Valve Confirms They are Working on a Steam Box

[Blink]

Kotaku are reporting that Valve will indeed be working on the previously rumoured Steam Box:

Speaking to me during a brief interview on the red carpet at the VGAs last night, Newell said Valve's current goal was to figure out how to make PCs work better in the living room. He said the reaction to Steam's TV-friendly Big Picture interface has been "stronger than expected," and that their next step is to get Steam Linux out of beta and to get Big Picture on that operating system, which would give Valve more flexibility when developing their own hardware.

He also expects companies to start selling PC packages for living rooms next year—setups that could consist of computers designed to be hooked up to your TV and run Steam right out of the gate. And yes, Newell said, they'd compete with next-gen consoles from companies like Microsoft and Sony

Check the full article for more.

[Spas12]

lol fuck consoles.

[MELVIn]

Since we're moving closer to consoles and PC's being pretty much the same thing, with talk of CPU's becoming soldered on to motherboards, and consoles being pretty much PC's these days, this could definitely become the ultimate hybrid.

[cpl. punishment]

I hope they're still working on, you know, Half Life 3 or whatever it's going to be called.

[srredfire]

I hope they're still working on, you know, Half Life 3 or whatever it's going to be called.

A really good marketing strategy would to debut HL3 with the Steambox. Not really exclusive per say, but hand in hand. Would get better sales that way.

[Epifire]

Since we're moving closer to consoles and PC's being pretty much the same thing, with talk of CPU's becoming soldered on to motherboards, and consoles being pretty much PC's these days, this could definitely become the ultimate hybrid.

The only way I see Consoles getting up there with PCs is if they had fully up gradable that some how featured a default module design with the case and frame work. I do agree though that the HL3 delays have been in part to being the first game on the Steam Box. That would be so epic to see them play HL3 in one of the coming E3s featuring Half-Life 3. I can see Gabe now sitting up there talking about it while they steal best game of the show once again.

[marnamai]

As a Valve fanboy I am allways interested in what they're up to, but this time I am a tad worried ...
Will the steambox cause Valve to shift their attention away from their main platform?
We haven't received a sdk (source code) for any of their recent games, only the so called "authoring tools".

I am curious if they 'll balance their steambox more toward the console crowds; a dumbed down pc or an upgraded console, somewhere in the middle I guess. Would steambox be usable for anything else but gaming/browsing/watching movies? None of the current consoles allow you to use a propper sdk. What would that mean for Source 2 and a potential sdk?

[nub]

Isn't the Steam Box essentially supposed to be a pre-made and pre-configured PC? A PC that can easily function as a traditional desktop, but is also designed to be conveniently used in a living room while hooked up to a TV? They talked about how it would have Windows installed on it with Steam preloaded on to it and ready to go, didn't they?

I can certainly see how this does come off as worrying to some. They've sort of neglected the modding community, they make Big Picture Mode, and then they announce Steam Box. It does appear as though they're shifting more towards the console scene, but I'm sure there's a lot more to it that just hasn't been spoken about yet. We should at least wait until they reveal more before we pass judgement.

[marnamai]

After reading the kotaku article I am left with the impression that they'll either use linux or write their own os.

[Gary]

I'm thinking a Linux-based Steam OS on a bunch of low to mid range computers. Which will probably be upgradeable boxes woth powersupplies based on current mobo/gpu/CPU standards. Intended to be a home entertainment system of the sorts. Which is basically the direction MS and Sony are already pushing consoles.

I doubt it will be a console like the X360 or PS3. Which do have some advantages when it comes to both the customers and developers. But most of those advantages will be lost if Valve has too many hardware presets(or customer changes a part to a "unsupported" device ) and fail to sell them less than the hardware is worth.

[Plague]

This isn't really meant for the gaming enthusiasts, this is just a bridge between two different markets.

Building/Upgrading a computer will always be a better solution if you plan to play more games or do mod/game creation work.


I don't really think we should jump to the conclusion that this will have any real affect with the development side of things considering its not even a box designed for anyone interested in the tools.


also:
lel cstum stem os

[Gary]

I don't see them making an OS from scratch... but I could see something Linux based making sense.

thinking about it more though. It will probably run windows with Steam installed.

[nub]

I've always speculated a Steam OS some time in the future, but on a traditional desktop PC, and meant mostly for game designers and gamers alike.

I'm pretty curious to see where this heads though. I still want some news for HL3 though...

[MaK]

They're not using windows or their own OS, I thought it was very obvious that it will be linux based. That's the entire reason why they're putting steam on linux. It's only a question of what distro. Probably Ubuntu, as that's what they're working on first and have it already have steam, L4D2, and TF2 working on.

As for the lack of sdk support, as we all already know it says in the article "they're working on their next-generation engine—which he said will work with next-generation consoles as well." So I don't really blame them for not wanting to fix the old sdk and probably have given up on it. They've most likely got all their resources towards building the new tools. Who knows, if we're being optimistic we might see some new engine stuff next year.

[source-maps]

As for the lack of sdk support, as we all already know it says in the article "they're working on their next-generation engine—which he said will work with next-generation consoles as well." So I don't really blame them for not wanting to fix the old sdk and probably have given up on it. They've most likely got all their resources towards building the new tools. Who knows, if we're being optimistic we might see some new engine stuff next year.

hah I find that hardly an excuse considering how long we're dealing with this old stuff now