SteamMachines, SteamOS and SteamVR Official Thread

[Bacon McShig]

They should've called it the Gabecube.

Steam Engine, imo. Fits perfectly with the Steam/Valve naming structure.

[gamevet]

Anything Alienware is too expensive.. price is going to be the key point of the Steambox. If the price is right it could appeal to the console gamers out there that want better graphics or access to other games... I have a friend who wants to play PC games but hates using a PC and wants something simple to use on his TV. He almost went OnLive that's how much he wants it. I get that there are ways to do it now (I have my PC on the TV for example) but they need to simplify it even more for the dumb masses out there. If it's too expensive then it will end up like 3DO and CD-I.

Yeah, Alienware is the worst example of how much a system with these specs would cost, but it does give an example of why this idea probably won't work. Sony and MS can sell their boxes at a loss, while a company like Dell would have to sell their Steam spec system with a profit margin. It's the same reason why the 3DO couldn't compete.

[TobalRox]

Where this might become interesting is if it creates a standard for hardware that carries over into the PC market. That could simplify PC gaming for those who still find it intimidating. You could just say "I need something Steambox 2.0 compatible."

MS kind of tried this with that index number... but really, does anyone remember what their number is and see anything that uses that other than them?

[gameoverDude]

I actually like this idea, somewhat like a Steam powered Type X3. Hopefully this could lead to Cave, Taito, etc. getting some releases on there. At least a 2nd gen Steambox would avoid the X360's "MAME driver" shit for individual games.

Price should be kept to at most $400 while still being able to run something like Crysis on Very High. It could use an eSATA port or two to allow off the shelf external HDD use. Take Rage sucking up 25 GB and Battlefield 3 at 20 GB- that's a huge dent out of 250 GB, so I'd probably put a 2 TB drive on it. Windows 8 Embedded would be nice for the OS.

[Yoshi]

Windows 8 Embedded would be nice for the OS.

Hell no

[James]

If the Valve Box clocked in under $400 and was as open as one would expect a computer to be, I'd probably snap one up in a heartbeat. Mouse/keyboard support for FPS and others, standard USB input so my 360 pad can serve double-duty on the indie arcade-style title, and I'm very tempted. Make it fully compatible with all media types and give it a good remote and I'd have my perfect gaming console

James

[Diff-chan]

$400 will get you a $400 computer, which isn't very good and certainly can't play the games one expects from a new PC purchase. Unless Valve decides to sink a ton of money into subsidizing the unit, which was gamevet's point.

[Yoshi]

That's not exactly right, as Valve buying hundreds of thousands of the same MoBo, CPU, GPU, OS, etc. would likely net significant discounts. The issue would be whether their need for profit eats those discounts entirely.

[Diff-chan]

Check out the types of computers Dell or HP sell in that price range. The discounts they are getting on those computers are probably better than what Valve would get, and it's not like Dell or HP are getting huge margins at that price. Those computers certainly aren't what I would call a gaming PC.

Something has to give.

[George]

I enjoy the idea behind this, not just to light a fire under the asses of console makers slow to embrace digital distribution in a way that doesn't totally spit in the customer's face, but because this could actually go a long way towards preservation of games themselves, much like MAME cabinets and arcade emulation do today. Older PC games still enjoy surprising commercial success when they have a Steam Weekend. It's a good way to give incentive to companies to preserve data properly and allow them to still make money on an old asset, and in turn the customer gets access to a classic game in its arguably most definitive version without intrusive DRM and crazy certification/licensing processes like with Msoft's XBOX live Arcade, and without the need to pirate.