NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE US DOLLARS

[DMKA]

...is how much the first Steambox coming out this Christmas will cost.

Is anyone seriously interested in this? If so I'd love to hear someone legitimize it, seeing as you could build a damn fine PC and hook it up to your television and play Steam games on it for less than that.

[Laddy]

Oh, Valve. I love you, but...why!?

[Pike]

...Gaben. Gaben no. Gaben why.

Edit: The comments seem to be saying that this isn't that SteamBox, so...

[Laddy]

Uh..yay? I'd pay $500 for a console at most at this point.

[Bolivar]

The form factor is very sexy, the thing is about the size of the Ouya, but obviously with much better specs. Unfortunately, it does seem like this will be around as powerful as the PS4/720, but for presumably double the price. I'm not entirely sure if the upgradeability is worth it, depending on how expensive the components small enough to fit in there would be. I'm also not expecting the interfaces and multifunctionality of these things to compete with the iteration and polish of consoles either. It seems like they're going to leave it up to you to find homebrew (or make it yourself) applicaions compatible with whatever Linux distro they ship these things on. I know Gabe said the official Steambox would handle multifunctionality through the browser, sending you to Netflix.com to do Netflix.

It's just kinda funny that all the big players who have championed open platforms for so long are now scrambling to make closed, or semi-closed platforms.

[Shoeberto]

You guys... just... ugh.

- This is not The Steambox. Valve hasn't released a Steambox. At this point the Steambox is just a target spec.
- It's a customized PC meant to use Steam's Big Picture mode made by a third-party manufacturer with a form factor designed to fit into living rooms.
- It's a PC.
- It's not a console.
- You could build your own PC for that. That's the idea of Steambox as a spec. For people who can't, there's this thing.

I know there's going to be a bunch of hubbub over this but seriously this is not a console. They aren't trying to make a console in the traditional sense. They want to move PC gaming into the living room and this is just one of the options.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Why would anyone charge that much for a thing to play games on?

[Bolivar]

Because it's not just for video games. It's intended for most people to hook on the back of a monitor as an incredibly small, yet very powerful (and supposedly very upgradeable) desktop PC. The price isn't really that bad for those specs.

It just so happens Valve is supporting it as the first of the Steamboxes, although not the official Steambox that will be designed and brought to market by Valve.

[Skyblade]

It just so happens Valve is supporting it as the first of the Steamboxes, although not the official Steambox that will be designed and brought to market by Valve.

This is the marketing gaffe. Though not a huge one. But the first of your supported Steamboxes (which are thought of as gaming consoles, regardless of capabilities) shouldn't be running twice the price of the average console.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Because it's not just for video games. It's intended for most people to hook on the back of a monitor as an incredibly small, yet very powerful (and supposedly very upgradeable) desktop PC. The price isn't really that bad for those specs.

It just so happens Valve is supporting it as the first of the Steamboxes, although not the official Steambox that will be designed and brought to market by Valve.

I'm pretty sure people that want to have powerful computers can just build them themselves.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah Gaben needs to make sure the message is getting out properly, because otherwise people are going to say "NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE DOLLARY-DOOS?" and then go buy something else because nobody thinks a console is worth that much.

[Bolivar]

I'm pretty sure people that want to have powerful computers can just build them themselves.

Probably not one this small, though:

[NorthernChaosGod]

I'm pretty sure people that want to have powerful computers can just build them themselves.

Probably not one this small, though:

So?

[Bolivar]

You were wondering why it's $1,000 IIRC. FYI, a lot of people buy premade rigs instead of making their own. If you were really serious about gaming, though, you wouldn't buy this. There's still no confirmation on what kind of GPU wil be in there, but you need more space than that for the really good ones. This is all about size and placement convenience, something any gaming console should focus on, but as others have pointed, Valve probably shouldn't have jumped at this one to be the first.

[Slothy]

Not going to lie, that form factor alone makes me want it for the living room. If I actually had that kind of disposable income kicking around right now, I'd probably buy one.