I think that's what Valve's shooting for. Selling a standardized 'decent' gaming rig, have multiplatform games optimized for it, and depending on how hardware hungry games are, they eventually won't support early Steambox models. As in: 'Crysis 5, required Steambox 3, recommended Steambox 5 and higher'.

Kind of a hybrid between console and PC gaming, and never ever will we have to suffer through another 7 year console-lifecycle again.

I see them releasing upgrades packs but not full systems that will replace what you've bought.

@TheHT said:

I see them releasing upgrades packs but not full systems that will replace what you've bought.

I think they'll shoot for a 300-500$ pricetag on their hardware, and I think they'll bring out a new generation of steambox every year or so.

Who the hell is going to buy a Steambox? it's almost as stupid an idea as the Ouya.

I have a feeling it will be more like AppleTv. Something that will stream games from your computer to your television. It'll probably be around 100 dollars

@SuperCycle said:

I have a feeling it will be more like AppleTv. Something that will stream games from your computer to your television. It'll probably be around 100 dollars

Isn't it pretty much a given, that it'll be more along the lines of a linux-based closed platform, that's very close to a living room pc - from the latest comments from Valve employees on the matter?

@Seppli said:

@TheHT said:

I see them releasing upgrades packs but not full systems that will replace what you've bought.

I think they'll shoot for a 300-500$ pricetag on their hardware, and I think they'll bring out a new generation of steambox every year or so.

$300-500 every year or so, are you crazy? That's just flat out not Valves philosophy on anything ever. Why would they want to segment the market each year? Why would it be so expensive? They don't want to get into the console market, they're above that. I see this being a standard little $100 box purely for gaming that you can amend when you need to (bigger HDD etc) that lives on being updated via firmware updates. Like a Raspberry Pi, or Ouya, or an OnLive that's better with the install base of Steam and pull they already have.

@RazielCuts said:

@Seppli said:

@TheHT said:

I see them releasing upgrades packs but not full systems that will replace what you've bought.

I think they'll shoot for a 300-500$ pricetag on their hardware, and I think they'll bring out a new generation of steambox every year or so.

$300-500 every year or so, are you crazy? That's just flat out not Valves philosophy on anything ever. Why would they want to segment the market each year? Why would it be so expensive? They don't want to get into the console market, they're above that. I see this being a standard little $100 box purely for gaming that you can amend when you need to (bigger HDD etc) that lives on being updated via firmware updates. Like a Raspberry Pi, or Ouya, or an OnLive that's better with the install base of Steam and pull they already have.

Why's that crazy? It's exactly what Apple does with their iPads, iPhones, iEverythings... and who says you need the newest model? Just like with Apple platforms, support peters out, as the consumerbase moves up the generational ladder over time.

Speculating on this sort of thing is fruitless. Valve does what Valve does. We'll just have to wait and see.

@RazielCuts said:

@Seppli said:

@TheHT said:

I see them releasing upgrades packs but not full systems that will replace what you've bought.

I think they'll shoot for a 300-500$ pricetag on their hardware, and I think they'll bring out a new generation of steambox every year or so.

$300-500 every year or so, are you crazy? That's just flat out not Valves philosophy on anything ever. Why would they want to segment the market each year? Why would it be so expensive? They don't want to get into the console market, they're above that. I see this being a standard little $100 box purely for gaming that you can amend when you need to (bigger HDD etc) that lives on being updated via firmware updates. Like a Raspberry Pi, or Ouya, or an OnLive that's better with the install base of Steam and pull they already have.

Yeah. If the do in fact end up going the box route I'd expect one of their core tenets be that it's affordable. That said, if it is a proper gaming box, $100 out the gate sounds unreasonably inexpensive.

@Seppli said:

@RazielCuts said:

That's just flat out not Valves philosophy on anything ever.

i would buy a steambox if it was cheapish and came with a controller that functioned exactly like a DualShock 2

Valve doesn't seem like the type to abuse and take advantage of their customers like that.

@Seppli said:

latest comments from Valve employees

@Seppli said:

@SuperCycle said:

I have a feeling it will be more like AppleTv. Something that will stream games from your computer to your television. It'll probably be around 100 dollars

Isn't it pretty much a given, that it'll be more along the lines of a linux-based closed platform, that's very close to a living room pc - from the latest comments from Valve employees on the matter?

The latest comments from Valve employees are 8 months old? Also in the article they say that Valve specifically wants to take Apple and it's forthcoming AppleTV head-on. I just think the idea of the Steam Box being like AppleTV would be amazing. Whatever games your computer can run, can run on the Steambox, because the computer would be doing all the work and the steambox is just a Streaming to tv device.

I don't understand why threads on subjects like this that are almost impossible to comment on keep popping up. Are you doing this for site XP or something?

@SuperCycle said:

@Seppli said:

@SuperCycle said:

I have a feeling it will be more like AppleTv. Something that will stream games from your computer to your television. It'll probably be around 100 dollars

Isn't it pretty much a given, that it'll be more along the lines of a linux-based closed platform, that's very close to a living room pc - from the latest comments from Valve employees on the matter?

The latest comments from Valve employees are 8 months old? Also in the article they say that Valve specifically wants to take Apple and it's forthcoming AppleTV head-on. I just think the idea of the Steam Box being like AppleTV would be amazing. Whatever games your computer can run, can run on the Steambox, because the computer would be doing all the work and the steambox is just a Streaming to tv device.

That does look like its designed for streaming over wifi, that could be pretty cool

Would doubt it has a discrete graphics card, which would make upgrades pretty expensive/meaningless.

A Steambox that just streams games from an already existing PC very well would be excellent, would buy instantly

@Ravenlight said:

Speculating on this sort of thing is fruitless. Valve does what Valve does. We'll just have to wait and see.

valve usually does awesome stuff too. so let the anticipation build.

By the photo im guessing it has a light CPU\GPU\RAM for web browsing and streaming services like Netflix, Youtube etc. With one antenna being dedicated to Wi-Fi and the other antenna being connected to what ever USB device connects to the computer to stream your games to the TV, this would create less latency than relying on a wifi router that is probably already shared with multiple devices and probably most hard core PC users are connected by cable instead of Wi-Fi to their computer aswell.

It looks like a typical small form factor PC to me, my guess is using an AMD APU. You don't need 6 1/8" audio jacks and 4 display outputs (2 DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 Display Port maybe?) for a living room streaming box.

ITT Seppli defending Apple for their despicable business practices.

Eh, it wouldn't cost any less if thats all it is, valve is a great company but they cant make gpu's cost less. Id still just build my own pc in this case.

I hope its just a great streaming device with great peripheral/controller detection.

I think if you want to be a PC gamer, you need to pull your finger out of your ass and do some research/get help on a build.

If its just a mini PC for your TV it kind of defeats the object to me, I'll already get the consoles.

If ofc they get to a point where they are actively competing with Sony/MS, then my Steam library will always win. Those consoles take millions to develop for a reason though.

@valrog said:

ITT Seppli defending Apple for their despicable business practices.

Do I? I don't own an Apple device, and I can't fathom how their shit is dominating the market as it does - but being stuck in the '10-year-console-lifecyle' and suffering the horribly outdated hardware makes yearly iterations of gaming hardware sound like the a sweet choir of heavenly angles to my ears.

So The apple model, build your devices to be obsolete the next year???

@xMEGADETHxSLY said:

So The apple model, build your devices to be obsolete the next year???

but thats not true. even an ipad 1 will still play 99% of new apps and will always do what it was purchased for. what about it is obsolete?

I want to say yes, because that'd make the most business sense for Valve.

If you're going to use Steam, and you're going to upgrade your PC to keep up with games, then you're not going to buy a Steambox. It's not for you. You know it, and Valve knows it. At most, it'd be around as a convenient way to hook a gaming PC up to a TV when a really long HDMI cable just won't do. But even then, if you're into building your own PC, chances are you've already researched what you'd need to make your own Steambox.

If you're not in the above group, then Valve is targeting you. These are people who don't have an interest in building their own PC, or continually upgrading one. They want something that they can hook up to a TV and immediately use, like any console. And if Valve can make more money off this userbase by having incremental hardware updates, then they will. Maybe doing this yearly would be too aggressive, but if the Steambox is supposed to be an all-in-one gaming solution, then having some sort of periodic upgrade cycle would make the most sense.