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CES has come and gone, and we’ve learned a lot more about Valve’s Steam Box hardware/software standard. And honestly, for everything declared “the future of gaming”, this is it. This is the actual future of gaming.
Microsoft’s Phil Harrison pretty much revealed he has no idea of what Valve is actually up to by basically sniping at Valve over the hedge in Eurogamer:
“Entering the hardware business is a really tough business. You have to have great fortitude to be in the hardware business and you have to have deep pockets and a very strong balance sheet. It’s not possible for every new hardware entrant to get to scale.”
Well, yeah, Phil, if Valve were building a Steam Box (and they are) and only Valve, you’d be right. But they’re not.
Here’s the essential difference between the Steam Box and other consoles: Anybody can make a Steam Box. In fact, Valve met with a series of hardware manufacturers about building Steam Boxes. Valve is developing the software, but they’re building it around Linux, and a Steam Box is just a hardware standard.
This makes sense because of Valve’s approach. Valve has made a fortune serving as the middleman for PC game developers, and they’ve got no interest in cutting off their market to put out a console. All of the consoles are built in the exact opposite way: Sell the gear, and then lock in the consumer by buying software. Microsoft doesn’t let anybody else build Xboxes, which is the entire problem.
Valve wants to sell you the software, and lock you in by, uh, making it easy to play the game wherever you go and choosing the console you want to play it on. There’s no reason smart TVs, tablets, phones, anything with a processor really, couldn’t be certified as a “Steam Box” or at least be allowed to download specific games from Steam. There’s no reason you couldn’t build your own Steam Box and download the software. Valve doesn’t care: They’re just creating a standard to make it easier to sell games to you and use them where you want.
In other words, the Steam Box is the future of gaming because it’s cost-effective, easy to make, and not proprietary in any meaningful sense. It means high-end set-top boxes can be Steam certified. It means tablets can get a little Steam badge on the box.
Essentially, it means that unless Microsoft and Sony have something killer this year, they are in a lot of trouble.
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So I’m fairly ignorant when it comes to this thing…can somebody explain to me exactly what this thing is/does in a mildly simplistic way?
It lets you play PC games you’ve bought through Steam on your TV in your living room. Valve has been testing this out with ‘Big Picture Mode’ on Steam already. Currently you can plug your PC into your TV via HDMI and play that way. I think the Steam Box will be a huge success.
This might be a dumb question, but will the steam box bring its own controller or will you have to play with a mouse and keyboard?
You’ll bring your own controller, or you can use a mouse and a keyboard.
I’m in, PC games are cheaper, they look better and are usually free to play multiplayer. Microsoft and Sony have been trying for years to make their consoles into computers, why not just put a computer in your living room?
The biggest obstacle to PC gaming is getting the hardware right. I just upgraded my PC and the sheer number of video cards/motherboards/cpu combos available is staggering. It’s way too intimidating to the casual gamer. If Valve can get Steam Box manufacturers to adhere to a universal standard I don’t see why this can’t take off. They just need to make sure they have all the big publishers lined up.
I’ve wanted to get a gaming rig for a few years now but the initial cost and continued investment to keep it top of the line is just to expensive. I can’t wait for this to work and with Valve bringing steam to Linux I can finally play all the games I’ve been missing out on.
I’d be all over the Steam Box, except for one question — how easy will it be to upgrade? Will I buy it and find it obsolete within a year? If so, then it’s the same old problem PC gaming has always had. That’s the appeal of consoles. You buy one, get 5 years of support and all the games the come in Xbox/Wii/PS boxes work for that machine guaranteed with no tinkering required. Until Steam can promise that, they’re not the future of gaming.
at the same time have you seen how say Battlefield 3 or Skyrim look on the PC vs the 7 year old Xbox… yeesh. This generation of consoles may have had a great shelf life, but when you compare the hardware to a PC the PC destroys them.
Of course. PC has always destroyed consoles in terms of graphics. That’s never changed. Nor has my ability to afford a top level gaming PC.
true that, in theory a Steam box would be able to give you high end performance with a much lower price point simply by removing components that you don’t need and integrating some of the ones you would onto the motherboard. I think you’re right though, the idea that a consoles are play and forget pieces of tech give them a huge advantage over any PC option. That will probably be the biggest hurdle for the steam box.
Maybe instead of releasing a “next gen” Steam Box they simply release a plug and play type card you add in or simply exchange for the old at a relatively small price.
That’s kinda smart. Here’s a list of hardware that is compatible with the software that we will license to you. Valve puts the steam in the SteamBox.
“Essentially, it means that unless Microsoft and Sony have something killer this year, they are in a lot of trouble.”
How will you get game developers to drop console gaming and develop for Linux?
They wouldn’t necessarily target console devs first but rather PC and Linux devs to begin with. Also there’s the whole Indie thing going on now so if its Steam compatible you can play it, in theory, on the box. Just a thought I dont really know though.
Steam compatible isn’t a thing. Steam is a distribution platform for Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems. The games are only compatible with the OS. There’s a completely lack of “big” Linux game development houses and with most AAA games being a Direct X port of something originally made for the XBox it doesn’t bode well.
Valve is working on Linux porting tools. Also, if worse comes to worse, Valve has said you can install Windows on the box.
I’m afraid that this “steam box” bodes ill for console exclusives that get ported to PC. If Valve is successful with this project, wouldn’t that mean that people will stop buying Halo for Xbox or God of War for PS? And wouldn’t that lead the big console companies towards keeping their games away from the “steam box” in order to continue selling consoles?