Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

Well, it's not the final product appearance: It's a design of another product by the manufacturer. Spare case, pretty much.

BUT it is a bad console. It seems like they're going to sell it for more than the PS3 debuted at, and have lower specs.

Earth to Valve: What's wrong with you?

It's not a console. It's a spec. It's a PC to run in your TV stand and run Linux supported Steam games (which has a very small list at the moment), which typically cost more than a PS3.

There were several prototypes by different makers are CES as well, not just this one.

Indeed, Zmt. However...it seems like it'll be worth about $500 (based on my laptop's price since EXACT SAME SPECS) and possess a $999 pricetag.

But yeah...I also strongly dislike the marketing tactic that it runs all Steam games, when it's a very limited amount of games on Steam in reality.

You are missing the point. The price can not be dictated by Valve when giving vendors creative rights on hardware design. Some steam boxes will be $500 and some will be much more expensive.

The great thing about creating a spec rather than a product, is you can build your own. It's a linux box, running steam. Run with it.

Heh.

I think that it probably runs a Valve distro, though.

But, still, I don't like that marketing tactic with the "Steam library of thousands of games" being available.

I should make a topic where I just criticize Steam.

Anyway, they also say that a mobile Steambox console will be released, if I interpreted Gabe Newell talking about "Littlefoot" correctly.

They may roll their own, sure. But absolutely nothing is stopping you from downloading the packages and installing them on an Ubuntu 12* machine or a Fedora 17* machine like I did.

I know. I don't think you're getting my point, though.

They're falsely advertising that the Steam library of thousands of games is fully playable with a Steambox, so then people will think that it's a good value because it has cheap, plentiful games. In addition, it costs way too much. I do like the concept of a controller that can change for different games, though. (See Valve's controller patent.)

Ehm, what is falsely about that? Have they actually sold Steamboxes yet?

Does it matter even? The statement isn't wrong. The steam library is massive. Steambox compatible is a different subject.

The Steam library is indeed massive. The statement is wrong because it only has access to about 1% of the Steam library.

What, the statement only has access to 1% of the steam library?

The Steambox runs Linux.

About 20-40 games of the Steam library are available on Linux, if I remember correctly.

There are nearly two thousand games in the Steam library.

Additionally, SteamPlay is not mandatory for cross-platform titles. Therefore, you may actually be unable to play your game on the Steambox after purchasing the Windows version, because you'll have to pay again for another OS.

Sure, you could argue that the Steambox OS can be changed to Windows, but then you'll have to pay Microsoft for a new copy of Windows without an OEM license.

Meanwhile, you may also lose controller support on Windows, which defeats the purpose of the Steambox.

You are speculating about a product that has not yet been officially announced or sold. Steam will most likely make sure it will be a competitive offer before they will finalize the design and pricing. They are aware there are several large game console platforms out there already and they are also aware that they will have to offer enough interesting titles to make the hardware a success.

Are you calling their OS speculation? Gaben himself confirmed it, although he never confirmed that Valve will be the distro maker.

They're advertising the Steam library already. They will in the future.

They're probably going to advertise "over a thousand games under $10" or something of that nature to give the impression that it's a value console.

Alongside this, Steam games are all playable on Windows, so why buy the Steambox?

The only thing that is not speculation is "Linux". For all we know it could be an ARM SoC console when it comes to hardware. They will not offer the console until there are enough games for it to make it worth buying the console.

Windows is a POS that requires insane hardware to run your virus scanner and may have a few cycles left to run a game. It's not designed for dedicated game consoles and even MicroSoft doesn't run it on their own gaming platform. Just because a game runs on windows doesn't mean that playing the same game on a console can't be at least as much fun or a better gaming experience.

If you want to trash some product, please stick to facts only. There are plenty products that have plenty of facts available about them that deserve trashing. The Steam Console is not one of them (yet).

Perhaps you should apply your own advice to you first?

You might want to give an example where you think I'm not doing that if you want a serious answer to that question.

You basically wrote a heavily opinionated post while chastising others about their lack of facts. Contrary to what you may have lead to believe, your "own personal opinion" and "facts" are not the same thing.

Cheers.

Yeah, I'm acknowledging what I believe that the best feature will be, too. The controller patent is public, and Valve has stated that they are looking to innovate input IIRC.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of Windows. I'm just stating the fact that the entire Steam library works on Windows, while very little of it will work on the Steambox, and that which will work on the Steambox will also work on Windows in almost all situations.

Extrapolation and accurate prediction of the future was once a hobby of mine, then I started riding a skateboard and my ulcer went away.