Steam Box: Valve working on gaming console

[Dankk]

i7, 8GB ram...depending on GPU this could be a console crusher.

If it costs over $500, I can't imagine it being a "console crusher". Hardware-wise, yeah it will crush consoles, but I'm talking about marketing and sales. Consumers won't shell out hundreds of dollars for this new alien console they know absolutely nothing about.

It's basically a PC, which runs Windows software, based on all the description and rumour in the article.

Why not just buy a Windows PC?

See, I'm hoping it's NOT a full-fledged PC.

http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/thebigpicture.php

Look at that page on Steam's website. Now think about it for a second. What if this new "Steam console" were actually a thin client that simply hooked up to your TV, and then streamed the games from your desktop PC? That would be absolutely brilliant. Think OnLive, but instead of the game being rendered on a server hundreds of miles away, the game's actually running on a computer somewhere else in your house, and the video is being streamed to your living room HDTV.

Might be kinda difficult to pull off, but who knows. We'll see what happens.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

If it costs over $500, I can't imagine it being a "console crusher". Hardware-wise, yeah it will crush consoles, but I'm talking about marketing and sales. Consumers won't shell out hundreds of dollars for this new alien console they know absolutely nothing about.

Could they make it for $500 with a barebones GPU? But upgradeable in that department? Really, not much else needs to be upgraded, so everything else could be pretty much standardized.

 

[PhoenixEnigma]

Does this mean there's still hope for a ten foot interface for Steam? Forget the hardware, that's the bit I care about.

 

[BudAshes]

If only companies could just focus on what they are good at instead of endlessly expanding.

 

[zerocool84]

If only companies could just focus on what they are good at instead of endlessly expanding.

No Playstation, no Xbox, no Steam, no iPhone or Android, etc etc.

 

[busydude]

Might be kinda difficult to pull off, but who knows. We'll see what happens.

Intel already does that right? WiDi?

 

[Dankk]

Intel already does that right? WiDi?

Interesting, I wonder why I've never heard of this before. So it's definitely possible. The technology is there.

The only thing I would worry about is the input lag. I'm one of those people who disables Vsync in nearly every one of their games, because that extra ~10ms of lag is really annoying.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Really, this just sounds like a PC.

I'm not going to get a steam box when I can get a standard mid-tower PC.

 

[pw38]

The Furnace?

The Boiler?

The Watt Box?

Steaming pile...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Maybe this will be powered by AMD's Trinity APU? Supposed to be fairly powerful.

Would be nice to have an Xbox-ish PC (which, really, the Xbox was somewhat like a PC already), specifically optimized for games. But would the introduction of a "PC Console" (I know, oxymoron, right?) cut down even more the releases of "true" PC games?

 

[wuliheron]

Maybe this will be powered by AMD's Trinity APU? Supposed to be fairly powerful.

Would be nice to have an Xbox-ish PC (which, really, the Xbox was somewhat like a PC already), specifically optimized for games. But would the introduction of a "PC Console" (I know, oxymoron, right?) cut down even more the releases of "true" PC games?

Both Intel and AMD have been trying to find a cheap way to combine a cpu, gpu, and 1gb ram on a single chip and rumors are they're getting close. An ivy bridge with that much ram would have roughly the power of a radeon 5770 on a single chip which is more then enough for a next generation console. Semiaccurate claims the PS4 will be using the AMD version of the technology with custom modifications, but its likely a few years away.

Besides consoles and portable computing it could eventually make it cheap and easy to upgrade computers in general. Instead of needing to replace the cpu or gpu or add a new power supply or even have a pci-e slot all you would need is a second cpu socket to run crossfire and increase the processing power in one blow.

 

[tokie]

It has to run Windows for DirectX compatibility. That means no performance advantage compared to a desktop PC. They also couldn't force-adjust old games to support controllers.

 

[Jeffg010]

I like the idea of pay monthly free and have access to a bunch of games. I would be all over that. The other thing they could do is all owners of this box would get a 5 or 10% off the price of all games. I would switch over in a second.

 

[zinfamous]

I like the idea of pay monthly free and have access to a bunch of games. I would be all over that. The other thing they could do is all owners of this box would get a 5 or 10% off the price of all games. I would switch over in a second.

I forgot about that. If they can pull off normal steam prices on games, and their sales, people would jump all over it.

 

[I4AT]

I'd love to see them make a Linux box for gaming. There's nothing DirectX can do that OpenGL can't. I still haven't "upgraded" to Windows 7 even though I have a few games that require it (Just Cause 2 and Renegade Ops), and I don't like Microsoft having that level of control over my gaming options. DirectX has avalanche momentum on its side, but history has proven that it really only takes one killer app to establish a platform. If Apple were to try to enter the market it'd just be more of the same, so I think Valve is probably the only company left to push open gaming. If they can come up with their own Halo that'll be enough to convince AMD/Nvidia to start taking OpenGL more seriously, and hopefully other developers would follow suit and gamers wouldn't be handcuffed to Windows.

 

[WT]

See, I'm hoping it's NOT a full-fledged PC.

http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/thebigpicture.php

Look at that page on Steam's website. Now think about it for a second. What if this new "Steam console" were actually a thin client that simply hooked up to your TV, and then streamed the games from your desktop PC? That would be absolutely brilliant.

What I can't figure out is how you can possibly game using a mouse/keyboard at a desk and then lay on your sofa with mouse and keyboard lying on your lap and use it competently.

 

[zerocool84]

What I can't figure out is how you can possibly game using a mouse/keyboard at a desk and then lay on your sofa with mouse and keyboard lying on your lap and use it competently.

What was already talked about is that they're going to use a controller. They already have a patent for a special controller which you can change its layout.

 

[Sureshot324]

What I can't figure out is how you can possibly game using a mouse/keyboard at a desk and then lay on your sofa with mouse and keyboard lying on your lap and use it competently.

I think the answer to this is something like the Wii Nunchuk. IMO this was never used the proper way as an FPS controller. It should simulate using the mouse on a PC. The crosshair is always at the center of the screen, and pointing the Infra Red Pointer on the Nunchuck turns the whole screen like a PC FPS. You would have a button to temporarily disable the IR pointer, 'lifting the mouse'.

If the Nunchuck was designed more like 2 halves of a traditional gamepad (more buttons, 2 analog sticks), it would be great both as a traditional console controller, and mouse/keyboard style games as I described.

It should work well for RTS games as well. For MMOs it would need a lot of buttons.

 

[jpeyton]

This would be a great idea though to push games to be pc designed and ported to consoles. Fingers crossed

ATI is already set to provide hardware for all major next-generation consoles. The hardware is undoubtedly going to be based on their current and next gen discrete GPUs, so development across all platforms (console and PC) will be a breeze.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Both Intel and AMD have been trying to find a cheap way to combine a cpu, gpu, and 1gb ram on a single chip and rumors are they're getting close. An ivy bridge with that much ram would have roughly the power of a radeon 5770 on a single chip which is more then enough for a next generation console. Semiaccurate claims the PS4 will be using the AMD version of the technology with custom modifications, but its likely a few years away.

Besides consoles and portable computing it could eventually make it cheap and easy to upgrade computers in general. Instead of needing to replace the cpu or gpu or add a new power supply or even have a pci-e slot all you would need is a second cpu socket to run crossfire and increase the processing power in one blow.

i've wondered why amd doesn't partner with a major linux player to develop a 64-bit console and service. with a footprint of matx and 300W, they could integrate <200 watts of gpu, <100 watts of cpu, a bunch of ram (all those materials are now in-house) and add goodies borrowed from smartphones.

steam is my #1 for pc games, but there's no doubt their interface (among other things) are from the stone age with no sign of changing. i would not buy a steam console, especially if it was a cheap windows box designed to shove lots of already-existing crap at me.

 

[wuliheron]

i've wondered why amd doesn't partner with a major linux player to develop a 64-bit console and service. with a footprint of matx and 300W, they could integrate <200 watts of gpu, <100 watts of cpu, a bunch of ram (all those materials are now in-house) and add goodies borrowed from smartphones.

steam is my #1 for pc games, but there's no doubt their interface (among other things) are from the stone age with no sign of changing. i would not buy a steam console, especially if it was a cheap windows box designed to shove lots of already-existing crap at me.

Consoles have their own unique operating systems and it doesn't matter who makes it. Its not a computer and that's the whole point. They can save money over the cost of a computer by streamlining the software including both the operating system and the games themselves to run faster on cheaper parts.

Neither AMD nor Linux are in any position to develop their own consoles. They don't have any content to provide and a console without games is a joke in bad taste. As it is both are struggling against the competition they already have and don't need to get involved in that hornet's nest.

Valve and companies like EA are a different story. They're already involved and already have the content to provide. The only question is can they leverage some weakness in the market the other major consoles have left open. We'll just have to wait and see exactly what Valve has in mind.

 

[Aikouka]

I'd love to see them make a Linux box for gaming. There's nothing DirectX can do that OpenGL can't.

OpenGL already exists with Steam when it comes to any SteamPlay game, since Mac OS only uses OpenGL. Although, I'm not trying to suggest that the Mac game would play straight on Linux, because it obviously won't. Although, I assume the amount of rework to make them work wouldn't be too bad.

Although, I think Microsoft does a decent job with Direct X. XNA was a fantastic idea

 

[VulgarDisplay]

This will be a gaming console in that it will ditch the overhead the windows platform places on our machines.

It will basically be a direct x box. XBOX?! get it.

They will have a common denominator for PC developers to shoot for which will let them target visual and performance levels they desire and not have to worry about the billions of different hardware configurations out there today.

This is a great idea. It will however be short lived, because after this next console generation I anticipate all future consoles being a single chip. CPU/RAM/GPU combined into one. Much cheaper prices for the hardware, and they may even be able to release console updates more often keeping game development on the move.

 

[lothar]

Pending lawsuit from Nintendo.

An Apple, Nintendo is not.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Consoles have their own unique operating systems and it doesn't matter who makes it. Its not a computer and that's the whole point. They can save money over the cost of a computer by streamlining the software including both the operating system and the games themselves to run faster on cheaper parts.

Neither AMD nor Linux are in any position to develop their own consoles. They don't have any content to provide and a console without games is a joke in bad taste. As it is both are struggling against the competition they already have and don't need to get involved in that hornet's nest.

Valve and companies like EA are a different story. They're already involved and already have the content to provide. The only question is can they leverage some weakness in the market the other major consoles have left open. We'll just have to wait and see exactly what Valve has in mind.

but a good console can be a good computer (and i'm certain it will be, ushering pc boxes as we know them into extinction) and amd could have been ahead of the pack by miles. and a few years ago there was absolutely zero content for smartphones, so if you build it they will come.