only thing that is worth upgrading in a rig besides storage is the GPU. Processors from 5 years ago are still viable in games so I think my 2600K should last another 3 years at least...

But I kind of want a semi custom approach to be implemented along side non custom approaches.

[Nicktrance]

My mistake don't know how I missed them I'm sick of no effort being put into news posts just so people are first at least samdb did it right

 

I wouldn't be too sure of that, It looks to me like his article was written before the actual announcement since it was stuff that could have been easily speculated and he made no mention of the hardware Beta testing program which is what the announcement was all about.

[themodernagenb]

I have so many questions... like what't the motivation for OEMs to start selling a "game console" - I would imagine it's a much smaller niche than traditional PC consumers... which means they will have a much harder time selling it (kind of like Windows RT - a lot of companies have stopped creating products for that OS because it didn't sell). What are the prices going to be like? If it's not that much cheaper than a normal Windows PC - what normal consumer will buy it? It's not a traditional OS, so how are they going to address any inevitable confusion (once again, just like Windows RT)? What's their target audience? Just people like us? Is that big enough... and how many of "us" are willing to buy a complete product like this rather than just making it ourselves and installing SteamOS. And why would we install SteamOS if we already have Steam on Linux or Windows? What's the benefit of switching?

[TymmVonD]

I keep thinking about the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, and how it had modular hardware tacked on. It was smart, but Sega is no longer in the hardware business.

 

Buying into the between console and PC has no exclusive pros. PC has multitasking with work/productivity, social, entertainment, upgradeable, and high quality gaming.  Console has the bare minimum.

 

I couldn't imagine when I moved from PS3 to PC, if I had the option to go in between. I feel I would've been selling myself short.

 

The only thing I believe we can honestly gain from this is similar to what effect Google Fiber has on the market. It pushes innovation. If this works. We can expect to see consoles' life spans diminishing.

 

But then again, why didn't we see this happen this generation with the migration from console to PC. PC didn't push consoles to innovate. Look at the hardware in these new machines. Yes, they have better RAM, but this was coming to PC regardless. DDR4 is just around the corner.

[threadysparrow]

I don't think people will freak out too much about specs as long as it's decent mid-range gaming PC stuff. The reason people worry about it in the consoles is because consoles are fixed hardware for the entire life-cycle. Whereas these are a collection of different upgradeable PCs.

right but remember this stuff probably isn't going to come out until next year. When next year comes out, people aren't going to want last year's tech specs. People want new, now, big, more, and fast.

[Humbug]

I couldn't imagine when I moved from PS3 to PC, if I had the option to go in between. I feel I would've been selling myself short.

Everything about this so far seems PC, not in-between. The fact that you can upgrade, you can modify, you can hack, you can install any OS/apps you want means it's PC. What they are trying to do is rally the PC vendors to start making quality gaming rigs for the living room to compete against consoles.

 

Guys like us can do it ourselves. But we are the minority unfortunately. Lot's of people would need prebuilt systems and this initiative would allow them to confidently buy knowing it's gaming grade stuff. If not AAA PC gaming remains a hardcore niche for tech savvy people who can build their own PCs.

[Damikiller37]

nope your not lol

You win  

[Matsy]

You win  

 

cookie pls

[Dravic]

snip

 

Until Valve releases details of the test platform (what components), we can't verify how true this is:

 

http:i.imgur.com/pqqyicR.png

[TymmVonD]

 

Everything about this so far seems PC, not in-between. The fact that you can upgrade, you can modify, you can hack, you can install any OS/apps you want means it's PC. What they are trying to do is rally the PC vendors to start making quality gaming rigs for the living room to compete against consoles.

 

Guys like us can do it ourselves. But we are the minority unfortunately. Lot's of people would need prebuilt systems and this initiative would allow them to confidently buy knowing it's gaming grade stuff. If not AAA PC gaming remains a hardcore niche for tech savvy people who can build their own PCs.

 

I agree. I can actually see a future where kid's have there parents trade-in their Steam Machine to gamestop every other year. New GPU and RAM this Christmas. Revison 2 out next Christmas. No different then where smartphones are.

[Humbug]

I have so many questions... like what't the motivation for OEMs to start selling a "game console" - I would imagine it's a much smaller niche than traditional PC consumers...

Traditional desktop PC sales are dying. But sales of gaming grade hardware are alive and well thanks to PC gaming. So there is more incentive for PC makers to sell gaming machines.

 

 

What's their target audience? Just people like us?

People like us can build our own rigs, and install steamOS by ourselves. This will be targetted at converting console gamers to PC. People who are not confident enough to build their own rig, this is a way of converting them to PC.

[Damikiller37]

cookie pls

Why not 3?

[Xorbot]

My profile is ready.

 

I also decided to stream a game from Steam onto my nVidia Shield which is not only playing a game via gamepad, but also doing so over Big Picture Mode.  Take THAT, Shield haters!

[kuddlesworth9419]

An EVGA branded and custom built Steam Box would be really cool. I would love to see Steams prototype. Also does anyone know if the Steam Box hardware will all be the same to all the manufacturers because I think that could be a really good idea for an optimization standpoint. Later on though you could just upgrade the Steam Box to hardware that was specified for the Steam Box that way optimizations would be less fragmented but hardware could still be upgraded. I will personally stick with my desktop with Windows unless a SteamOS Desktop 64 bit Edition comes out and I will get that in an instant.

[Matsy]

Why not 3?

 

[beebskadoo]

An EVGA branded and custom built Steam Box would be really cool. I would love to see Steams prototype. Also does anyone know if the Steam Box hardware will all be the same to all the manufacturers because I think that could be a really good idea for an optimization standpoint. Later on though you could just upgrade the Steam Box to hardware that was specified for the Steam Box that way optimizations would be less fragmented but hardware could still be upgraded. I will personally stick with my desktop with Windows unless a SteamOS Desktop 64 bit Edition comes out and I will get that in an instant.

It's probably gonna be a different CPU for each tier. I mean something Like the FM2+ platform would be great! It's not supposed to upgrade for quite some time.

[Humbug]

An EVGA branded and custom built Steam Box would be really cool. I would love to see Steams prototype. Also does anyone know if the Steam Box hardware will all be the same to all the manufacturers because I think that could be a really good idea for an optimization standpoint. Later on though you could just upgrade the Steam Box to hardware that was specified for the Steam Box that way optimizations would be less fragmented but hardware could still be upgraded. I will personally stick with my desktop with Windows unless a SteamOS Desktop 64 bit Edition comes out and I will get that in an instant.

Don't call it steambox. That name was coined by journalists. Different hardware vendors will be free to put what hardware they want into it, and they will brand it with different names. How else can they differentiate? I think Valve will just certify that it's gaming grade to ensure consumers don't get duped into buying low end stuff.

 

[Gunzkewl]

<3 Valve :wub: