Is it the Steam Box or not? Q&A with Xi3
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- Jan 8, 2013
David Politis from Xi3 talks about the partnership with Valve and the company's Steam-focused PC.
523 comments
As long as it does not force constant online drm, this could be good in 2-3 yrs (kinda pricey). For that price, I can build a smoking PC right now.
1 Like Haha, guy didnt know what the dedicated video memory is... no comment, and graphics with 384 shaders? Thats something like GT 640m, well... nothing special
1 Like ill stick with my computer...but i have to admit, this does look very interesting
1 Like So it is sort of the SteamBox, as it is the roumor (but not what we expected) it is the SteamBox but it can just be used as other things not just dedicated to Steam.
Will it have 3rd party compatibility. Making it easy to port games made for Xbox, PS3 and PC. One of the leading factors in the death of earlier consoles. What OS will it run?
@ChaosUndivided Disregard this if I'm wrong, but I thought to have 3rd party compatibility, you'd need to have permission from xbox AND Ps3, which both are different competing companies that would NEVER allow for their games to be used on anything but their own consoles...companies are in for the most profit. Then again, I haven't been reading up on all this in a while...
I really like the idea that you can upgrade this thing. Still hoping high end steambox doesn't go overt 400$
1 Like If it's over $400 at launch, it won't attract any dedicated PC gamers, because I can simply plug my current laptop into my TV with the same results. And non-PC gamers will not be interested in an unproven piece of hardware that's more expensive than what they currently have.
@cursealoud The $999 price tag wasn't for piston. It was for a power user version. I bet the piston will be right around the same price as competitor game consoles. All these new technologies coming out are making the old guard (Nintendo, Sony, and microsoft) look so outdated. I really think the next console war will be devestated for some.
So... is it the steam box or not? That's the head you put on the article, where's the damn answer?
I can see myself buying this day 1. Never played PC games, think this would be a good start.
@DR-ZMBK You will soon have a few options with how you can use a PC. With the option of a new build, one of these official 3rd party developments or the official steam box thats is still to be seen. All of which compared to the next PS4/Xbox let you have an upgradable future and far cheeper games its a great time to try PC gaming
3 Like People seem to be missing the point a little. First this is not the steam box valve have said so this is a 3rd party who has come up with a very cleaver little PC that is made in a new stream lined manner. valve are working on there own and i am sure they have a few more manufacturers in the pipeline too (looking at you alienware). Its a very clever way of doing things in a versatile way and to everybody's needs, so will to come in a "range" of spec's, they have already said they have 3 types with the "piston" being aimed at gamers and i am sure they have another few generations of this thing in the pipeline to keep gamers happy. For god sake Razer have just released a tablet with an i7 and GT 650 in it, i would have laughed 2/3 years ago at somebody telling me that.
And for the PC heads who are saying its not for me its not aimed at you its aimed at you mate's who does not have a PC. With Steam, Choice in OP system Win/Lynx, Range of Upgradable Products, Made by a number of Manufacturers you will soon have loads more buddies popping up when this opens the flood gate of steam across the living rooms of the world as this becomes the "console" alternative!
Valve know that Millions of Gamers are about to make a choice in where they put their money, 500 on the new console or 600-700 for a alternative gaming device like PC/MicroPC/GamingTab.... Fanboys will stick to which ever faction they happen to choose but the problem with consoles is the generation freeze in tech. You have brought into a new system for 5-7-10 years (who knows it keeps getting longer) with no chance of system improvments. With PC's and this new concept of micro modular PCs we have the possibility of even cheaper games (PC pay by far the less for games because of websites like steam/GOG..). I already made that choice 12 months back after 10-12 years in console world away from PC for simple ease of use, now software does the donkey work so much better than the old days (i didn't even have to set the voltage on my motherboard on install oh the joy!). Over the few steam sales that i have used i have amassed a good size library of titles for a fraction of what i would have if it was the same titles on console (some of which i had already got on xbox). Just comparing graphics or gameplay on a major title like BF3 you suddenly see what your missing out on compared to the PC market and how much the tech is keeping things back.
All in all this is win win for Valve and news that will be making Sony & Microsoft both very very nervous.
1 of the best thing about this is we don't have to go out & buy games they're already there for you waiting for you to buy
1 Like Nice concept, and if it can use a cloud service (meaning that it could play games on max possible settings running on servers somewhere) then it may be the future. But for now PC gamers know that 999 bucks buys more capable hardware, size and power usage arent priorities with PC gamers. And ebay allows PC gamers to sell old hardware and get money back and ultimately be green. And any PC these days will be useful for years to come one way or another for browsing, htpc, juke box, old pc games, old console emulation so the idea that people just throw away old PC hardware when they get new up to date stuff isnt strictly true.
@cube-gage Yes there are a lot of console fanboys out there though that will buy this. As a gaming PC owner I have no interest in this what so ever. Did you hear the part about 384 cores? Considering my gtx 670 overclocked only gets about 60fps on GW2 maxed I can't imagine this thing doing any kind of decent resolution on anything more than low settings, when it is about 20% as powerful as a gaming PC.
I must admit, if you can use it and not use so much power, like he said, what 40 or 80 watts, and you can upgrade and not have to worry about them just throwing away the board, Ill pay the 1000, if it has the right games and it works, Ill get this instead of the PS4... Ill still have computer but Ill throw money at them.
i have to say this looks cool for 500 but not a 1000 it has about the same amount of processing cores as a 560ti ill stick with my 3770k and gtx680, just wondering what the next xbox and ps3 stats will be sure the cpu will be around there hope they have a least 4gigs of ram but hope for 8, and they'll have some 3 year old gpu tech for alot less than 1000 but you cant upgrade this and a consoles shelf life is much longer than a pc. but damn this thing is small and it dont us much power plenty of usb 3.0 slots. but who is this for people who dont have gaming rigs, well the reason they dont have one is the price so how are most people gonna afford 1000, and the people who play pc games will want more power, gpu seems to be lacking but it does look cool and ill have to see more detailed spec on it well thats my 2 cents
1 Like you have to be kidding yourselves! wait until you see WHAT games it offers and see the gameplay at work. I bet there will be at least TWO MODELS available: the ULTRA ( for hard core graphics, everything maxed out) and the CASUAL (medium graphics, just to get the game running). wait and see! the more noise they make about how great it is, the more disappointing it will be....thats how it is these days!
and there u have it again! UPGRADING UPGRADING UPGRADING!...this is why Consoles are far greater...yes the quality of graphics will be better achieved with PCS, but when it comes cost vrs graphics, COST will always come on top and graphics can be compromised a little. I hate PC for that matter , the COST of upgrading is absurd...you watch, you get one of these boxes and it will have its own custom made parts which will take the monopoly and you wont be able to do your own upgrading which would save you a little bit of money...GOOD LUCK to those whom get sucked in.
@joju_australia A lot of people, including myself, really like working on or building computers. If you do it yourself it really isnt that expensive. You can build a very technology forward computer for around 1k. You might say that is expensive. But let's not forget that Mr. Softy and Sony will not even come close to meeting demand when the new consoles drop, which means you probably have to buy it 2nd hand and for a big mark up. I remember PS3s were selling for $1000 easy when they 1st came out.. i dont recall xbox 360s, i think they werent as bad as PS3.
@joju_australia What you are saying makes no sense. You already have a computer. Why not just get a good video card for equal to or less than the cost of a console and have yourself a far superior gaming platform? If you're worried about cost, the cost of PC games is lower than that of console games, so you'll be saving money every time you make a game purchase as well.
??? You make no sense, one, you don't have to buy this crap box, it will NOT be the future, two, you are playing with a console that is 10+ generations behind us PC gamers, three, YOU console gamers upgrade your entire systems every 4 years, I don't see how you have it better then us, keep playing with your toys, but keep your idiotic replies to yourself. Four, My last upgrade was a motherboard, 8 core amd cpu, and 8gigs of the fastest ram at the time, cost me 300 dollars, kept the four year old 800 gb HDD, the older but still playing any game at max settings 9800gtx+ oc graphic card, the 4 year old corsair PSU and case, the dvdrom etc etc etc.....so again, how do you barbaric device having people have it better?
@terminus @joju_australia Actually the current crop of consoles have a ten year lifespan. also, you say10 gens? so that means you had to upgrade 10 times since the current consoles came out? Not very efficient.
The fact is. if you had a machine that could play everything at max settings at the time the xbox 360 came out You would have had to upgrade it several times since then to maintain that capability. Thats the point. in the length of time a console remains viable, on the pc side if you waited that same length of time you'd be better of getting a new machine anyway. in the mean time you have a system that you don't need to do a damn thing with inorder to play the latest games except buy the games.
All this does is shift the burden of graphical power from the consumer to the devolper. Instead of having devs just go hog wild with graphics and say, "eh, they can upgrade if they want to play", it forces them to actually learn and get creative to make their games look better. to clean up their code, find little tricks and things to push the capabilities of their engine to the max. It promotes innovation. It's not just throwing a bunch of cores and ram at it. it's saying, "This is your limit, what can you do within that?" and devs have risen to the challenge bigtime.
1 Like @joju_australia But you also have a computer along with your console. So why not just make your PC powerful so that it lasts 4 years without upgrading?
@jamesbigmac @joju_australia agree! ...there is still a lot of questions to be answered and as a consumer, it would be prudent to wait and see. Also, if you are a PC gamer, THIS sound like the best way to merge the experience!
1 Like @joju_australia @jamesbigmac no i'd rather just take that $1000 and build a sweet little mini atx comp for the living room. I dont need a computer that fits in my pocket. I have lots of living room space haha
Considering everyone is freaking out about the size of it and it's capabilities, remember that we have microprocessors small enough to fit underneath your retina and output a decent amount of processing power. The size isn't what should concern us, what concerns me is the amount of space the SSD has. If all my games are going to be stored on the Piston it'll need some decent space, unless it allows for a external hard drive to be connected and games be stored on it.
2 Like @xxalucard66xx And how long before that SSD reaches its read/write limit and fails? How much is a replacement for the most important part of that machine?
@xxalucard66xx @lucutisborg on the web site you can get extra HD space from a little box that connects under neither looks swish, i assume it will be usb3
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