Valve's 'Steam Box' - Thoughts?

[Danqazmlp]

http://www.gamesradar.com/valves-steam-box-why-it-would-change-gaming-drastically-positively-ps1-did-could-also-tank/

 

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

 

Too much to explain, so I'll let you read Gamesradars summary:

[spoiler=Failure or Success?]

So Half-Life, Portal and Steam developer Valve is rumoured to be launching a console. Sort of. The Steam Box is supposedly a high-end gaming PC in terms of hardware, dedicated only to running Steam and other third-party game delivery systems such as EA's Origin. It’s supposedly small and streamlined, looking and operating like a console, right down to the controllers and plug-and-play TV connection. But it’s also supposedly a PC through and through, as free of development fees, restrictions and platform-holder control as PC gaming currently is on traditional rigs.

But if it exists, will it be any good, and should you want one?

 

 

Above: This is the prototype. Apparently. Maybe

I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about that one. There are plenty of pros, and plenty of reasons this thing will be a disaster. But I’ve come to a conclusion. And it’s a far bigger conclusion than I expected when I started this feature. Read on, and I’ll tell you about all the things I’ve been thinking.

 

 

The Steam Box would have the best launch line-up in history

And it wouldn’t even need any specific games set up for launch. It would have the entire back-catalogue of Steam releases ready to go out of the box. Everything from Call of Duty to Half-Life 2 to Arkham City to every obscure, arty and innovative indie PC game you can think of. Barring the console exclusives, it would have everything. But that’s no meaningful disadvantage. Every console is in the same boat in that respect. And if Valve would be willing to put its own games out exclusively (timed or otherwise) on the box, it would have killer apps coming out of its ears.

 

 

Above: If you don't think this guy can launch a platform, you're very much mistaken

Just imagine if Valve turned out to be holding off the announcement of Half-Life 3 because it’s set to launch as a simultaneous PC and Steam Box launch exclusive. Boom. Splash made. Competition soaked. And while some of the mainstream third-parties have been scaling back the graphical quality of their PC releases lately, and while the Steam Box would ‘only’ be putting out at 1080p when running through a TV, it would still boast the best versions of the main multi-format releases.

And did I mention that being the PC version, most games will be about half the price they will be on console?

 

 

The Steam Box would send indie development through the roof

This is the second biggest way in which the Steam Box can boost the health of the games industry. As I’ve stated before, PC gaming is the place to go for the innovative, interesting, fresh IPs that are regularly crushed beneath the wheels of the hot, greasy mainstream gaming machine. Consoles are just too closed and expensive a system for indie creativity to really shine on, platform-holder development contracts and triple-A skewed promotion meaning that even on the console download services, making an indie success is like wrapping a gerbil in tin-foil, giving him a home-made ice lolly stick sword, and sending him out to win a fight with a global military contractor.

 

 

Above: An action games splash page in which CoD sits as equal alongside Painkiller and an obscure arty platformer. That's a healthy gaming right there

The Steam Box though, is rumoured to have no such restrictions. Development will be free and unrestricted - as indeed it should be on what is essentially a differently-shaped PC - and Steam has always given equal exposure to indie game and megaton tent-pole release alike. A powerful machine which actively nurtures and promotes all of gaming as a medium, from within the mainstream environment of the living room, rather than burying 90% of it under this year’s Call of Halo: Gears of Honor? I’ll take 12 of those please.

 

 

The Steam Box could decimate decades of corporate-controlled console gaming culture

This is the biggie for me. The Steam Box is rumoured to operate as essentially a PC in a small-form console box, probably running a stripped-down operating system intended simply to power Steam and other game distribution services such as EA’s Origin. Based on various comments from Valve’s now splendidly bearded boss Gabe Newell, the vitality of open development platforms is of increasing importance to Valve, which fits neatly in with the rumour that any licensed hardware company will be free to make its own version of the box, with the operating system available to all.

 

 

Above: A picture of Gabe's beard. For no other reason than that it is magnificent

What does this mean? Most importantly, it means a culture of non-control. With manufacture and distribution so disseminated, there would be no gate-keepers, no platform-holder corporate machinations defining the type of content that sinks or swims. It would be PC gaming, presented in a palatable way for a mainstream audience. Standardise that kind of openness in the living room, and you have a huge and positive cultural shift in home entertainment. Not to mention one which could cause serious trouble for the notoriously closed and controlling Apple’s incoming bid for a slice of gaming cake with its Apple TV roll-out.

 

 

It would probably divide PC gamers

PC gaming and standardised hardware platforms are as well-related as the average Jeremy Kyle guest and at least one of his parents. And while a powerful, standardised format might well help developers of triple-A games by giving them a very definite set of specs to optimise for, it would also probably turn off a large number of PC gamers. Rig-pimping and performance-squeezing is after all a large and rewarding part of the culture. Replace that with a (presumed) console-style focus of complete hardware refreshes every five to six years, and you potentially take away something that PC gamers just love to throw in console gamers’ faces. Perpetual adaptability and improvement.

 

 

Above: A complex visual metaphor

That said though – and I’m just thinking completely freely and out-loud here - this could lead to a completely different model for PC gaming. One which is built not around a month-on-month progression of tech specs and incremental hardware upgrades, but upon developers having a standard maximum and minimum spec to build to for five or so years at a time. If that spec was set highly enough at the start of each “generation” (and it looks like it will be, if the current version of the Steam Box rumour turns out to be true. 8Gb of RAM is one suggested specification, which puts the machine way ahead of what most games currently require) with the games naturally and progressively becoming more advanced to take advantage of it over the course of the machine’s life-cycle, then you could have a big win.

Simple, no-fuss PC gaming that even the most tech-fearing pleb-on-the-street can handle, alongside performance potential to wipe the floor with consoles throughout each generation. A dedicated gaming PC in a console box, which unlike consoles would be specced at launch to be impressive at the end of its projected generation rather than just the start or middle, meaning that PC gamers who wanted to stick with a traditional set-up would never be hampered by dated tech in the Steam Box. Hell, even if I never took my Steam Box anywhere near the living room, and just used it as a 100% pure, unsullied gaming PC (it will have all the required connections, let’s face it), that’s something I could absolutely get behind.

 

 

It could lower the quality of some high-end PC games

 

 

Above: Dramatisation, may be grossly exaggerated

Here’s the flip-side though. We’re already seeing a fair few multiformat PC games getting a downgraded “Console Version +” treatment. And while I have no doubt that the many dedicated PC devs of the world would properly take advantage of the hardware at their disposal in the SteamBox for their triple-A projects, the perceived “consoleness” of the Steam Box might make the less PC-attentive become lazier still. After all, if there’s suddenly a model for PC gaming which attracts more traditionally console-focused gamers, why go to the extra effort with your PC version? If they’re used to 720p being “good”, and are still playing on the same TV, why bother going any higher?

 

 

It might just tank

A unified “console” standard which any licensee could manufacture. You might recall that 3DO tried a similar thing in the ‘90s and absolutely died on its arse. And the situation then was similar in some ways to the one the Steam Box will face, if indeed it exists. The 3DO was a powerful, snorting beast of a machine, with mist blowing from its nostrils and fire in its eyes, but it was essentially a no-name format going up against established industry leaders like Nintendo and Sega (with the PlayStation soon to come) at a significantly higher price point. Thus, despite being a brilliant idea, it never took off, and died just a few years after its launch.

 

 

Above: Tank? Aquarium? Sinking without trace? Oh please yourselves

And the same thing could happen to the Steam Box. To we, the educated hardcore, Valve is a name which inspires loyalty and respect en masse. But gaming isn’t just about us any more. There are rafts of casuals and semi-casuals to convince as well. And to them, the name Valve doesn’t mean shit. And if the Steam Box is going to be the technical monster I think it will have to be to execute the strategy I think it will need to execute, it’s going to be pricey. Of course, given the way console prices are going, the cost of a small-form, gaming-only PC is going to be significantly less disparate from that of a PS4 or next Xbox than the $700 3DO was from a $150 SNES, but it’s still probably going to be a bit more costly. And that’s going to take a bit of work to get the uninformed masses past.

But it could change everything for the better

But the thing is, Valve really could achieve that. The massive difference between the Steam Box and the 3DO is that the 3DO was another new set of proprietary hardware governed by an overseeing platform holder. A format run like that – closed, standalone, and in isolation – always has to fight hard to justify its place in the market. The Steam Box, by the sounds of it, would simply be a mainstream-gamer-friendly repackaging of the unrestricted, open hardware of the PC. It would already co-exist with 100% compatibility with one of the biggest, longest-established, most storied gaming formats in history. Because it would be that format. And it would launch with the thriving, eclectic, healthy, varied, unfathomably vast game catalogue that comes with that.

 

 

Above: It could really be this big of a deal

And just consider this: Sony was once a no-name in the console market. It once launched a new, radically different console at a vastly higher price point than the marketplace had ever been used to. That console was called the PlayStation, and it changed the entire industry, bringing a new era of freedom, creativity and accessibility for gamers and developers alike, just when it was really needed.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

Screw it, this feature started out as a for-and-against, “Why it’s equally great and rubbish” kind of thing, but the more I explore the arguments in my own head, the more I want a Steam Box. Provided it works out the way I imagine it will, I want one tomorrow. Hell, even if it’s just a streamlined new way of owning a gaming PC, I like the idea. I certainly don’t see it making things drastically worse, provided the specs really can be future-proofed (that’s open to be debate though, naturally), and if it can rock the long-festering culture of having our living rooms dominated by closed, controlled gaming platforms that we don’t really own – and blockade Apple from potentially making that particular situation a whole lot worse – then personally I’ll welcome it with open arms.

If indeed it exists. Which it might not. But I hope it does.Things like this give me hope.

How about you?

 

 

In short - Valve are making software to be used on gaming systems halfway between PC and consoles. (I think)

 

This is probably the most exciting gaming new I've heard in a long time. I love PC gaming but the costs of keeping up with hardware (as well as knowhow on doing it) aren't something readily available to me, so a way of playing PC games, like they should would be incredible.

[sohkmj1]

Should be interesting to see how they fit game specifications to the "console", but newer games for PC may render a version useless every now and then (I believe consoles don't have this problem because console devs scale stuff down).

[Gandorf61]

Part of me is really excited and is hoping that this is true but on the other hand I'm also a little wary. Steam Box, if it was designed and priced right could provide an affordable means of getting into the PC game market which would mean more consumers = more games. On the other hand I could see this holding back game tech progress as developers focus on catering to the specs of the Steam Box instead of nextgen technology specs. Console ports have already held back some of the potential of PC games, and I just don't want to see PC games stuck on Steam Box specs for 4-5 years instead constantly getting better.

 

If the Steam Box was given incredible specs from the get go and had a new version released every few years it might not be too bad. I can't see the cost of it being cheap though.

[Racheya]

I play PC games rather than console games and I don't have a super powerful computer, I run them all decently and they're fine. I more or less exclusively get games through Steam because I actually enjoy the format and the Steam client itself. Forking out to essentially buy steam, which I already have, seems a bit silly - but it's also something that could be a really awesome investment. We have a gorgeous 40" TV downstairs and the idea of being able to run 1080p PC games through it sounds amazing to me. I think Valve could really pull this off and if Valve do something they do it properly, which is what this would need.

[Giordano]

I don't quite get this. Is it a console to play PCs on TVs? Why not buy a controller and a PC-TV table? Or is it something different?

[Gandorf61]

I don't quite get this. Is it a console to play PCs on TVs? Why not buy a controller and a PC-TV table? Or is it something different?

 

Basically it's a computer solely dedicated to playing PC games. So instead of forking over $1000 for a nice gaming desktop you could essentially get the Steam Box instead and hook it up to a monitor or TV and play games. I can see their target audience as those with laptops/netbooks that want to play games but don't have the power to do so.

[obfuscator]

Very interesting.

[Giordano]

I don't quite get this. Is it a console to play PCs on TVs? Why not buy a controller and a PC-TV table? Or is it something different?

 

Basically it's a computer solely dedicated to playing PC games. So instead of forking over $1000 for a nice gaming desktop you could essentially get the Steam Box instead and hook it up to a monitor or TV and play games. I can see their target audience as those with laptops/netbooks that want to play games but don't have the power to do so.

Sounds worse than I thought; just sounds like a money gimmick to me. You might as well buy and modify your own PC and you can update it accordingly. Plus you can use the PC for other software not just games...

 

This sounds like console'ing the PC - and the console business is a milking one.

[Danqazmlp]

I don't quite get this. Is it a console to play PCs on TVs? Why not buy a controller and a PC-TV table? Or is it something different?

 

Basically it's a computer solely dedicated to playing PC games. So instead of forking over $1000 for a nice gaming desktop you could essentially get the Steam Box instead and hook it up to a monitor or TV and play games. I can see their target audience as those with laptops/netbooks that want to play games but don't have the power to do so.

Sounds worse than I thought; just sounds like a money gimmick to me. You might as well buy and modify your own PC and you can update it accordingly. Plus you can use the PC for other software not just games...

 

This sounds like console'ing the PC - and the console business is a milking one.

 

The difference is that 'apparently' they are planning to make it powerful enough to last 3-4 years before even becoming the norm, and then when it gets to that stage it would be updated. It would mean people who haven't got the best spec PC's and who can't upgrade them readily (such as those with laptops) can buy something to play the best PC games. This would be perfect for somebody like me, who hasn't been able to buy a new PC game for a good 3-4 years, stopping a company like Valve making their money. I've had to use (arguably) inferior console versions of games simply to play them, whereas with this I would have the ability to play the game the same as others.

 

They haven't said it would be limited to gaming, but that it would be geared towards it.

 

If done correctly, it could essentially make consoles redundant except for their exclusive games. It would make top line PC gaming accessible for the masses (which at the moment I don't think it is), while still keeping the versatility of a normal PC.