Let’s face it, the last thing Microsoft and Sony are expecting is another console. Sure, they’ve got their eye on the Wii U, but something out of the blue from Valve? A pre-setup PC in a box with a HDMI out and a joypad? Talk about blindsiding.
And so here we are, with rumours floating around that that’s exactly what’s going to happen – Gabe Newell’s Valve are – according to the reports – coming out with a gaming console, and it’s going to throw a spanner in the works so big that people won’t be able to miss it. And yes, that includes the current console manufacturers.
[drop2]Make no mistake, if this happens, it’ll be massive.Valve know gaming, but more importantly they know online distribution and they do it better than most. Sure, not everyone’s on board with the service, but the current catalog includes EA, Bethesda, Activision and SEGA.
But what of these rumours? Well, apparently this so-called ‘Steam Box’ will be focused on the living room, and will be developed – at least in terms of hardware – by a “variety of partners”.
And the software? Well, anyone that’s interested, presumably.
The Verge talks about meetings at CES, and discusses some basic specs that include a Core i7, at least eight GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GPU. The Steam Box, as it’s currently known, will run anything a PC can and will also support other online services (such as EA’s Origin) as well as the ubiquitous Steam, which itself provides over 1,500 games and has 40 million users.
The current thinking is that Valve would take aim at Apple, not Sony and Microsoft, but I could personally see such a device sitting nicely under my TV, linked up via HDMI.
The hardware will, according to the site, be replaceable every three or four years, and during that lifetime PC developers will have a single, clear focus in terms of system spec, something that’s currently still a bit of a minefield with regards to drivers, versions and chipsets. One box, one target, and you can bet that games will look a generation beyond current consoles.
The console market might be entering into another phase in the next couple of years, but this Steam Box could move very quickly, would require minimal fuss from developers and publishers to provide a ‘best case’ build of their games and would, I assume, be pretty cheap given that parts would be fixed and mass produced.
Of course, this is all conjecture, and nothing at all may come of all this. But if it does, and Valve do manage to standardise the PC market and put their name behind the project (along with whoever else is rumoured to be involved – Alienware?) then this would be something I know a lot of people would be very interested in.
And Sony and Microsoft? I’d love to know what they’re thinking about all this.
Kennykazey
It’s a nothing but a rumour. Somebody at Valve, I think it was Newell said that they could build hardware if they had to. And I think the specs come from a smaller pc a valve employee built and uploaded a picture of. It was most likely for himself.
Valve has no need for a console the way I see it, PC’s kind of are already.
blarty
I just don’t get the fascination with, and idolation over, Steam
MayContainEvil
Interesting idea but personally I would still prefer choosing and upgrading my own PC.
As an idea to rejuvenate PC gaming though as a whole though this idea is golden, I hope something becomes of it.
The Lone Steven
If the Steambox is capable of running most of Steam’s libary then i would get it as i would love to be able to play some classic PC games and it would be ideal for people who want to get into PC gaming but can’t afford to or don’t know how to upgrade their systems every few years.
I can see it having a £300-£400 price at first. I probably won’t upgrade it as i would just use it for classic PC games. :) oh and hitting Hanny with a frying pan on Left 4 Dead 2.
KeRaSh
The cool thing for people who already have a PC would be that if you buy the Steam PC you would already have a list of games that you would just have to download again and play them on your new system. No neet to rebuy anything like you have to for your PS Vita following your PSP.
blarty
Surely this is the same if you bought ANY new PC?
KeRaSh
Of course. It’s hard to put it into perspective because with PCs you don’t really have “generations” like with consoles. You can buy a new high end gaming PC that replaces your 5 year old PC and still access all your old games and play new ones. Now you could argue that you can still play all your PS3 games on a new PS3 but if the PS4 has no backwards compatibility you are forced to rebuy HD remakes or keep your PS3.
mad_mac_hl
Interesting idea. I only own a PC but this does have a strange appeal. Think about it like this:
I upgrade my PC every three to four years or so – that’s probably typical of most PC gamers (excluding those who keep to the highest spec they can on an almost rolling basis!).
My last two upgrades have cost in the region of £900 a piece. It doesn’t get me the highest spec available but it gets me something pretty damn good.
Now if a “Steambox” was to be released with new hardware available every 3-4 years, then that fits with the frequency of a PC upgrade. I could quite happily go for a cheap low-spec PC for work etc and get something like this instead for my PC-spec gaming. The only issue would be price but in order to keep themselves in the market, I’d suggest that Valve would want to be aiming for something around the £500 mark, effectively creating a premium console market.
Would £500 sound a lot? Sure, but the spec is excellent (missing details of graphics aside) and compared to the cost of a full PC upgrade, its a bargain and something I’m sure they could achieve through mass production.
Definitely agree that this could be a game changer if true, at least for part of the market!
Foxhound_Solid
Not interested..
blarty
Personally, I’m not sure if this is a great idea for consumers. The PC market is fundamentally based on the concept of component churn… Valve is merely a distributor, but doing something like this and asking (read: do it or you don’t get on Steam) games to be compatible with base ‘Steam boxes’ before they get released, really changes the landscape fundamentally…. essentially, you become tied to Steam as the distributor of your software and hardware (even if you don’t have to buy the box, it will be their base yardstick for sys reqs), more or less the Apple of gaming.
KeRaSh
As far as I know you would also be able to access Origin or other portals.
retro_
No No No No No… Oh, Half life 3 is a launch Title you say! .. Yes Yes Yes