It is kinda seductive
Drop dead sexy even.
Am I the only one that has adequate room for a normal sized rig then? o_O
I've got plenty of room for a full gaming tower. It's what I already have. But that doesn't mean I'd want it in my living room for a more media centered box. That thing is pretty much the perfect form factor for an HTPC.
I'm really curious to see how well the Steam Box does. And by Steam Box I mean all the hardware that gets put out under that banner, however many computers that may be.
It just doesn't make much sense for the normal PC gaming crowd to buy them. A few will, if they want something small in the living room, but the vast majority of PC gamers have desktops already and wouldn't be satisfied with the limitations of a small system like that, anyway, or would want more bang for their buck.
So the primary audience, is seems, is people who normally would buy a console but wouldn't build a PC. Some of these boxes are going to run Linux, and I can't see many people buying those. How many people will really pay $500 or more for a Windows box in the living room instead of getting an Xbox or PS4?
I guess they don't really need to sell huge numbers, since Valve is doing fine with existing PC owners. But it's gonna be a really interesting market for game stuff over the next couple years.
Yeah, they want that console gamer $$$, I'm sure Valve does fine, but as someone who spends time on both sides of the fence, game communities on Steam aren't anywhere near as large as they are on PS3/360.
Gabe said the official Steambox will run Linux and use the web browser for multimedia apps. I don't know how that will work out, but I think the real identity of the system and its innovation will be determined by its input. They've hinted that the real Steambox will most likely use biometric data and gaze tracking for controls. If they can pull off a working living room input for PC games, strategy titles and First Person Shooters w/o auto-aim, then this thing will be a bonafide gamechanger. If not, then I'm not sure if this was all worth it, since I don't see their interface/multimedia being on par with Microsoft & Sony, and I don't see them iterating their community features up to what Sony just showed last month. It would have just been enough to fine tune Big Picture and let people move their tower/laptop out to the living room themselves.
Even though the piston is the first Steambox we're getting a real look at, I do think Valve's will be the first to actually release. They've confirmed they want to sync its release with those of the big manufacturers, and I wouldn't be surprised if they released it before Sony and Microsoft.
I think what will be key in getting more market penetration will be involvement from bigger-name manufacturers. If Dell put out a HTPC form-factored gaming rig sold as a Steambox, I think it'd be a hit. Xi3 doesn't really have the visibility to make this a hit, but I think there are companies out there that would have the kind of marketing power and economies of scale to have this be a big deal - think Samsung when they started really pushing Android phones.Originally Posted by Azar
I think if Asus made a Steambox it'd be some serious ish.
Has this been posted yet?
This thing confirmed to have nothing to do with Valve.
Looks like they've been reading EoFF!
Update: So this thing seems to be turning into a bit of a corporate catfight:
Xi3 CEO says Valve asked him to build the Piston console - Destructoid
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