Valve: no CES PC is a/the "SteamBox", "standard" not yet decided, lenthy tests needed

Scatty "no-ones the boss" deadline-less game development may have worked out well for Valve due to being able to focus on quality and their "done when its done" mantra, but that shit does not fly hardware is involved.

Think people are going to learn very fast what the structure of Valve's inner workings can and certainly cant do very well with all this. Its already a confusing clusterfuck and theyre saying the main one wont hit 2013 anyway.
 
mentalfloss said:
Valve just threw the idea out there to see what the response was.

Now that there's a tepid response, they're pretending like it never existed.
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You're kidding, right? xi3's website is still completely borked because of the interest and no specifics of anything were even announced, just some prototypes and one interview with Jerry. So what is this tepid response you're talking about? It's not like this was on the floor of E3 with a bunch of people walking by ignoring it.
 
CosmicQueso said:
You're kidding, right? xi3's website is still completely borked because of the interest and no specifics of anything were even announced, just some prototypes and one interview with Jerry. So what is this tepid response you're talking about? It's not like this was on the floor of E3 with a bunch of people walking by ignoring it.
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is that a valid measure of reception? maybe they just had poor capacity? how many people had even heard of them before a day or so ago?

not saying you're not right, but a hardly ever heard about site going down due to poor capacity to handle a sudden surge of attention from thousands isn't unheard of.
 
mentalfloss said:
Valve just threw the idea out there to see what the response was.

Now that there's a tepid response, they're pretending like it never existed.
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OR:
Valve didn't actually announce anything, people on the internet over-hyped themselves over nothing and now they are trying to blame Valve for "trolling them".
You know, the usual, like with Half-life 3 "announcements".
 
Those of you who are contemplating building a gaming PC...ya'll may as well go ahead and move forward with that. (Unless you're waiting to see the official reveals of the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation.) I wouldn't wait on Valve and "Steambox".

I have a custom-built mini-ITX HTPC in my living room that runs Steam (BPM) and XBMC. While it's not high-end (I have my desktop PC in my study for high-end gaming), it's solid and easily more powerful than 360/PS3. It's quite nice.
 
Clay Davis said:
agreed.



I didn't say I wasn't. it's my personal feeling and opinion on the situation. it feels like something that hasn't gone according to plan. from the lack of product to the mixed messages to all the confusion.

it feels, to me at least, that valve didn't want to happen like this but unfortunately it did and now they have to try and salvage as much as possible or try to dampen interest until they have a more cohesive and directed message along with a product to show off.

from a valve engineer randomly confirming the existence of a steambox to a german site to one of the partners possibly taking that as a sign they were allowed to talk about the steambox and announcing their part in bringing one to the market.

it all feels like an announcement and reveal that shouldn't have happened, at least not yet.
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From my understanding (based on one of the talk shows I saw reporting on CES) a reporter caught Gabe heading to the bathroom and asked for an interview, asked for a comment on the steambox rumor (a title valve has never mentioned btw), and Gabe just casually confirmed it. There was no notable press announcement at all.
 
Pie and Beans said:
Think people are going to learn very fast what the structure of Valve's inner workings can and certainly cant do very well with all this. Its already a confusing clusterfuck and theyre saying the main one wont hit 2013 anyway.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I don't think Valve are willing to make the concessions to really push this hardware. In fact I don't think they'd make the concessions needed to best meet the wishes of their customers.

How long after (if) such a thing launches do we think we'll hear Valve talking about other tech and ideas that aren't compatible with it?

They should buckle down with development. If they make games that run better on the best hardware - someone else will produce the system that runs it. Why? Cause gamers will start buying PCs to play those games and someone will realise that if theres a way to make it cheaper and better - they'll sell to people not yet convinced.

New Source engine 1-2 years ago would have been more helpful than anything else.
You know. Pushing the high power computers rather than them just being 'current gen but nicer' sort of purchasing decisions.
 
Clay Davis said:
is that a valid measure of reception?
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No, a website going down isn't a valid measure of positive reception, and neither are any of the current measures of negative reception valid.

What is anyone actually receiving, anyways? Nothing that needs knowing is fully known yet.

This is all just crazy talk but awesome nonetheless.
 
Yeah, the confusion and the mixed messages are my main problems with what I'm hearing so far.

The idea of Valve getting something out there is exciting to me. I love the idea of a console that plays PC games, or a PC that functions more like a console, or whatever, but I think they've started talking about it before they really even know what they're making.

Basically, it is too soon for them to be bringing it out and talking about it. They obviously have some things to get worked out first.

That being said, the news about the possibility of a 300 dollar price range is pretty exciting. If they can pull that off I might be interested in buying one. And if "more precise" controls, means adding a trackball to a controller, I like the sound of that, too.

But we'll just have to wait and see what they're actually making first.
 
It's gobsmacking how poor this whole thing has been handled. They could have carried on developing it behind the scenes but instead to go public long before having anything solid to show for it. The result was getting people hyped only to dissappoint them soon after. How will Valve manage to get them hyped again when the thing is actually, eventually ready to come out?
 
Krowley said:
Yeah, the confusion and the mixed messages are my main problems with what I'm hearing so far.

The idea of Valve getting something out there is exciting to me. I love the idea of a console that plays PC games, or a PC that functions more like a console, or whatever, but I think they've started talking about it before they really even know what they're making.

Basically, it is too soon for them to be bringing it out and talking about it. They obviously have some things to get worked out first.

That being said, the news about the possibility of a 300 dollar price range is pretty exciting. If they can pull that off I might be interested in buying one. And if "more precise" controls, means adding a trackball to a controller, I like the sound of that, too.

But we'll just have to wait and see what they're actually making first.
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That is why i don't think valve is the right company to do something like this.
Just not structured or big enough. Why make a Steam OS why not just support linux like they are already doing dont see a SteamBox succeeding.
 
dragonelite said:
That is why i don't think valve is the right company to do something like this.
Just not structured or big enough. Why make a Steam OS why not just support linux like they are already doing dont see a SteamBox succeeding.
Click to expand...

The Steambox's OS will be Linux. Supporting existing Linux distros and developing the Steambox go hand in hand.
 
"Clusterfuck" eh? Because literally no one outside of the GAF-esque forum world knows about any of this stuff.
 
This is the main drawback of their company management system (or lack thereof).

Hopefully in the end it works out for them.
 
Krowley said:
Yeah, the confusion and the mixed messages are my main problems with what I'm hearing so far.

The idea of Valve getting something out there is exciting to me. I love the idea of a console that plays PC games, or a PC that functions more like a console, or whatever, but I think they've started talking about it before they really even know what they're making.

Basically, it is too soon for them to be bringing it out and talking about it. They obviously have some things to get worked out first.

That being said, the news about the possibility of a 300 dollar price range is pretty exciting. If they can pull that off I might be interested in buying one. And if "more precise" controls, means adding a trackball to a controller, I like the sound of that, too.

But we'll just have to wait and see what they're actually making first.
Click to expand...

You seem to be misunderstanding. They aren't bringing it out and talking about it, the internet is descending on them trying to dig up information on it.
 
pswii60 said:
So not Linux then?
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Highly modified linux most likely. They'll sell it as an base OS for media boxes and comfy couch kits. Much like an Android phone can be a 50 dollar crap phone, or a 500 dollar wonder device. Both lead to Google Play, and potentially more revenue.

"Steambox" I believe is simply going to be Valve's way of making PC and of course steam services more accessible. The hardware is a side story IMO.
 
This whole thing is a case of the internet playing a game of
ibjfDaNyY6n15P.png
 
Gorillaz said:
Basically. I understand that they are infamous with the whole "valve time" thing but that type of "well get to it when we need too" mentality doesnt work well in the console space.
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I don't believe valve has ever said they were building a console. As far as I know this has always just been a linux PC that might have some valve determined minimum specification.

People saying Valve has had bad messaging are blaming Valve for stuff they didn't do. A few comments from Valve on linux support, official hardware, and bring PC gaming to more people somehow became valve is going to bury Sony and MS with a new console.
 
Hellsing321 said:
This whole thing is a case of the internet playing a game of
ibjfDaNyY6n15P.png
Click to expand...

pretty much. usually valve releases some pr where they're thinking and talking about stuff, then it scrambled into worthless hype junk by videogame journalism and silly fan speculation.

something like this:
jUbw2.png
 
dionysus said:
I don't believe valve has ever said they were building a console. As far as I know this has always just been a linux PC that might have some valve determined minimum specification.

People saying Valve has had bad messaging are blaming Valve for stuff they didn't do. A few comments from Valve on linux support, official hardware, and bring PC gaming to more people somehow became valve is going to bury Sony and MS with a new console.
Click to expand...
Naw they didn't, but I mean just in the console space in general.
 
Pie and Beans said:
Scatty "no-ones the boss" deadline-less game development may have worked out well for Valve due to being able to focus on quality and their "done when its done" mantra, but that shit does not fly hardware is involved.

Think people are going to learn very fast what the structure of Valve's inner workings can and certainly cant do very well with all this. Its already a confusing clusterfuck and theyre saying the main one wont hit 2013 anyway.
Click to expand...

I know right, telling people at the start of the week exactly what they were at CES to do and then doing it has been so perplexing. Positively inscrutable!

The only confusion has been from people repeatedly trying to adapt Valve's statements into typical console wars headline bait (MS & SONY SHOULD BE WORRIED CLICK PLZ)despite Valve stating what their and their partners' boxes are about.

Nice fan-fiction about Valve's "inner workings" though
 
scitek said:
Valve were there trying to talk to interested hardware partners, right?
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Yes. It seems they had nothing to announce to us, just meet with interested partners to eventually figure out a design.

It's funny because they said the exact same thing (that it's an idea, but it's really far off, they haven't come up with a SteamBox, just working on BPM and compact hardware and learning) when Verge posted the very first SteamBox rumors: http://kotaku.com/5891697/shooting-...heyre-not-making-a-game-console-any-time-soon

"All of that is stuff that we're working on, but it's a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware."
Click to expand...

"What you're saying is, there's definitely nothing coming any time soon, nothing at GDC or E3, but what you're not ruling out is the possibility that, hey, maybe some day Valve would make hardware," he said, "I think that's accurate."
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"Greg's one of the guys leading the effort of the Big Picture mode," Lombardi said. "The idea is that you can take Steam to any display. What we're trying to do is say, 'here's a box that we're going to use for testing that's common for Big Picture mode and get performance at a base level.'... We're always putting boxes together. Going all the way back to the Half-Life 1 days, we built special boxes to test our software render… it's just part of development."

UPDATE: Some readers speculated that Lombardi was dancing around the possibility that Valve might be partnering with other hardware makes who would be shipping a possible Steambox. I double-checked with Lombardi. Whether we're talking about Valve making hardware or partnering with others, nothing like that is happening any time soon, he said.
Click to expand...

But nope we decided they were just lying man.

That golem.de article that had a Valve employee say the SteamBox is coming in 2013? http://translate.google.com/transla...onsole-steam-box-ohne-windows-1212-96609.html

The actual quotes they have of him are about other hardware surprises (likely controllers) coming in 2013. The SteamBox info are not direct quotes, it's probably the journo interpreting things in an "exciting" way.
 
So basically whoever ends u paying the most for the steam seal of approval gets to be the steambox.

Hardware is hardware. its going to perform the same as long as its not shoddy product.
 
Castor Krieg said:
In other words - clusterfuck.
Click to expand...

It's not, it's just those cube pc guys etc trying to ride the steambox hype for free advertising and attention.

They'll probably get an earful from Valve, then again 99 percent of the idea that it was even a steambox came from gaming websites.

The only clusterfuck here is game junnalism.
 
SneakyStephan said:
It's not, it's just those cube pc guys etc trying to ride the steambox hype for free advertising and attention.

They'll probably get an earful from Valve, then again 99 percent of the idea that it was even a steambox came from gaming websites.

The only clusterfuck here is game junnalism.
Click to expand...

What has this got to do with criticising the games press now? We've heard conflicting reports from Valve, are the sites at fault for reporting said statements? Maybe they should all confer together to bring us a more balanced statement :P
 
TheGreyHulk said:
I read this morning that the Steambox will be running on Linux, but you will be able to install windows on if you want.

source is from the verge, but i don't have the link. it's on my phone. google it
Click to expand...

We already know about that. It was discussed in one of the threads that popped up yesterday. Is it possible to download Windows 8 for an install on a non-Windows PC with no optical media drive?
 
Hatten said:
Am I the only one getting a 3DO vibe here?
Click to expand...

Nope. It's (almost) the 3DO model with the distinct difference in that its hooking into the largest gaming ecosystem in the world as opposed to attempting to build one from the bottom up.

...which is why it could work this time.
 
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