The steam box preview..

What a flagship game, RTW2, the game that doesn't work, has gore as DLC and cannot be played properly if at all with a controller.

STEAMBOX!
 
I think a lot of people will be looking for a dvd-rom, and i don't think any of these systems will come with one, which i think will put a lot of people off, not everyone has a good connections and a lot of people (mainly in the states) have download limits, there needs to be a dvd-rom so people can buy hard copies of games still.
 
One concern, one appeal for many in the PC games world is multi-player - but blizzard/EA MMO's (not that they are great, but they are reasonably popular) are not on multi-player.

How will they solve the problem that the steam box will have a pretty large selection of games unavailable on it (compared to the standard PC) due to not all games being on the steam platform - I mean you can't even get mass effect 3 on it.
 
Think i've cracked it!

They are going for.... THE HIPSTER MARKET!

Do you only play unknown indie greelit games? Do you refuse to own a console, or a windows PC so you can 'sock it to the man'? Do you want a new gadget 'before they were cool?

STEAMBOX!
 
Boycey0211 said:
Think i've cracked it!

They are going for.... THE HIPSTER MARKET!

Do you only play unknown indie greelit games? Do you refuse to own a console, or a windows PC so you can 'sock it to the man'? Do you want a new gadget 'before they were cool?

STEAMBOX!
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Maybe it'll come with a typewriter interface...
 
redrooster303 said:
We (us entusiasts) shouldn't be looking at this like its our next buy. We should be looking at this because we love PC gaming and this is a PC in console form for the layman to buy.

At the end of the day no matter what console users say they would love a high powered PC but don't know where to start. This does it all for them. Ready made PC/console, drivers, games, massive support from the off. Its a ready made console.

The thing is we've had one for ages and the console 'dudes' will love it and think they're getting an uber console. They'll be drooling over DAYZ etc
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On the one hand yes it'll bring more people towards PC gaming boosting development of PC games etc

On the other if you thought the dumbasses that played COD on the PC were bad, just imagine the lack of intelligence amongst the console masses, not to mention if this takes off they will be the majority giving developers even more reason to dumb games down and make everyone a winner.
 
elmarko said:
One concern, one appeal for many in the PC games world is multi-player - but blizzard/EA MMO's (not that they are great, but they are reasonably popular) are not on multi-player.

How will they solve the problem that the steam box will have a pretty large selection of games unavailable on it (compared to the standard PC) due to not all games being on the steam platform - I mean you can't even get mass effect 3 on it.
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About the only potential issue is that of conflicting interests though I really don't know why. Blizzard are PC focused and at least know what they are doing when it comes to Battle.net. Its not as if console gamers are going to potentially miss what they never had access to in the first place.
EA are money focused and regardless of what they tell us, they can't possibly believe Origin has been anything but a drain on money. Valve are still a developer even though most companies would be a bit stretched to call them a true competitor given how little they release.

If Steam is to become a platform too, then companies have to decide for themselves. Are they going to support it as a way of reaching customers? Or are they going to shun it as it empowers Valve? Unless the likes of EA announce an EAbox in the near future in yet another lame attempt to imitate Valve I really can't see them trying to go against it.
 
Valve aren't stupid.

Don't you think that all of the issues raised in this thread haven't been raised by Valve themselves?

Look how they were derided over Steam when it was first announced. Now look were Steam is.

Valve never give much away and I'm sure that by the time they are ready to officially release Steam OS and and Steam Boxes, then we'll all be in a lot clearer position than we are now.
 
Not read to much into this but having a small box in the living room where I can play all (the ones that work) my current steam library sounds like a good idea. Yes the controller needs some tlc and the starting price is too high, but I can see this working with the money Valve have!
 
barmyllama said:
Valve aren't stupid.

Don't you think that all of the issues raised in this thread haven't been raised by Valve themselves?

Look how they were derided over Steam when it was first announced. Now look were Steam is.

Valve never give much away and I'm sure that by the time they are ready to officially release Steam OS and and Steam Boxes, then we'll all be in a lot clearer position than we are now.
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I've got a strange vibe from this whole thing ever since it was first announced. I think this time Valve are stupid because this whole project seems to be Gabe's brain child and I don't think anyone there had the authority to put some sense into him.

When Steam came out, there was a strong need in the market to sort the mess PC games were in: disks needed to play the games, DRM, DRM, DRM, lack of extended gaming community, lack of supply of games, problems when installing updates etc. These problems were known, they were real so Steam came out and started solving them.

What problem does this box solve? In all the talk and all the articles I've read on the subject I have not heard one compelling reason why this thing is needed. Not one.

Throwing a product on the market that people don't need is a very, very bad idea.
 
Zethor said:
I've got a strange vibe from this whole thing ever since it was first announced. I think this time Valve are stupid because this whole project seems to be Gabe's brain child and I don't think anyone there had the authority to put some sense into him.

When Steam came out, there was a strong need in the market to sort the mess PC games were in: disks needed to play the games, DRM, DRM, DRM, lack of extended gaming community, lack of supply of games, problems when installing updates etc. These problems were known, they were real so Steam came out and started solving them.

What problem does this box solve? In all the talk and all the articles I've read on the subject I have not heard one compelling reason why this thing is needed. Not one.

Throwing a product on the market that people don't need is a very, very bad idea.
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Although I don't know Gabe personally, he has never struck me as the dictating kind. Plus with the rather unique way in which Valve is structured I'm not sure he'd be able to get away with forcing his ideas through if other senior figures at Valve weren't onboard just because he thinks he's right.

We shall see won't we.
 
KIA said:
Consoles lacking native backwards compatibility is nothing new.
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Egh.
I mean buying a game for your Xbox 360 on your Xbox 360 and it not working.

You're on your Steambox, running Steam, on the SteamOS (Notice steam)

You buy a random game, go to play it, doesn't work. That's a real scenario that will happen.

EDIT : The weird thing with SteamOS to me is.
When Mantle launches, there's no real reason BF4 wouldn't be able to be showcased on a Steambox, it'd be good marketing, but it's not going to happen :p
 
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Martini1991 said:
You buy a random game, go to play it, doesn't work. That's a real scenario that will happen.
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Steps have been put in place to prevent this. We don't see widespread reports of Mac users accidentally buying Windows titles. Valve has already had previous experience of this as well as considerable time to refine the process.
 
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