Steambox

Anyone interested in Steambox? (the console being made by Valve). They will be revealing more details about it next week. I don't think I would choose it over a PS4 but I am definitely interested to see what it will be like especially as it will be running on Linux. More competition is also good.

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

Anyone interested in Steambox? (the console being made by Valve). They will be revealing more details about it next week. I don't think I would choose it over a PS4 but I am definitely interested to see what it will be like especially as it will be running on Linux. More competition is also good.

Yeah, I like the fact someone as big as Valve are challenging Microsoft's hegemony of the PC gaming market with Windows as a basic requirement to play games. All the more power to Linux and alternative OSs. I'm doubtful Gabe Newell is developing Steambox for altruistic purposes or just because he hates MS/Windows 8 but the guy's obviously extremely smart so fair play to him.

In the main I like Steam quite a bit despite the restrictions. Using discs is a bit of a pain it's true, I'd rather have Steam copy-protection and Valve Anti Cheat systems installed than a ton of other crud, I like the convenience of download, auto-install and play. Some things I don't like though the Steambox thing looks very cool but I'm concerned about upgrade-ability and hardware performance over time. If all/most of my current games ran on Linux I'd multiboot my PC and get into Linux more with a view to ditching Windows for good.

I'm half expecting the Steambox to eventually fill a mid-low range market segment as I can see non-enthusiasts (hardcore gamers) fixing one up for access to a huge catalogue of older and less graphically demanding games, maybe strategy stuff as well rather than high polygon count shooters and suchlike. But I could (and hope to) be proved wrong (it would be nice to play BF4 and 5 on it!). Are you keen on it yourself then? Could be a good thing in the future: one in every home instead of a PC/laptop and individuals just using tablets and things eh?

Edited by deleted (Sat 21-Sep-13 21:40:03)

Would rarther go for one of these than a Xbox one or Nintendo Wii U,I looked into these about 6 months ago and they seem to have quite some power and are upgradable ....

Yeah, from what I recall there's like 2 models offered or something. But I'm more concerned with whether you can upgrade the Steambox and customise it yourself. I wouldn't mind one that I could swap out the GPU and CPU and maybe add more memory and an SSD say. Could kill the XBO and PS4 if done right.

Will all depend - is it going to be a "proper" console (preferably one which Joe Bloggs can program), or as reports suggest, just a way of playing Valve games on microscopic smartphones.

If its the former, they yey! If it's the latter, then ney!

The Steam Box is designed to play PC games. Specifically, it's designed to play Steam games:

Edited by deleted (Sun 22-Sep-13 01:44:41)

I don't think I would buy one myself as I would just build my own system. I am more excited about the fact that Valve will be using Linux on it which means Steam games will run on any Linux system. Hopefully this will make the OS more mainstream. I currently dual boot on my main desktop computer but I haven't booted Windows for ages, last time was to play the new Sim City.

Actually if Steambox ends up being a cool looking, compact system like a Mac Mini which I could install Ubuntu on I could be tempted to use one as my main system.

In reply to a post by time2die:

Would rarther go for one of these than a Xbox one or Nintendo Wii U,I looked into these about 6 months ago and they seem to have quite some power and are upgradable ....

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

Yeah, from what I recall there's like 2 models offered or something. But I'm more concerned with whether you can upgrade the Steambox and customise it yourself. I wouldn't mind one that I could swap out the GPU and CPU and maybe add more memory and an SSD say. Could kill the XBO and PS4 if done right.

The system called Piston released earlier in the year is not the official Steambox, it was developed by Valves partner Xi3 though so maybe a sort of prototype for the final one.

Question is ? When is it suppose to be out........

Yeah, hopefully they will release all the details in the coming week.

I am not happy about it, quite why they feel the need tolaunch a console when their pc market is thriving no idea, suddenly developers on steam may feel pressured to make their games work on linux as well as windows and as such resources get split. Also quite why any pc owner would buy a steambox also makes no sense.