The Valve Game Console?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**LordofHats**

Yes I am catching up on my news and rumors

This one is actually like two months old but as far as I know it hasn't been brought up here yet so some people might not have heard about it. Right now, in very odd news, there are rumors going around that Valve is designing a game console to be integrated with the Steam platform.

Forbes

The idea raises numerous ideas about the future of PC gaming, which some of us may or may not believe to be dying a slow death. I would be curious to see what form such a system might take and how the industry might react (most importantly what impact would it have on the PC market and the Console market). Right now its entirely speculation based on some of Valve's actions the past year. The idea of creating a sort of standardized PC makes sense, especially with modders and tuners being a dying breed in the PC community. At the same time I sort of wonder why anyone might want to buy a consolified PC when they can just have a PC or a console. Rumors that the console might make use of a cloud for processing like OnLive does are also there.

The idea of a direct download console I think interests me most. There are similar rumors flying around about the next Microsoft console.

**Chowderhead**

Yeah no. Everyone has Steam on their Computers, so why would they go buy another system that's less customizable, has less features than a PC, and would make them Console Gamers? (Sorry, had to take a swing at you PC Elitists.

)

There was a download only Platform once. It was called the PSP Go. There's a reason you never heard of it.

**LordofHats**

Chowderhead wrote:Yeah no. Everyone has Steam on their Computers, so why would they go buy another system that's less customizable, has less features than a PC, and would make them Console Gamers?

One of the biggest barriers to the PC market is the cost of hardware. A standardized PC could break that problem and open the market up to more accessibility. There are several ways I see of looking at it. Either console gamers may start looking into this platform as an alternative to what's already there, or PC gamers will migrate to it for benefits of cost, standardization, ease of use etc. There are several advantages.

(Sorry, had to take a swing at you PC Elitists. )

My jolly good sir I am not an elitist. I, am an aristocrat!

There was a download only Platform once. It was called the PSP Go. There's a reason you never heard of it.

On the other hand, you can download and install games onto the hard drives of the 360 and the PS3 and as far as I know it isn't really a hated feature. Likewise, at least on PC, digital sales now account for an estimated 90% of all game sales on the platform.

PSP Go's problem wasn't that it was download only perse. It's that it was download only, and a hand held! Plus it was almost equal to the cost of a PS3 and like the PSP itself it suffers from Sony for some old reason creating unique data storage devices. The GO has its custom USB port, and the PSP had the Universal Media Disc, which contrary to its name was far from universal

**killykavekommando**

I prefer my computer, thank you very much. Valve must be crazy if they think they can turn me into a console gamer.

Edit: Friggin link doesn't work.

**Karon**

Specs are already floating about with the Steam Box rumored to run on a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU.

Depending on the quality of that GPU, the "Steam Box" would be better than most peoples current computers to be quite honest.....

This is intriguing because I think it would either be the end of the other consoles or force them to rapidly and heavily upgrade their next consoles to be comparable to the "Steam Box"

Gabe Newell has expressed disdain for consoles, particularly Microsoft and their Xbox. For him to release an item that is basically better than anything you can compare to it, including many peoples computers, it could be the future.

**LordofHats**

The big thing as the article notes I think will be cost. The $700 cited is pretty cheap for the power offered by the machine suggested, but its still a lot to compete with the PS3 and 360 or their next gen equivalents.

Also Article:

Setting off a rumor firestorm, The Verge reported that game developer Valve might be developing a ‘Steam Box’ console, bringing its Steam gaming service into the living room.

The maker of Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 has traditionally published games for PC though in recent years many of those games were ported to Mac and a few made their way to consoles. But up to this point, Valve has never entered the hardware business.

Several things are fueling these rumors:

Valve has a patent out on a new video game controller with interchangeable parts, allowing gamers to mod the controller depending on the gaming experience.
The Verge reports that the Alienware X51 may have been designed with the ‘Steam Box’ in mind.
Specs are already floating about with the Steam Box rumored to run on a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU.

Steam is the most successful online distribution center of games on the internet. Bringing that service to a television set near you would be huge for gamers and game publishers alike.

But I have a few questions.

If the Steam Box runs any PC title, and can also run rival services like EA’s Origin service, would that mean it’s just a PC designed to sit next to other consoles, and maybe look a bit like them?

Other than a fancy controller, what differentiates the box from a regular gaming PC?

More importantly, I’m just not sure what exactly this console is supposed to be.

Is it a PC? Is it a console? Is there some extra layer of anti-piracy protection built-in? If this runs PC titles, will you be able (or forced) to access Windows for other purposes?

The Problem With Building A PC-Console Hybrid

There are a number of obstacles in the way of a hypothetical Steam Box.

For one thing, to target the console market the Steam Box would need to run much cheaper than high-end gaming consoles. The X51 starts at $699 – double the price-tag of either the Xbox 360 or PS3. It tops off at over $1200.

A Steam Box would need to integrate mouse and keyboard. Many – if not most – PC gamers find the mouse and keyboard configuration much better than any console controller – for first-person-shooters and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft especially.

And aside from piracy, which Steam does a good job at countering, actually, the real bane of PC gaming for developers is the lack of a uniform spec-sheet. In a sense, coming out with a baseline PC “console” could help take care of this. Game developers could build games based on the Steam Box specs and gamers could rely on games to run as reliably as they do on any other console.

Of course, PC gamers are tinkerers and modders, so to really appeal to that market, the Steam Box would need to be modifiable. Users would need to be able to pop in a new CPU, a new graphics card, more RAM – and pretty soon we’ve got just another PC with all the incumbent difficulties – and benefits – of PC gaming.

Having a high-spec console with the ability to run all the games on Steam – and take advantage of all the mods out there for games like Skyrim – would be a really terrific thing. It’s just hard to imagine it as anything more than a gaming media center with the Valve logo on it.

Is it possible that Valve isn’t developing a console at all, and that the only hardware the game developer is coming out with is a new controller?

Or maybe they’re producing something that will interface Steam games from your computer to your TV – a box-top set similar to Apple TV – and that this device would interface with other components like the Valve controller.

The Verge also reports that the company seems to be turning its ire on Apple, quoting Valve co-founder Gabe Newell as saying of Apple and other closed-platform companies that on “the platform side, it’s sort of ominous that the world seems to be moving away from open platforms [...] They build a shiny sparkling thing that attracts users and then they control people’s access to those things.”

But what would an open-platform console running PC games even look like?

Valve has said they want to do with open gaming what Google has done with Android. This indicates less of a focus on hardware and more of a focus on getting Steam into more places than just your PC. Mobile is booming. Tablets are on the rise. Could Steam be moving toward a multi-platform future? It seems likely.

I’m all in favor of open platforms. Valve is one of the most beloved, if at times infuriating, game developers out there. And Steam is universally loved by gamers and developers alike. But I’m not sure a Steam console really makes sense, or that it would end up being anything more than a mainstream gaming PC designed and marketed for your living room.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not all that revolutionary. Which might be a good thing actually. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – and Steam is anything but broken.

We may find out Valve’s plans later this year at GDC or E3. If Valve is coming out with a console, one imagines they’ll need a launch title to go with it.

Half-Life 3 perhaps?

**Slarg232**

Chowderhead wrote:Yeah no. Everyone has Steam on their Computers, so why would they go buy another system that's less customizable, has less features than a PC

Let us take a journey into Bungie.Net, mein fruende.

Bungie.Net allows one player of Halo to make a map and upload it unto the Internet. It then stores it in a series of tubes. Any other player may then go into these tubes and pull out Maps, Screenshots, Movies, Game Types, and even acheivements (in the case of some maps allowing you to get skulls).

Now, apply this same technology to any steam game. One of the main reasons to buy, in fact one of the only reasons to buy, a PC version of a game over the Console version is that the PC version allows Mods. TF2, for instance, has the following "mainstream" mods: Zombie Fortress, Fort Wars, RTD, Prop Hunt, and lastly, Vs Saxton Hale mode. The Console version, however, only has Vanilla, with Vanilla weapons (Might be better, depends on your preference), and no hats (

).

Now, imagine you had Bungie.Net, or rather, Steam.Net; Imagine all the Halo Reach mods that could be made: Outbreak where you constantly switch sides until one team has all the players. Odd Ball where everyone has a ball and the only real way to get ahead is to kill eachother. 16 way CTF. 50 man servers.

Now go take a gander at Bungie.Net again, and see how easy it is to find and download what you want. Imagine being able to do that.... But with a controller, the vastly superior control method

That, my friend, is to imagine the world of tomorrow.

Seriously, though; think of all the mods we could get on our console: Alice; Madness Returns multiplayer. Brutal Legend Adventures, the way everyone wanted Brutal Legend to play. Devil May Cry with multiple people.

Of course, this is all depending on what games they get, and how mod-willing the developers are. But I don't know about you, but I wish I had boughten Skyrim on the PC solely for the mods (Including, but not limited to; MLP Horses, Spellmaking, Orcs being able to have Berserk affect spells etc etc etc.). But I honestly don't see how they could go wrong with this if they do it with half a brain.

Edit: Also, think of how awesome Halo Reach is now. Got it?

Now imagine Halo Reach with Hats

**LordofHats**

and no hats.

Tis indeed a great loss

**Chowderhead**

Slarg232 wrote:But with a controller, the vastly superior control method

I play Burnout on my PC with an Xbox controller.

It's really that hard to get a 30 dollar Xbox controller and put it into a USB port? Jesus Christ!

**Slarg232**

LordofHats wrote:
and no hats.

Tis indeed a great loss

Tis a loss of the highest magnitude, good sir!

**keisukekun**

If i remember correctly Valve came out and said the rumor had no backing.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/08/valve-denies-steam-console-rumors

If you want a computer console just get the new Alienware X51

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

Its a computer the size of a console that you can upgrade same as a regular computer.

**Spartan 117**

The only real positive I could see of Valve making a dedicated game console is that one console will not be faster than the other. Right now that is definitely evident in online play in PC games such as BF3. People with faster computers that can handle the game better tend to perform much better in game. Although that game is on Origin, I'm 100% sure there are games on Steam that have that similar issue. I'm sure the Counter Strike Games are the most evident.

Also the console would be interesting because you would almost eliminate user created content in my opinion. Right now its very easy to create user content for Counter Strike and other Valve made games. Making mods on a console are a headache or frowned upon. (Xbox 360, PS3) So I'd be interested to see if Valve would still support user created content on their console as they do on Steam PC.

As long as the console would be able to connect my Steam account to my console I would probably be a sucker and buy it despite the fact I already have a 360 as my console of choice. Its just Valve tends to know what their doing.

**Kilkrazy**

Disclosure -- I work for Sony.

The trick of making a successful console isn't the hardware design, etc. it's the marketing and software support.

I don't think we'll see discs vanish for another generation. The network infrastructure isn't powerful or cheap enough, and there is significant consumer resistance to downloaded products.

To put it simply, download games only become price competitive with discs at the level where they aren't making any decent profits.

Obviously it's different with super cheap games like Angry Birds, which sell bucketloads because they are cheaper than a Mars Bar, BUT, you don't need or want a high power machine t run that kind of game.

**Spartan 117**

If Valve ended up making their console I would not want it to be download only. Maybe a big emphasis on downloads would be nice. But it would have to have retail options as well.