Valve - If we have to sell console hardware we will

[Wirdschowerdn]

I still think it's bullshit, unless Gabe himself steps up next week at the GDC and announces the GabeCube.

I'd buy that then like the good Valve sheeple I am.

 

[Azalin]

Tags: Valve, Steam, Go Gaben.

Recently there's been chatter that Valve — the company behind the massively popular gaming service Steam — has been considering getting into the hardware business. Specifically, there have been rumors that the company has been toying with the idea of creating a proper set-top console which could potentially pose a threat to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell even recently told Penny Arcade: "Well, if we have to sell hardware we will."

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

The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

While I was reading that article I could have sworn I heard Multi Headed Cow screaming "I'm cumming buckets"

So what is this thing going to be called?

The Steam-Box?
The GabeCube??
THe SteamStation?

 

[Infinitron]

Steam Engine

 

[OuterSpace]

From this Joystiq article http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/03/rumor-valve-working-on-steam-box-console-standard-with-custom/

Valve is said to be working on hardware and software specifications for a "Steam Box;" which will actually be a unified console standard available to interested hardware manufacturers, rather than a specific console produced by Valve itself.

and then

Should rumors be believed, theAlienware X51 has already been developed to Steam Box standards and will be retroactively infused with Valve's software once it becomes available.

Its a PC with certain specific hardware standards set by Valve but manufactured by other companies. I think the idea is to have a more standardized PC platform so that consumers aren't scared away from PC gaming because of technical issues. No more "will my computer run this?" or "how do I get this game to run on my computer?". Also, developing games would be easier because you don't have to deal with all the compatibility issues. Also possibly lowing pricing as someone else pointed out.

 

[hoopy]

Indeed, it took tons of creativity and effort to 'develop' Portal 2 and L4D2. Same mechanics, pretty much the same art assets, and very little new content. Portal 2 had... what a six or seven hour long single player campaign coupled with a static six or seven hour long co-op (experience is the same every time)? They added a few new hazards and tricks but it's basically Portal... just not the two hour edition.

Of course it's Portal. Should they have made a racing sim instead and called it Portal 2? Should Baldur's Gate 2 have been a first person scifi shooter? Thank God at least Dragon Age 2 had the good sense to be different.

Portal 2's campaign is much longer and more elaborate than the first game's, it has new game mechanics and includes a co-op campaign that wasn't in the first game at all. How is this not a proper sequel?

L4D2 could literally have been released as a $10 DLC for L4D and no one would have batted an eye. It added three new infected, melee weapons, and four or five new maps?

Five new campaigns (L4D1 has four) with new survivors set in a new region, with new textures, models, sound effects and music, and new game mechanics and objectives.

L4D1 has 6 guns, L4D2 adds 9 new ones (including a grenade launcher) plus 11 melee weapons. L4D2 also adds ammo powerups, laser sights, defibrillators, adrenaline shots, and bile jars. Then there are the three new infected (or four if you count the wandering witch), and new game modes.

Yep, this sure sounds like a $10 DLC to me. Or actually $0, since this is Valve we're talking about. To qualify as a sequel it should have had at least 10 new campaigns, 50 new guns and 10 new special infected.

And their next trick is Dota 2 (which, let's be honest, is just a means of marketing the Steam platform even further and gouging morons with microtrasactions for hats, skins, new heroes, flags, etc.)! Whoa... slow down there, Valve. Don't bust a vessel pumping out these revolutionary sequels. It's the same shit Activision does with Call of Durpies but since it's Valve doing the people slurp it up.

The Call of Duty series has 15 games in total, and yearly releases. Portal and L4D have two each, and as I just demonstrated the sequels both substantially differ from the first games.

 

[racofer]

I still think it's bullshit, unless Gabe himself steps up next week at the GDC and announces the GabeCube GameSphere.

I'd buy that then like the good Valve sheeple I am.

Fixed.

 

[Achilles]

Nope, I don't think Valve wants/will compete with the Next-Gen consoles.

I would bet my right arm that whatever it is that Valve is planning, it will be at least as powerful as the generation of consoles. Come on, they are developers, they have great relations with pretty much everybody, I'm sure they at least know about the specs of console devkits if they don't have a couple themselves.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Nope, I don't think Valve wants/will compete with the Next-Gen consoles.

I would bet my right arm that whatever it is that Valve is planning, it will be at least as powerful as the generation of consoles. Come on, they are developers, they have great relations with pretty much everybody, I'm sure they at least know about the specs of console devkits if they don't have a couple themselves.

Whatever man, I still don't think it's a console in the classical sense (closed system, own proprieraty OS, etc.).

But Valve is confirmed to attend E3, so we should find out there.

 

[Achilles]

I agree with that, it will be a PC but dressed in a way that appeals to the masses.

 

[Oriental European]

Some also say that it will have modular structure, which means that you'll be able to upgrade the hardware.
And was it so necessary to merge my thread with this one? This is bullshit, last message in this thread was in February. Pull yourself together mods. Don't make me post another thread in SF and once again show that no-one here knows logic.

 

[Steve]

From this Joystiq article http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/03/rumor-valve-working-on-steam-box-console-standard-with-custom/

Valve is said to be working on hardware and software specifications for a "Steam Box;" which will actually be a unified console standard available to interested hardware manufacturers, rather than a specific console produced by Valve itself.

and then

Should rumors be believed, theAlienware X51 has already been developed to Steam Box standards and will be retroactively infused with Valve's software once it becomes available.

Its a PC with certain specific hardware standards set by Valve but manufactured by other companies. I think the idea is to have a more standardized PC platform so that consumers aren't scared away from PC gaming because of technical issues. No more "will my computer run this?" or "how do I get this game to run on my computer?". Also, developing games would be easier because you don't have to deal with all the compatibility issues. Also possibly lowing pricing as someone else pointed out.

So it'll be like Google's Android, we'll just have to wait and see how much you will be able to customize the hardware and software, even if it's a fully open system I doubt it will attract any long term PC users unless they really nail the pricing with this one.

 

[Volrath]

People are actually interested in this idea?

 

[TripJack]

only idiots steamtards

 

[Kraszu]

I am not interested in buying one, but it can be interesting to see how it will do, what the cost/hardware will be etc. I dread the moment where even most of PC players would start to play on TVs.

 

[Infinitron]

Welp http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/09/valve-deny-steam-box-rumours-talk-up-big-picture/

 

[Mortmal]

From this Joystiq article http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/03/rumor-valve-working-on-steam-box-console-standard-with-custom/

Valve is said to be working on hardware and software specifications for a "Steam Box;" which will actually be a unified console standard available to interested hardware manufacturers, rather than a specific console produced by Valve itself.

and then

Should rumors be believed, theAlienware X51 has already been developed to Steam Box standards and will be retroactively infused with Valve's software once it becomes available.

Its a PC with certain specific hardware standards set by Valve but manufactured by other companies. I think the idea is to have a more standardized PC platform so that consumers aren't scared away from PC gaming because of technical issues. No more "will my computer run this?" or "how do I get this game to run on my computer?". Also, developing games would be easier because you don't have to deal with all the compatibility issues. Also possibly lowing pricing as someone else pointed out.

So pretty much reinventing the amiga/atari ST, no more will my omputer will be able to run this problem, perfectly optimized game for the platforms, no compatibility issues, stable hardware, welcome back to 1986. Now if only we could still have the kind of games that were produced back then, like wasteland..oh wait.