Valve developing 'Steam Box' Console

[garyopa]

We could see the new platform next week.



According to some sources from 'The Verge', Valve could be working on a 'Steam Box', with standard PC components and no licensing fees.

According to a report from The Verge, Valve -best known for their Steam digital distribution platform for PC and the Half-Life series- could be working on a new gaming console, called 'Steam Box'. The new platform could be revealed at this year GDC, which will take place next week.

According to sources, the company has been working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of a "Steam Box." The actual devices may be made by a variety of partners, and the software would be readily available to any company that wants to get in the game.

[...]

Part of the goal of establishing a baseline for hardware, we're told, is that it will give developers a clear lifecycle for their products, with changes possibly coming every three to four years. Additionally, there won't be a required devkit, and there will be no licensing fees to create software for the platform.

Apparently, this will also be able to run any standard PC titles, and it's basic specs are just like a normal PC:

We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU.

Most likely, they are partnering up with a PC hardware developer, but other details are unknown. Also, they are working on a variety of USB peripherals, including a controller:

Valve is also allegedly developing an array of USB accessories, including a controller with modular control schemes like Mad Catz's MLG Pro Circuit Controller, and biometric sensors that change in-game elements to match your behavior.

As of January 2012, there are 40 million active user accounts on their Steam digital distribution platform.

If true, these could be very big news for gaming in general. We will know for sure at GDC next week.

NEWS SOURCE #1: Exclusive Valve Steam Box gaming console (via) TheVerge
NEWS SOURCE #2: Report Valve developing Steam Box console (via) IGN

Our thanks 'Gauss' for this news report!

[billysastard]

another home console to replace sony = win

digital only = gtfo

getting your new console called the "gabecube" before it is even shown = priceless.



i've got to say though, i'm really liking the controllers for this 4 face buttons on each side along with the usual start, home and back buttons coupled with the user selectable controls which let you switch out both analog sticks with any combination of trackballs, joypads and thumpads (think 360 controller with no joypad but an extra 4 buttons there and hot swapable control devices with what look like usb connectors on the underside of the sticks etc).

[JonathanD]

I like the concept of having a clear development target for PC's but I think Valve is the wrong company to do it.

I think Microsoft should have taken this job on themselves and even integrated it as part of the DirectX standard.

If done right even though its Valve doing it, this could revitalize the PC gaming industry not thats its dead by a long shot.

The 3-4 year life cycle is a nice idea too, but what should be done for PC gaming is where the graphics card is now, I would like to see the GPU and CPU and RAM in one package so that upgrading your PC for games would involve swapping one component VS the way it works now... I guess in my perfect PC the CPU and system RAM could just be pretty generic enough to run the OS, surf the web, do word processing and normal PC tasks. When playing a game the gaming card's enhanced CPU and GPU and added fast RAM could take over. The advantage of all this is that the system during day to day work would use little power but when tasked to do something more could call upon the additional resources of the game card. This would be great for Offices as they could get some cheap base system and add as needed for graphics artists or what have you.

I think all of this could ride on the current PCIe 16X bus, or some new faster bus.

Edit: And judging by what the Wii-U is packing for hardware saying a card for the PC in the same price range is easily possible but with even more powerful components or added RAM, due to the price savings of not having to include all the supporting hardware.

Would be nice to have one card add a quad core CPU, more and faster RAM and a nice GPU for my PC. This is all just fantasy land, but its nice to dream.

[billysastard]

I like the concept of having a clear development target for PC's but I think Valve is the wrong company to do it.

I think Microsoft should have taken this job on themselves and even integrated it as part of the DirectX standard.

microsoft couldnt do it, they wouldnt be able to charge for online services that should / are free on everything else.

[wewii]

Why are they calling it a console when its a PC.

This product will never have a product life cycle as long as a traditional console.

--Newer games will mean that you need to upgrade sooner than later.
--While on true consoles newer games will mean that the developers need to make the game run smooth and make the graphics look as nice as possible with the hardware available.

That's the fundamental difference between a console and pseudo-console pc. User vs Developer involvement. As far as I'm concerned let the Developer worry about the configuration and let me worry about how many n00bs I can take out while playing.

[billysastard]

Why are they calling it a console when its a PC.

This product will never have a product life cycle as long as a traditional console.

--Newer games will mean that you need to upgrade sooner than later.
--While on true consoles newer games will mean that the developers need to make the game run smooth and make the graphics look as nice as possible with the hardware available.

That's the fundamental difference between a console and pseudo-console pc. User vs Developer involvement. As far as I'm concerned let the Developer worry about the configuration and let me worry about how many n00bs I can take out while playing.

havent sony and ms already blurred the line between pc and console by allowing patches and dlc, all sorts of music / video services and digital downloads all of which are completely alien to the whole idea of a games console where you buy a complete, working game right from the start and it wont need patching because the console is a static platform and it will be complete right out of the box without needing to go online to download more parts of the game.

[JonathanD]

microsoft couldnt do it, they wouldnt be able to charge for online services that should / are free on everything else.

On the PC most networked games are free to play online, I think MMO's are the exception.

When I was speaking about MS and DX I was thinking only about the PC end of things. The whole Xbox division would probably nix the whole idea as it would essentially create another competitor to there own system.

Although..... That would be one way to tackle the add in card idea on the PC, make the 720 a stand alone console like normal but also make a 720 add in card for the PC. Replace a simple old graphics card with what would amount to a system on a card. The hardest part would be keeping the system secure from being hacked, and at the same time allowing the PC to use the hardware as needed.

[billysastard]

On the PC most networked games are free to play online, I think MMO's are the exception.

When I was speaking about MS and DX I was thinking only about the PC end of things. The whole Xbox division would probably nix the whole idea as it would essentially create another competitor to there own system.

Although..... That would be one way to tackle the add in card idea on the PC, make the 720 a stand alone console like normal but also make a 720 add in card for the PC. Replace a simple old graphics card with what would amount to a system on a card. The hardest part would be keeping the system secure from being hacked, and at the same time allowing the PC to use the hardware as needed.

surely that was tried before with those amiga cards for pc that no one bought.

[JonathanD]

surely that was tried before with those amiga cards for pc that no one bought.

I think 3DO also made something close to it as well.

[billysastard]

I think 3DO also made something close to it as well.

yes i believe so, but no one bought that either

[wewii]

havent sony and ms already blurred the line between pc and console by allowing patches and dlc, all sorts of music / video services and digital downloads all of which are completely alien to the whole idea of a games console where you buy a complete, working game right from the start and it wont need patching because the console is a static platform and it will be complete right out of the box without needing to go online to download more parts of the game.

PC games have no patches......... ya ok. Lets looks at Unreal Tournament ... several patches.... and dlcs packs. And then game of the year edition. Hmmmm Pc games don't seem so finalize at launch... now do they.

Consoles will always be king for easy of use and financial expenses. You gotta pay to play on live.... well so what (I've been paying for 6 years now- $300-$400 total). I've spend well over $2000+ for 360 game during that period. Instead of wasting it on new hardware. Beats having to do expensive upgrades to my PC 2-3 times within the time of a 360 life cycle, just so I can play online for "free".

And media features aren't totally alien to consoles.... especially if you took the time to get your Original XBOX to run XBMC back in the day. So MS didn't innovate... they just copied what 3rd party developers where trying to do. Atleast MS was smart enough to recognize that and had XViD/MP3/Network Streaming/MS Media Center support from day 1.

Plus anyone forget how MS made in game/dashboard chat a super easy and standardize medium of communication... instead of typing or dealing with the unstandardized PC headset/game chat technology back in 2005. While PS3 only had some half baked in-match only chat support.

Not to mention the standardization of leaderboards and True Skill match making. There was no true way to compare peoples skills as they were divided among thousands of servers several years back.

I don't know how it is today... since I don't play PC anymore. But back in the day the high costs of hardware were justified with downloading games for free.

The main reason why consoles are dominating PC this gen is because they aren't static (360 is x10 better than at launch), they aren't expensive, innovative peripherals and they are very very entertaining & impressive despite the obvious lower hardware specs of any typical product life cycle..

[billysastard]

PC games have no patches......... ya ok. Lets looks at Unreal Tournament ... several patches.... and dlcs packs. And then game of the year edition. Hmmmm Pc games don't seem so finalize at launch... now do they.

of course pc games have patches, they pretty much always have because of the variation in hardware, console howver did not , try re reading that bit of what i said.

[wewii]

of course pc games have patches, they pretty much always have because of the variation in hardware, console howver did not , try re reading that bit of what i said.

Well if you are referring to first day DLC... ya that pretty stupid. I agree.

[GaussTek]

UPDATE!

Apparently Valve has denied the rumors:

As reported by Kotaku, Valve Marketing Director Doug Lombardi has revealed that the world is “a long way from Valve shipping out any sort of hardware.”


While Lombardi didn’t rule out the possibility of hardware sometime in the future, he confirmed that there would be nothing at GDC or E3, effectively squashing any chances that a Valve console would enter the race at this juncture.


Rumors of the “Steam Box” started from an article on The Verge, based mostly on an unnamed source, and a patent that Valve has confirmed was a PC Box built by Valve employee Greg Coomer. Valve is currently working on its Steam Big Picture Mode UI and said the PC box was used to test that.

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/...console-rumors

BUT, seems they are doing some sort of testing with PC Boxes and they aren't ruling out the possibility heh