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News Valve's Newell hints at Steam Box announcement

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 17 Sep 2013.

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  1. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Not sure how someone gets from this
    [​IMG]
    To that.

    I would call fake seeing as how they say "This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room." I'm not sure how HL3 will help connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.
     
    Corky42, 23 Sep 2013
    #41
  2. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Oh as far as I'm aware it's a fake, just wanted to see some reactions :p
     
    GeorgeStorm, 23 Sep 2013
    #42
  3. Pliqu3011

    Pliqu3011 all flowers in time bend towards the sun

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    1 hour to go!

    EDIT: Less than 5 minutes!
     
    Last edited: 23 Sep 2013
    Pliqu3011, 23 Sep 2013
    #43
  4. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    :thumb:
    First announcement is the SteamOS
    Looks like the cheapest Steam box will be nothing more than a box to stream the games running on your PC to your TV.
     
    Corky42, 23 Sep 2013
    #44
  5. d_stilgar

    d_stilgar Old School Modder

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    They say they are working with music/TV/movie people to get content on SteamOS. Whether that's Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. or that they get some of those deals themselves . . . who knows? In any case I think I'll be going with SteamOS for my HTPC.
     
    d_stilgar, 23 Sep 2013
    #45
  6. Dave Lister

    Dave Lister Minimodder

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    So there big news was steam OS ! what a surprise another bloody let down from valve... (steam os does sound pretty cool though)
     
    Dave Lister, 23 Sep 2013
    #46
  7. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    There are still two announcements to come, my guess is the next one will be the Steam box because of the [O ] the O being SteamOS and the [ ] being the box. But im lost when it come to what O+O means :confused:
     
    Corky42, 23 Sep 2013
    #47
  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I'll bet you a fiver to a charity of the winner's choice it's Family Sharing.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 23 Sep 2013
    #48
  9. rici1241

    rici1241 Minimodder

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    Surely that would be [O] + [O] though. It looks like 2 pieces of software in one box. Steam OS and maybe source 2?
     
    rici1241, 23 Sep 2013
    #49
  10. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    I wouldn't rule anything out, but i don't think they would announce something that has already been announced.

    If the O was indicative of the SteamOS being open source, could the O+O mean two open source product's coming together ? would there be any reason to make Source engine open source ?
     
    Corky42, 23 Sep 2013
    #50
  11. forum_user

    forum_user forum_title

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    Monday - they announce SteamOS
    Wednesday - official SteamBox cert details of first partner release?
    Friday - Early access to HL3 & L4D3 for the weekend?

    I just think its a bit suspect that the final announcement is likely to fall on a Friday. Friday mostly means the start to a gaming weekend. Which must meana game release?
     
    forum_user, 23 Sep 2013
    #51
  12. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    More like cross compatability. You can play a game on your steambox and then save the game and play it on another device. This isn't going to be three separate announcements, but rather an announcement of three features of the Steambox
     
    Cthippo, 23 Sep 2013
    #52
  13. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    They have already detailed a cross-platform cloud as being part of SteamOS, haven't all the features of the Steambox already been given ? isn't it software that dictates what can be done on a device ?
     
    Corky42, 23 Sep 2013
    #53
  14. teppic

    teppic What's a Dremel?

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    Yup, currently I can access my saved games in Half Life 2, Trine 2, etc from Linux or Windows. That's already there.
     
    teppic, 24 Sep 2013
    #54
  15. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Next announcement will be the controller.
     
    theshadow2001, 24 Sep 2013
    #55
  16. forum_user

    forum_user forum_title

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    I'm changing my prediction for Friday's announcement.

    I now think it will be early access to the SteamOS. Or early access will be a part of the announcement.

    1. Valve have already said something along the lines of them wanting us to help shape it.
    2. They also say that SteamOS is already running hundreds of games. Therefore it must be close to a final release. Valve push early access quite heavily.
     
    forum_user, 24 Sep 2013
    #56
  17. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Ooh. OOH. While my original bet still stands - which is likely to cost me a fiver, but hey, it's for charidee - I'm changing my guess. What's the one thing consoles have had for *years* but is still rare on PC? What made playing GoldenEye on the N64 so much fun, when there were more technically-able first-person shooters available on the PC? Why did we all come back from our friends houses with bruises on our arms after chaining cheesies in Street Fighter II on the Mega Drive?

    Local. Split-screen. Multiplayer.

    <drops mic, leaves stage>
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 24 Sep 2013
    #57
  18. Pliqu3011

    Pliqu3011 all flowers in time bend towards the sun

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    I want to believe.

    I'm afraid it depends too much on the individual games though. Maybe Valve will push a new “SteamBox-certified”-label that guarantees features like split-screen etc.
     
    Pliqu3011, 24 Sep 2013
    #58
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    It would, theoretically, be something that could be achieved at a driver level for many games - in the same way as 3D glasses support. Split the monitor into two virtual display surfaces, and run two copies of the game: one copy renders to one display surface, the other renders to the other. The two connect for multiplayer traffic over a localhost network connection - and as far as the games are concerned, they're just normal network-based multiplayer titles running on an oddly-shaped monitor.

    There are downsides to that plan, of course, the chief being that you've suddenly doubled the poor Steam Box's workload - but that's something consoles have coped with for a while, usually by reducing the graphics quality. Plus, if we may be permitted to dream for a moment: stick an eight-core processor in the Steam Box (APU, anyone?) and you can have four cores per player in a two-player game - and there are still mighty few games that can really make use of more than four cores if they're only running a single instance. Add in the reduced resolution - if you were playing horizontal split-screen on a 1920x1080 monitor, each copy of the game will only be rendering 960x1080 pixels - and you could potentially get away with it. Even four-player local co-op could work: each copy would have two CPU cores to itself, while only having to render 960x540 resolution graphics.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 24 Sep 2013
    #59
  20. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    There are some things i don't quite get with bringing Steam and PC gaming into the living room, in the past Valve said there will be three tiers of Steambox, good, better, and best.

    People with a PC capable of playing most modern games may only buy the 'good' Steambox, something to act as a head unit, with controllers, hook it up and stream data from your PC. So something like a 'good' Steambox would have to be around £100-150 to be considered worth buying, no ?

    Now the tier i don't get is the 'better' and im hoping someone can help me with it :)
    AFAIK the 'better' tier is going up against the consoles, so it would need to be priced to compete with them and at the same time be capable of running all modern games, without having to rely on that 5+ year old dell gathering dust in the corner. Now its fairly certain Valve wont be making the Steambox, they may make a reference design to help OEM's know what is expected/recommended.

    So the question is can a HTPC type box with a sticker saying designed to run SteamOS be made by OEM's for a price that competes with the PS4 (£350) and Xbox One (£430) ? sure it could be a little more expensive, due to the games being cheaper and not having to pay subscriptions, but even with those advantages i cant see people wanting to pay £550+ for a Steam box.
     
    Corky42, 24 Sep 2013
    #60
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