After many rumours, it appears Steam’s living room console is real. At the end of 2012, German site Golem.de attended a conference, and at that conference was Ben Krasnow, Valve’s electronics engineer. Krasnow, apparently, talked hardware.
Specifically, a Valve console, which has been a joint effort with Jeri Ellsworth (for the last two years), runs off Linux, and is due in 2013.
“It doesn’t come off as a huge surprise,” says one translation from the original German source site, “considering that Valve-boss Gabe Newell views Windows 8 as a catastrophe: Steam Box will not be based on Windows, but on Linux instead.”
“This was confirmed by Ben Krasnow, one of Valve’s hardware developers, when inquired on this topic,” continues the story. “With that, the Linux client for Valve’s download and community platform Steam, which is currently in its Beta phase, gets an all new background because of this – especially as Linux will also support the big-picture mode.”
Linux might mean that the vast majority of Steam’s library won’t automatically work, but all Valve need to do is make the console launch with Half Life 3. Think about that.
Translation via NeoGAF.
quinkill
This could change everything!
damoxuk
More competition is good but personally not interested as have a PC so can play Steam games as it is.
So i’ll be saving my pennies for the next Playstation and Xbox Consoles.
I’m also have gone from a 100% PC gamer to primarily a console (ps3/vita) gamer as just can’t afford to keep upgrading my PC all the time. Hell my PC is now over 4 years old yet can still run Civ 5/Wow/Starcraft (games i’m interested in) perfectly fine. However I concede I need a new PC as it does feel like it’s creaking :D
Can’t see this console selling well as most PC gamers probably will stick with there PC and console gamers will just upgrade to there respective next gen console.
Just look at Wii-U sales aren’t the best as I believe only Nintendo fans are buying it mainly with people with ps3/360 holding off for the “real” nextgen.
Also if steambox is Linux although Valves games will be ported it will leave of vast amounts of games, therby making it less viable than a cheap PC.
Oh and Half Life 3 – can’t see them making it Steambox exclusive – that would just turn everyone against Valve.
The Lone Steven
A Valve console that is able to play most if not all of Steam’s libary would cripple Sony and MS as they can’t compete with it. Valve have the PC market covered due to steam and due to the profits they make every year, can afford to sell the games cheap as well as doing excellent deals every now and then. Combine that with the relationship that they have with most publisher and they could conquer the console market within a year of release.
Although, they could find themselves struggling to get gaming specialists to stock it as you can’t trade in Steam’s games thus leaving them at a disadvantage. If they price the console at a reasonable price, i would pick it up as i going to end up moving to PC gaming in the future. But the controller may be a bit of a problem due to the nature of PC games and chances are they will use a gamepad to attract more people. I can see them doing a 50% off on a large selection of games on day of launch. I hope that this will force MS/Ninty/Sony to improve their services.
It will be interesting to see if MS will try to prevent new releases from releasing on Steam first due to the steam box due to their policy. Although i suspect many new IPs will release on Steam first due to it being friendly towards indie developers.
damoxuk
Yes but it won’t if it’s Linux only will it.
The Lone Steven
True but if they can get Linux to work with 90% of their libary(which is probably more trouble then it is worth) then they would dominate the market. Can see them aiming at 50% or they may invent their own OS that is designed to work with their games.
Blayney
blayney sayslinux sucks
Blayney
mods can you remove this? it appears I left my laptop open and have been TSA-raped
colmshan1990
Haha.
Is this a TSA first? :P
colmshan1990
I don’t get it- has it not been possible to do this for years anyway?
I’ve plugged my laptop into the 40″ TV and played away happily, what’s the Steambox going to change that gaming PCs haven’t?
Steam already exists, Big Picture Mode exists, and TV out functionality already exists.
In a year or two the Steambox will have to be replaced by Steambox 2 if people want to keep playing the latest releases on their ‘console.’
Steambox will just be a pre-built gaming PC, and if they haven’t killed consoles yet, I don’t see why they suddenly will just because Valve made one. And it’ll be a computer, not a console surely.
teflon
A Steambox would be putting all of the pieces together. Steam for the online infrastructure, Big Picture Mode for the larger navigation system and better game controller support, but on top of a narrowed hardware subset which will allow developers to target specific performance and quality goals for longer on older hardware, and with a lighter, more streamlined OS underneath it all.
It’d be taking certain aspects of consoles and merging them with PC gaming.
But we’re all just speculating.
colmshan1990
Other problems:
EA’s big games aren’t on Steam anymore.
Steam still isn’t perfect for PC gaming, never mind console. Auto-updating is as annoying in some cases as it is undoubtedly useful in others- there’s no need to update every game if I’m not playing it, why do I need to wait for Steam do sync that file when I’m trying to close Steam and shut down and other little problems which would cause no end of complaints on Xbox or PS3.
Some gamers seem to hate DRM on console. Steam is the biggest and most common DRM out there. Very few games will run from their native directory file without first turning on Steam and going online.
Steam’s terms of service change and are already a bit dodgy sounding- class action lawsuits aren’t allowed, you don’t own your games, etc. The stuff does DRM activists just love to hear. By the way, if you decide not to accept an update to the Steam Terms and Conditions, you don’t even get to keep playing in offline mode like you could on PS3 without the PSN- instead you get every purchase you’ve made deactivated. Without refund.
If Valve’s main focus isn’t on the console, it’ll flop simply because the console won’t be the best place to have Steam.
And if the focus IS on the console, PC gaming could be held back. Either that, or there will be new releases on Steam which won’t run on Steambox (or at least not very well) within a couple of years at best. Which would surely be unacceptable for consumers.
A narrowed hardware target for PC gaming will only hold back PC games, or be a gaming console which can’t play the big games.
I don’t see the Steambox being a roaring success and to be honest, I don’t want it to be.
The best case scenario I can envisage sees it as a PC akin to some of the latest Alienware smaller console-like desktops and selling well for a single PC model, but much less than WiiU, PS4 or the next Xbox.
ron_mcphatty
EA are a bit of an issue, but if Steam can get some success with their box I’ve no doubt they’d rethink putting their new games on Steam.
I think the DRM and legal issues are less of a problem than we all seem to think. Sometimes we go a bit Daily Mail panicky in our responses to very occasional legal problems when generally speaking the ownership of digital content doesn’t cause most of us any issues. Steam have a great reputation and I’m sure they’d rather keep its customers happy rather than screw us over ownership niggles, I feel like I can trust them to behave decently.
The hardware also doesn’t need to be as powerful or as pricey as a regular PC. My 2 year old laptop can run most new games at 720p on low to medium settings with no problems so I’m sure Steam can do the deals necessary to flog us a decently priced, decently specced box that’ll churn out the pretty pixels we crave.
Alex C
A Steambox costing £300 will no doubt push better visuals than a £300 console.
skibadee
Alex you do not no that.
colmshan1990
Yeah, a console built for £300 won’t match a PC built for the same price at the same time, but don’t we all agree that the next generation of consoles from Sony & Microsoft are going to be subsidised?
If they want the consoles to stay relevant and near the top of gaming for most of their lifetimes, they’re going to have to go hard or go home. :P
jimmy-google
My first thought was if the steam box isn’t subsidised then how expensive will it be or how often will you need to replace it to play the latest games. Sony and MS will certainly subsidise to claw the money back through games.
The big draw of consoles if you can keep playing the latest games for 6 years without the need to replace the hardware. Will the steam box do that? If it does surely that would have a knock on effect to steam elsewhere.
With Valve games become exclusives to steam? That’s still a big part of consoles, the games you can’t get elsewhere. If Mario went multiplatform what would happen to Nintendo? So either Value need to pull in some exclusives from somewhere or stop releasing multiplatform titles.
What Valve are good at is just about everything MS are on top of this generation, but probably better. I think MS have the most to lose early on with a steam console.
MOVE
Will a Steambox try to appeal to hardcore PC gamers? Cause if it does it needs to be as powerful as a bad ass PC. I don’t really see this as an option for core and casual gamers as the many of the older games does not appeal to this group and many newer popular games are not available through Steam.
Nickboss1
Sign me up.
SilverCider
Subsidised hardware upgrades every couple of years (or hardware generation :P) would be neat.
I wonder if they will release just one model or a selection with varying levels of performance. One such system could be capable of satisfying the gamer that is interested in just the indie and source engine titles (easy on hardware*) and another that will play 3rd party titles at a more desirable quality setting.
And since it is basically a pc (we are assuming) if said person bought the lower spec model and decided that they wanted more oomph they could then order ‘an upgrade’ via steam at a lower rate than buying outright – sending the old part back to valve to do with it what they want… I could get carried away with this so I am ending it here.
*Until Source 2 consumes all power!
Klart
So that’s PS4, XBOX720, a Valve console and an NVIDIA console in the next year or so. Who said consoles are dead?
colmshan1990
To be honest, the Valve ‘console’ isn’t a console.
It’s a prebuilt PC.