Knouge forever!!
Hopefully it has Half-Life 3 as a launch title.
I am completely, utterly, and thoroughly done with Sola Sonica and 2D
While you have a good PC for games, I most certainly don't. This is a thing I would probably get if it happens.
Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark All the dinosaurs are running wild
I have a shoddy laptop, I'd buy this in a heartbeat if it's real.
I'm skeptical of how marketable the device would be. Note that to get good performance out of what is, functionally, a PC, you still need PC-style hardware. They would need a *lot* of sales for efficiencies-of-scale to get them a good discount on hardware costs.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com
It's Like Arguing on the Internet
If this is just gonna have the same line-up of games as Steam and other digital PC game distributors, it seems like the only market for this will be people who don't have an up-to-date PC (e.g., me, and that may change soon).
Somehow you know that the time is right.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Which happens to be a LOT of people. Plus, it means that genres that usually don't have a chance making it to the consoles now have a far bigger audience. This could turn out to be a very good thing...
JAF made another thread
without checking. Could a Mod please do a merge?
Its a large number of people, yes, but I'm dubious of how big an actual *market* it would be. Particularly since you'd have to compete uphill against the consoles, which have the advantage of much stronger and established marketing. Particularly since you can exclude off the bat everyone without good broadband internet service, or who can't/don't want to connect their internet to their TV setup.
There's also the issue of controls: many, many games are designed with a keyboard in mind, and while "programmable controllers" may sound like a neat idea to the enthusiast, I suspect the average potential buyer doesn't *want* to have to custom configure their controller for every game they play.
And that's still not touching the price issue: I suspect that a Steam box that could at least equal the performance of a current gen console would cost significantly more. And even if you have price parity. . . if all you get is the same performance, and with most games being multi-platform? Most people will just get a console.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com
Face Time
Well, the point is that it focuses on Steam, which has a massive amount of games on it. A Steam box could have a hard drive for storage and, obviously, internet connectivity capabilities for acquiring games and deleting them to make room along with synchronizing with Steamcloud.
"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel
Sad.... :(
They also mention a "numerous USB ports" so they are probably developing it with possibility of using keyboard/mouse in mind alongside the controller. And I dont think anyone would have much problem to cannibalize mouse/keyboard from their work computer for a bit of playing on Steam Box.
Has a compulsive editing and re-editing disorder.
Face Time
Customizable controller sounds interesting, though. Wonder what that would look like.
"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel
Another Perfect Day
Like Legos
I really, really, really hope this is true.
I've got two guns pointed west and a broken compass.
My main interest would be just for the cheap (sale) games. So the price of something like this would really matter to me, my brother has an Xbox and Ps3, so I'd just buy games on that otherwise, although Steam sales are a LOT cheaper.
Dumbo
So... it'd be a gimped PC? Seems kind of pointless, on the whole
I'd buy it just to play TF 2. My PC sucks for gaming.
Likes many underrated webcomics
I'd buy one.
Can someone explain one reason why this would be preferable to a new PC? Or any other next gen console? Or hell, better than just getting a 360?
edited 3rd Mar '12 8:06:37 PM by TheatricalAndProud
....
Some people.. ehem, how I put this, dont like PC, or dont bother to buy a better one and rather to just stick with their consoles
^ Because making it more expensive, thats sure to attract them.
Parasol Star Memories
The trade off is that you probably won't have to pay nearly as much in the long run.
So. Let's all pause for a moment to smell what the Rock was, is, and forever will be... cooking.—Cave Johnson
Or, simply put, has a crappy computer and can't run a whole lot of games properly.
I think this could work if users could basically modify the innards of the thing, such as graphics cards and other nick-knacks. It'd be a cheaper alternative to buying/building an expensive rig, that's for sure.
^ Umm, and why would these people prefer to get a more expensive PC rather than just getting an Alienware PC now? Once again, that leap of logic that overlooks this thing WILL be expensive.
^^ How? By using a digital only console? Yeah, cause that worked so well with the Ps P Go.
At a glance that would simply be interesting fodder for a gaming forum debate, but we've uncovered information that suggests that not only has Valve been secretly working on gaming hardware for the living room, but that the company is actively pursuing a strategy which would place Steam at the center of an open gaming universe that mirrors what Google has done with Android. Backing up that concept, in the same interview we quote above, Newell says that Valve doesn't really want to do hardware on its own, stating, "We'd rather hardware people that are good at manufacturing and distributing hardware do [hardware]. We think it's important enough that if that's what we end up having to do, then that's what we end up having to do."
That jibes pretty well with this rumored arrangement.
According to sources, the company has been working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of a "Steam Box." The actual devices may be made by a variety of partners, and the software would be readily available to any company that wants to get in the game.
Source here.
I'm not sure I'd buy one of these, since I already have a pretty damn good PC to play my Steam games on, but... The idea of a configurable controller? Why the hell hasn't anyone done this before? It's brilliant.
In any case, we'll just have to wait and see for what comes next in the future. Considering what Valve's been up to and their avocation of open platforms which clashes severely with the viewpoints of many companies, this could be very interesting.