Gabe Newell says Valve will release its own console-like PC for the living room

[Defengar]

Something I could imagine them doing it having several models of varying price from 300-800$ or making them very easy to upgrade and selling new parts through a section on Steam.

[Helieos]

A lot of it depends on the game. For example, I can run The Witcher 2, Tera, Guild Wars 2 and other games on max or near max settings and maintain at least 30 FPS. WoW though? That ancient, 8 year old game? I take a pretty big FPS hit in 25 man raids on max settings, I have to turn down a couple things. Apparently WoW doesn't get along very well with AMD products, according to my techie friends. And I've noticed it. On my dad's 4 year old computer with an intel processor and nvidea graphics card, WoW runs at max settings in a 25 man environment and maintains 60 FPS.

WoW is different then most other games that this Steam Box is going to be marketed to. My system plays WoW maxed and I have 60 FPS all the time minus 25 man raids and Sha. But that is just because of the sheer amount of shit on the screen.

[Defengar]

Not true, as long as you dont get a graphics card that is garbage to begin with, you could play any game to come out for a long time. The CPU is semi unrelated to the gaming performance unless you are trying to max out a game. An APU or a i3 paired with a mid range card will play any game u want for a while at medium settings. I have a 9800 GTX+ from 2008 that can still play any game on it with playable FPS. The CPU in that rig is a original phenom that my brother is playing farcry 3 on as I type this probably and that game is currently one of the more demanding games out there atm.

but you will get a graphics card that is garbage if your budget is 300-400 dollars. It takes at least 500-600 to build even a decent basic gaming PC.

[xervyn]

Could this be the beginning of the end for consoles?

[Helieos]

but you will get a graphics card that is garbage if your budget is 300-400 dollars. It takes at least 500-600 to build even a decent basic gaming PC.

I just parted out a PC on newegg for 461 with shipping that consists of a i3, AMD 7770 gpu. and 8 gig of ram. That computer can play any game out just fine. After OEM discounts, because they will not be paying retail for the parts, If they are selling it to you for $500, you are probably going to end up with something similar even after retail markup on the unit.

[Offshoreguy]

There is just too little information for me to speculate just yet. When or IF this happens I'll need to know how the console works, how will games be played or added and will my existing account be linked, or am I buying my games all over for a new device. Just too soon for me to really get worked up about it. Not to mention that so many damn rumors will start flying around that you'd need a spreadsheet to keep them half way organized.

[Defengar]

Could this be the beginning of the end for consoles?

No...............

[Zeta333]

I wish valve would focus on the things players want and shit they dont need. We dont need another left for dead shity sequel, dont need a steam console. Half life 3 and a NEW CS also a new engine would be awsome, but hey there is always 2020 to hope for.

[Defengar]

I just parted out a PC on newegg for 461 with shipping that consists of a i3, AMD 7770 gpu. and 8 gig of ram. That computer can play any game out just fine. After OEM discounts, because they will not be paying retail for the parts, If they are selling it to you for $500, you are probably going to end up with something similar even after retail markup on the unit.

The problem is that in a few years that computer will have trouble playing most games unless you drop several hundred dollars on upgrades. Especially once the next gen of consoles arrive and dev's are able to kick up the graphics in games in a major way (Unreal engine 4, Frostbite 2 etc...)

[blackblade]

The problem is that in a few years that computer will have trouble playing most games unless you drop several hundred dollars on upgrades. Especially once the next gen of consoles arrive and dev's are able to kick up the graphics in games in a major way (Unreal engine 4, Frostbite 2 etc...)

I doubt it, Given that the next gen consoles will be built with what PC considers "current gen" parts, it's entirely plausable that said steam-box can be futureproofed and still competitive with these yet unnanounced next gen console.

We've hit something of a plateau in terms of hardware. the last 10 years had a very very sharp rise in graphics hardware, and while new graphics cards are still coming out, games are still stuck in a "current-gen-mindset."

As an example, Let's pick on a game that's just recently come out.

Farcry 3: Reccomended requirements:
Core i3(2.9ghz)
Radeon 4850.
6gb ram.

The only massive problems I forsee with gaben's "valvelinuxbox" is that linux has some very very fun requirements/limitations.

Linux distros have to be open source.
Linux does not have Direct X, or any near equivalent. (it's a microsoft technology)
Linux also doesn't have the .NET framework or XNA, for the same reason above.
Linux has poor driver support from most manufacturers.
Linux does not run ".exe" files.

A vast majority of steams games are probably not going to work with a gamepad. While it's not impossible to ask someone to play with a keyboard on thier lap, mice are hard to use while sitting on a couch.

Another downside is that an overwhelming majority of PC games do not have splitscreen support. most multiplayer is online/lan only.

On the other hand, it'd be pretty easy to make a linux UI suited to the big screen. Linux's UI is designed to be highly customizable/replaceable. (in that all the UI functionality is built in a modular way. if you don't like your file explorer, you can literally replace the stock one with a different one.)

A good example of the open source argument is Android, which also has a GNU/linux core. Because it's based on linux (even if heavily modified) it is sanctioned by the GPL that linux that falls under that essentially says "You may freely copy, change, distribute it, but cannot further impose future redistrubution and modification". Essentially, If i were to heavily modify android into my own OS, I would be required to uphold the GPL, release the source code, and would have no say if someone redistributes my work. Because it's open source, every manufacturer has it's own deviation of android. you also have a bunch of 3rd-party versions of android (Custom ROMS)

I think it's a good premise, but he'd almost be better off trying to convince developers to treat it like a console. Lack of naitive co-op/splitscreen multiplayer support hurts. (At least in the back-catalouge) Where existing titles like Borderlands 1/2 have such options on their console equivalents.

[ElAmigo]

I wish valve would focus on the things players want and shit they dont need. We dont need another left for dead shity sequel, dont need a steam console. Half life 3 and a NEW CS also a new engine would be awsome, but hey there is always 2020 to hope for.

First of all, they are working on a new engine, Gabe confirmed it himself on his birthday to 4chan. Secondly, they're intent has always been on helping revolutionize the industry. Things that gamers want for the gaming industry isn't always what they need (or the gaming industry needs anyways), all rabid fanboys who just want re-releases are prime examples of this....need I point out FFVII?

Also, I've never understood your hate for Valve. What is it that always seems to make you sour when they get brought up?

[Shaoshi]

why does nobody notice? you're gonna get a Companion cube in the living room!!!

[Faldric]

I dont really believe this will work. It will be a middle thing between console and pc combining the disadvantages of both worlds in my opinion.
* You dont have that many gamepad games on steam, so you would still use keyboard and mouse or limit yourself to a handful games.
* There is an increasing number of games where Steam is not the only DRM, where Steam pretty much just installs GFWL, UPLAY and all that shit How are they gonna handle that? Assuming this box runs with a Linux core in order to not be dependant on microsoft, there is no linux version of this DRM systems. Publishers probably wont give them DRM free versions, since somebody on this world will be able to get the image out of the box.
* Most games are not developed for Linux and if you gonna emulate something it will cost huge amounts of performance like mapping directx to opengl.

I dont believe valve can do this alone, they would need serious cooperation to pull this off. But I dont believe that they will get it. There are just not enough benefits for either current PC or Console player so they probably wont sell enough to warrant the publishers supporting the platform. At the end there will probably be 70%+ Valve titles, 20% indie titles and a few games from 3rd party publishers who tried the platfrom and gave up afterwards because its not worth it.

[Kickbuttmario]

why does nobody notice? you're gonna get a Companion cube in the living room!!!

Oh my Gawd!! What if the new console is actually Glados in disguise! Holy shit!!

[Deleted]

I wish valve would focus on the things players want and shit they dont need. We dont need another left for dead shity sequel, dont need a steam console. Half life 3 and a NEW CS also a new engine would be awsome, but hey there is always 2020 to hope for.

left 4 dead is amazing and it still has an amazing community for both 1+2.. a sequel would be great. Alot of people would love playing their steam library anywhere in the house easily imo.. id much rather have this than another playstation or xbox so keep it to YOUR opinion and not what other people want.

Half life 3 is going to be the new showcase for the new engine they are already developing (or very very very likely anyway) and cs:go is improving so no we dont need another CS yet.

[Deleted]

http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=357

So yeah, that's where Half-life 3 is.

[Deleted]

http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=357

So yeah, that's where Half-life 3 is.

well since windows 8 is horrible for anything other than tablets im not surprised. (its not true but i get the thinking)

[Smango]

I was wondering what the "Big Picture" update was all about.
Which is kind of awesome.
It lets you control the games you want to play with a controller and has an automatic start-up. With Steam releasing games that have great controller support, especially the the 360 controller it's pretty awesome. I've already installed a fresh copy of Windows 8, and installed Steam to automatically boot, and also start up in "Big Picture" mode. So, this is already "kind of" an option if you have all of this.

That is a pretty bold statement about Linux. I've used many Linux distros, and whenever it came to gaming.. It failed every time. It is a great Operating System don't get me wrong. Whenever it comes to gaming though... Windows is so much easier, it not quite worth the hassle it is to get a game to work on Linux. Heck, you have to emulate any good game out there with "Wine" because Linux doesn't have Direct-X. Which Blackblade summed up a lot of stuff that is wrong with gaming in Linux.

I think it would be great to see another operating system take off, especially one that supports free software. Ubuntu the latest edition of it, I actually hated the new interface (Which you can change to XFCE and Gnome or whatever you want to make it better), even compared to Windows 8 Metro.

My opinion on Windows 8, after you install the start button again, its really not half bad as long as you don't use the metro interface. I think it might be good for a computer/console based system though, which I'm trying to build to see how it pans out.

[Badpaladin]

well since windows 8 is horrible for anything other than tablets im not surprised. (its not true but i get the thinking)

It's a joke. Valve will not give out any serious information about the game until it's released.

[Kuntantee]

I'm pretty sure it will be a solid operating system if its based on Linux and a chance for games to work natively on it. I approve this project.