So yeah as I have stated in the subject box my question for you the community is the steambox dead? Im not sure. We havent heard anything about it in awhile. Last thing I remember hearing was about them using the piston as a steambox. While this was later said that this wasn't true and that it was just one of the many computer formfactors valve was looking at to create a steambox. Now honestly we as pc gamers don't really care about getting a steambox because we have are own computers, but non the less it could still be a very big game changer considering the console market at least. Right now xbox one had a failed reveal. So as far as im conserned That leaves the ps4 and Wii U. This is all speculation considering niether of the systems are out and im still routing for nintendo. So anyway let me give you what I think pc gamers wet dream is for the short term future. Gabe Newell officially says that the steambox is going to lauch on whatever the release date is and it will ship with half life 3. Not as a Steambox exclusive but as a PC exclusive. But alas that is but a dream. If you guys want to leave me with anymore information about the steambox or just to disscuss the idea of the steambox please reply below.
I actually do care about the steam box despite being a PC gamer. PC's still lack some advantages of consoles. The only advantage I'm concerned with is how consoles are more friendly to a group of people coming over to someone's house and just pissing around in a game. It's hard to enjoy a game on a PC with a group of people.
Valve, I imagine, is taking their time making a steambox. The fact that they don't rush out their products regardless of how much people beg or how much more money they can make if they release on a certain date is what makes them better than others.
It is very likely that news about the Steam Box will come out at E3.
There may be some news at E3 as people suggest or steam may be waiting for the XBone and PS4 to come out before setting anything in stone. If I were valve I would wait an extra year and then utterly trounce the specs, design and general tech of the then current systems.
more than likely the next gen consoles will do one of two extremes drive people towards the idea of the steam box as a affordable alt. or drive them away since they are really powerful for the price
Newell ha said that they will begin testing on the Steam Box this summer, so next month or so I think there will be prototypes popping up, and I think it will be interesting. He's already said that a part of the concept is to enhance the gaming experience with body state sensors (like a heartbeat sensor). I think he aims at harvesting the extra possibilities of leaving the old windows platform in game development. I don't think he's that interested in the spyware- and gestapo-DRM tactics microsoft is implementing, but rather in the next evolution in gaming experience. I think the Steam Box will be great, but will only be the herald of what will become greater once games are developed for it, and that will come, because the market needs a new horizon. What can an XBox One or PS4 give you in terms of gaming experience that an XBox 360 or PS3 can't, besides a bit better graphics? Think about it, why is it that Microsoft and Sony lock down their platforms and don't do gaming demos, but rather media consumption demos? Because they can't offer a great deal of gaming experience evolution! I think that's exactly what the Steam Box will be trying to change, make a platform that allows for the evolution of games. I also think that the Steam Box will run the non-gaming software that is sold on the Steam Store. Obviously not all of it or a lot of it in the beginning, but one of the problems of software manufacturers in certain areas (like Adobe or Steinberg for instance), is that they don't have a retail channel for closed source commercial software on open source platforms. Well, with Steam on Linux, that would be possible, because Steam is a DRM system for GNU/Linux, which is basically DRM-free as it is, and that can't change because it's GNU-free and open source. Imagine Valve not only opening up the market for closed source software on open source platforms, but also leveling the EULA's of those software titels with Steam, and providing a computer (the Steam Box) that runs that software, so that a gamer cannot only get a cheaper Steam Box and have a better gaming experience, but he can also do music/graphics/photo/video editing on that same device with closed source applications for which there still is no open source alternative, and he can also install free and open source software for everything else, like LibreOffice 4, and do his homework on it.
Now I don't think the first Steam Box will be the big gamechanger, but by generation 3, it will be on it's way to become the new home PC standard, like the IBM XT came after the 5150 or the Apple IIe came after the Apple I and II, and both simultaneously made the personal computer revolution take off.
I also think that microsoft and sony have spent their ammo to fight the evolution, and they are pretty much out of the future game. I do think that Intel and Samsung, with Tizen, are sitting on a big ammo dump at the moment, waiting for the smoke to clear from the last microsoft/sony firefight, and that they will start developing a Steam Box-type next gen home computing solution in an evolved and refined form by the time the Steam Box reaches its 2nd or 3rd gen. Imagine all the technology Intel and Samsung have, WiDi, Visual AI, superb display technology, a lot of manufacturing and development resources, years of experience with open source software, a solid foot inside the linux foundation, ...