News Valve's Newell hints at Steam Box announcement

Hence why I said

For clarification with advanced I meant Kaveri or something even newer, not a current A10.

 

I don't really get the concept of a standalone steambox product. It makes sense as a budget/htpc type thing that you make yourself, but it falls flat on it's face in the context of being actually produced by Valve.

For a start, let's assume it would run a Linux distro. Great, you can run Valve games and a handful more from the steam store. Sure more developers might cotton onto developing for Linux, but more likely is that they would develop for the steambox itself. My reasoning for this is basically that a steambox simply cannot be a powerful PC. If it's a beastly machine with standard parts (what you would need for full compatibility) then it's nothing special and just a normal PC running linux. If it's a dedicated system that works perfectly with a Valve oriented linux distro well done you just have a bog standard console.

The whole benefit of Steam is keeping things simple and accessible. A dedicated steambox would remove the accessible bit as it would have to be developed for in the same manner as a normal console for it to function properly. Else it would just chug along at a ludicrously slow speed and not be worth playing on over a normal PC or even a PS4/XBone.

Why do people want this?

 

I would respectfully disagree. My betting is Valve will do a similar thing as Microsoft when Windows 95 hit the market, do some deals with OEM's to produce the hardware (based on minimum or recommended requirements), and maybe release the actual Steambox distro.
Then people could buy a OEM Steambox preinstalled with the distro, or build there own htpc type box, and install it. Hook it up to the TV in the living room sit back and relax on the sofa while watching Netflix, playing games, browsing the net, etc, etc.

The box would start up in big picture mode making things easy for people that want to keep it simple, and for those that want to tinker or create there own content they could hook up a keyboard and mouse and do what ever they want.

 

But that's exactly what I don't understand about a steambox. You can already do all of that bar having a steam Linux distro. Basically all a steambox is by your thought is a low powered, pre-installed Linux running PC.

I just don't really see what market it's aimed at, and what makes it special. Casuals won't adopt it because they have other consoles for that and the more hardcore crowd won't adopt it unless other big studios back it fully with their games too, which would be nice but not guaranteed.

 

Yea, you and i could do that now if we wanted, some people have already done that or written articles detailing how it can be done, but for your non geek building and setting up a Linux based htpc would probably be a no go.

The main advantages of buying or building a Steambox are the same advantages that Steam has on the PC over consoles, cheaper games, steam sales, no monthly subscriptions, user created content, all the good parts of gaming on a PC, along with all the good parts of gaming on a console, without the disadvantages of either.

 

It is aimed at me and whatever market I fall in!

 

There will no doubt be the Steambox OS, which is likely to be a custom Ubuntu with Valve/Steam branding. Of course they'll allow anyone already using a modern Linux distribution to run Steam, as long as it meets the requirements. The advantage of a Valve-certified set of hardware is the same as with consoles - games will install and run fine in a single click, no worries about drivers etc.

If the Steambox runs a Kaveri-style APU it still won't be as powerful as the next gen consoles - perhaps they could instead run Kaveri with a 7750 in dual graphics - that would be quite powerful (it'd beat a 7850). AMD's released drivers aren't really up to it though.

 

I am trying to think of what kinda market I represent.

I just can't be bothered researching and building yet more boxes when I have a house full of all sorts of devices already that require my attention for fixing or upgrades etc. I have a family life. I enjoy gamng-time. Responsibilities. Chores. Work. Higher learning.

Valve have my money if they release something that is:

• convenient and simple - we already know the software interface works very well. Let's hope n00bs get it nice and simple to setup, and the more technical users get decent configurable options

• sexy and small - I dont want a huge hot noisy beast in the lounge or any other room. I want the little boxes to be powerful enough to enjoy my gaming without wishing I was using my proper gaming machine

• functional and connected - Gabe has already mentioned the connected word numerous times. I guess he is aiming for us to have portable games that connect with all our devices. Play X-Com on the gaming machine in the office/study; get on the train to go home and continue the game on the phone; arrive home and chill with the family while continuing the game on the sofa with a tablet. All the devices accessing our Steam libraries, or streaming from the game server in the house to our devices.

I agree. To achieve that kind of 'Official SteamBox Certification' the hardware manufacturers will have to fall within tried and tested hardware combinations. Otherwise I expect SteamBox will still work - but be completely unsupported and offer no technical assistance whatsoever.

 

The question is do they want your money ? well more of it anyway

If you already have a steam library you are already giving Valve money, so im not sure you would be there main market, unless you would buy more games if you could play from the sofa on the big screen.

I think there main market would be the console market, people who don't like sitting in front of a PC.
It has been said that the PC market is declining, but if people don't want to play PC games why are steam games sales seeing %76 year-on-year growth ? I think people want to play PC games, they just don't like playing them on the OEM PC's that the stats are based on.

 

It would seem some more information is coming from Steam in 57hrs 35min (at time of posting this)
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/

Anyone want to guess at what the symbols mean ?

 

Only 45 hours to go ...

 

A PC?

 

Too true.

 

From the language it sounds something like Steam Workshop for Big Picture mode. I think people will be able to make contributions for games to make them easier to play with a controller, or that people will be able to make changes to Big Picture mode itself.

I highly doubt that they'll do hardware design the same way, however.

The symbols . . . well, I think that our first announcement will be in 36.5 hours (as of posting) since the countdown timer is under the first circle, but that two more will be coming later. It's hard to say what the symbols themselves mean. (Looking at the code of the site, the circles seem to be referred to as buttons.)

First symbol is me. Then there's me in a box. Then there's me and a friend. So . . . game sharing, which has also been announced?

Other things . . . could be support for split screen controller play, which is usually missing or stripped out of PC versions of games.

Could be Steam as a distribution platform for music/TV/Movies? "Steam universe is expanding" sounds like a bigger thing than just games, but it could also just be hyperbole.

Okay, that's enough speculation for now.

 

Ahhh yes, it didn't occur to me the counter will move onto the next icon. So maybe three announcements over three days.

Gabe did say in the video linked in the BT article that they would be going into more details on the hardware side of things next week. So i would expect what ever is coming to focus on that. Or maybe we will all just get a cat or some new controller that looks like it belongs in the 90's

 

Is the also recent announcement by Mark Rein, related in anyway ?
http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/nvidia_is_preparing_the_%E2%80%9Cmost_amazing_thing%E2%80%9D_ever_made_mark_rein.html

Total speculation, but could it be a Steambox based around Nvidia hardware ?
Nvidia has made Shield, the Tegra SoC, and in the past they have been working closely with Valve to help improve their Linux drivers.

EDIT: Will the steam box just be a terminal so Shield can work in tandem with it ?

Forbes wrote an interesting article on the subject.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/01/13/8-potential-reasons-to-want-a-shield-and-steam-box-combo/

1.Use the SHIELD when someone else wants to use the TV (even in mid-game)
2.Port game versions using the Wii U’s dual screen to the PC
3.Local co-op for games like Borderlands or Left 4 Dead.
4.Switch on the Steam Box from the SHIELD, then browse the Steam Library and run a game from it.
5.Port popular Nintendo DS titles to the PC.
6.Run a helper app
7.Move out the minimap.
8.Patcher’s delight

2nd EDIT: Sundays are boring
So im probably going to make myself look like an idiot when the real announcement comes, but i cant stop thinking about it.

What we know so far is Valve is planning to go into more details on the hardware of gaming on Linux next week, and going on the web site they setup we are due an announcement around 5pm tomorrow.

Now i could be totally wrong on my theory, but on the Steam living room page along with the counters is a picture of a cat, and a game controller. Recently Google said the next android will be named Kit-Kat, is the cat on that page a reference to Kit-Kat ? If so will the first announcement be about Valve working with Google on the next Android release ? maybe hinting that Steambox will be running Kit-Kat ?

Also in the picture is a game controller, We know Valve has been working with Nvidia to improve their drivers on Linux and we know when Nvidia released shield, many people said it was to expensive and didn't see the point of of it.
But what if the next announcement is that Valve has been working with Nvidia on taking the streaming feature of shield further, out of beta, improving it and big picture mode to work better together, along with new features in Kit-Kat.

And the last one maybe the much rumored Steam box, running Kit-Kat, with enough storage for you Steam library, and the rest of the hardware needed to work in tandem with Shield to replace the need for streaming from a PC.

 

6pm tomorrow ...



Only 24 hours and 20 minutes to go!



(added)

OK.

I will put all my chips (because I want it to be like this) on the announcement being an official estimated released date for HL3, & L4D3, & SteamBox, & possibly an official release of the family/friends sharing feature.

 

What if this is just a plan for Valve to make the Steambox so, so bad, and so expensive, that not a single person buys it? And in the end, it turns out that each Steambox had Episode 3 installed...

 

How to ensure you're console sells regardless how bad it is... Ship it with HL3 exclusively.

 

Friend posted this on another forum: