Valve said to be working on a 'Steam Box' console

  • Thread starter Thread starter Klo
  • Start date Start date
Essentially mac mini isn't it, seen as they have no plans for a new engine and source can run on rocks seems like a good idea. But the fact that they are developing this box puts the last nail in new valve engine coffin, which in turn means no half-life 3 for a while as releasing it on albeit updated but still old source engine is not valve style.
 
What a waste of time for Valve to get involved in this. Steam is not exactly a household name is it :rolleyes: why bother branding something just concentrate on a nextgen DX11 Half Life project like most of their fanbase have wanted for years!! Valve will never ever have the marketing muscle of Dell will they so at best they sell enough to cover costs but its not like Valve need the money with the success of Steam they must have billions in cash in the bank by now :eek:
 
They need to do something with all that money I suppose and Steam is a household name these days. Gabecube will be successful.
 
Not really sure how this can work, its not like every game engine used that steam has for a purchase is as flexible as source. Id imagine some kind of profile would have to be created for the steam library for appropriate playable settings for each game, not an easy task. id imagine thats how theyre gonna go about it if its being pitched as a set top box.

AWPC said:
What a waste of time for Valve to get involved in this. Steam is not exactly a household name is it :rolleyes: why bother branding something just concentrate on a nextgen DX11 Half Life project like most of their fanbase have wanted for years!!
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I'm pretty sure the people working on this are seperate from the team working on HL3 opr episode 3 depending on how it turns out.
 
orderoftheflame said:
Except they won't. Because it'll be running PC titles anyway. :confused:
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Exactly. The reason Xbox and PS3 have low-grade components is because they can then sell it cheapish and be safe in the knowledge that developers will program specifically for that machine and thus get the most out of it for years. It will age just like a normal PC, with the major glaring disadvantage being that it won't be user-upgradeable.

If developers aren't going to get behind it and design PC games exclusively for it (which they won't, as it's inevitably going to be just a highish-end PC inside a smaller sexier box) then it would be the most pointless venture on Earth, and a guaranteed catastrophic money-bleeder.

Rumour mill and nothing more imo.
 
Sounds like it'll just be a specific PC that Steam can whack a label on their games to say "Steam Box compatible" rather than "requires X amount of RAM and X processor and blah blah other specs". If it isn't just a rumour, I think the intention of this is not to make a standard for developers to develop for, but a system that steam can say "X game will definitely work on Steam Box", ultimately simplifying the process for "simpler-minded" end-users, and possibly expanding the PC games market by attracting console gamers. If it catches on massively, which, while I doubt it will, is a possibility, Steam essentially become a major player in the console war, as developers start to develop specifically for the Steam Box. If it doesn't catch on, then it's no biggy really, but there's no real disadvantage to it.

Could potentially be a good thing, but will probably just slip under the radar, I think.
 
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