http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/04/valve-rumoured-to-be-making-steam-box-console/

This is an interesting concept, and I feel an amazingly smart strategy for Valve.

Valve has been looking for a way to tap into the console market. However, restrictions in place from both Sony and Microsoft make it incredibly hard. I feel this could put Valve into a position to be the next Apple. When I say that, Apples success is due to CONTROL; their ability to control every aspect of their company, from the actual hardware, and software to create a much higher internal standard, to marketing, operations and distribution. If Valve can find a way to do this, yet still allow competition, it could be a "gaming Renascence" IMO.

There was an issue brought up in the comments on RPS though, what OS will the box run? will it be Windows? probably not due to licensing issues and being in direct competition to Xbox, yet to utilize steams current game library it really needs to be running Direct X... Hmmm...

If I had the freedom of PC gaming, in an easy-to-use, set hardware configuration I'd be on bored. The current limitations of gaming is really the restrictions put on the services by Microsoft and Sony. Entertainment is no longer simply a product, it is entertainment as a service... creating more value for your customers and also realizing that members of the community inherently create more value for everybody else.

Anyways, I hope against hope, and wish against wish that Valve can make this work somehow.

What does this mean? It means no longer will there be cut and copy squeals every year. Games on console can be patched just like on PC... one game can release and be played and updated for 7-10 years (just like on PC with Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Eve-Online...etc)

Plz don't compare that to Apple or I might make an initial negative connection to this before it even begins


Anyways, MS/Sony do need competition... and they need the competition Vavle can bring.

If it's a full digital console system, that could be bad mutha fuckin ass. The sales and shit they do are just amazing. The xbox online marketplace makes me sick everytime I look through it... over priced as fuckin shit. All their retail games are like 50% more than new from retail, AND won't come with any codes etc. I just don't understand who buys this shit... and whoever it is needs to be punched in the face for supporting such price gouging.

And yah, the patching process on MS/Sony is atrocious. People want to know why patches are 4-6 mo apart? It's because of all the time and $ overhead dealing with ea patch and the certification process.

I mean, what company wants to provide bunches of free DLC when it costs em a bunch to do it? (and they are likewise restricted from doing so anyways with minimum paid vs free content terms)

I think youre missing the point, Gnarly. If Valve is really making a "console", it won't be a console in the same terms as the 360 or PS3. If anything, what they're probably making is simply a system that'll be able to run high-spec PC games at a low cost and without a need to build your own rig.

I can imagine there being a huge market for this, because Im sure I can't be the only person that wants to play amazing PC games without needing to go through the hassle of building my own gaming PC and spending $700+ to do so.

You're right though that something like this would definitely give Valve control over the market. It'd probably have built in Steam integration also, and actually I wouldnt be surprised if it lacked a disc slot and only played Steam games.

Dont mistake this as a separate console though. It's not like you'll be seeing games made for PS3, 360, Steam Box and PC.

You'd be surprised.

A free hentai magazine will come for every M-rated purchase from your Steambox™.

The thing is, Gabe has visions to turn Valve into more than a video game company. He is looking at entertainment as a hole. My comparison to Apple is more about the complete and utter change of an industry. Apples main success is NOT in computers, no no, it is the Ipod and Itunes. Steve Jobs revolutionized music, not computing...

Valves biggest asset is its ability to leverage the community itself. People love valve, and valve loves when people create content. Valve also truly supports Indie developers, providing resources and a platform for them to get their games to market that is fair for both Valve and the dev.

So yes, Valve could be the next "Apple" in a sense of revolutionizing the entertainment industry as a hole, truly treating it as a service that embraces the community around it, not just as products to be sold for .99 cents...

Also Steve Jobs didnt revolutionize shit, he made music cheaper and more accessible, he simply put digital music on the frontpage, it was already happening, filesharing and mp3s were around well before he "revolutionized music" he simply was smart enough to market it and price it correctly

Mass marketing does not equal revolutionizing

I think what Spacefox is trying to say is it would just run PC games...

however....

it wouldn't. Space, you must understand that even on Steamworks, the games are written for WINDOWS, using microsoft drivers and libraries that they could not use on their own system's that they built... unless they used a windows OS that they paid MS licensing fees for... and just how good of a deal do you think MS would be willing to give them?

They would have to build their own OS and build all their own dll's and interfacing for programmers to use.

It probably could be built well to not need major rewriting from PC to the Steambox (or w/e the frack they call it) but there will need to be some. They might even get the licensing done so if you buy something on Steam, you could play it on your PC or Steambox on the same steam account.

Anyways, I'm definitely interested in dis

You have to forgive him DTech... he is a marketing major and so incorrectly presumes that marketing actually helps society.