[DocStar]

Is this thing supposed to have Linux as an OS or a more traditional like Console OS?

If this thing is Linux-only, how in hell are they supposed to support all games available on Steam?

[Draft]

Valve isn't going to launch a game platform that can't run half the games on Steam. If they are going with Linux then their engineers have some solution to DX only titles, and I bet it's a lot better than WINE or any other existing solution to running Windows games on Linux systems.

[Orayn]

So is this Valve basically entering the console race? And if so, can we expect to have it be very powerful, with Valve games being exclusive to it?

Power is hard to gauge at this point. My expectations aren't terribly high, but having a fixed hardware spec for devs to optimize games for can potentially go a long way.

And no, there's no way Valve would go exclusive for the Steambox.

[Dark_AnNiaLatOr]

The Big 4, huh. Awesome.

[Exuro]

Can't see what they could have to offer to developers to get bigger titles on a linux system, unless the dx to opengl thing actually provides minimum work for them. The idea is intriguing to me though. If they have a full htpc experience with bluray and netflix(don't think netflix is available on linux) lined up it could be pretty cool.

[AHA-Lambda]

What if you could install Windows on it? Would this be possible?

[alexandros]

I saw no mentioning of an actual release of the Steam Box in 2013. That might happen, but it's not said in the article.

That part is from Michael Larabel of Phoronix, there's a link in the original post.

[alerus]

Linux is a great choice as far as giving them the ability to customize the experience, empower the users, and free themselves from potential walls put up by MS.

However, the game library is going to be a major challenge as will get better driver support. That said, if they can get developers on board, it will make for a very bright future. On the up side, Steam does enable your games to accessible on all Steam systems (provided the game runs on that system), so if someone does try the steam box and later decide they'd rather go windows, their games will be waiting for them.

[1-D_FTW]

Called it. I don't know why there were so many doubters.

Because it's a stupid idea and they're not big enough to make a costly mistake. WTF would I want something that can only play 1 percent of my library? And if they think they can compete with Sony or MS in the console space, perhaps they should recheck and look at how much they lose in those opening years (and only recoup after massive volume).

If this is all there is to the plan, it's a terrible mistake they're going to regret. There has to be some exciting caveat (beyond HL3 being exclusive, because they would just compound the mistake).

EDIT: Fixed for wrong quote.

[Radec]

Sounds better than Windows. This is huge. A real Megaton.

lol, no.

[a Master Ninja]

I'm unclear on the market that such a device would exist for. Current Steam users are already deeply entrenched in Windows PCs and we already have three major competitors in the console space. Is there an untapped "hardcore" market this would be reaching?

[plagiarize]

I am closely watching this space. Very closely.

[Woo-Fu]

Kind of funny to see people who are disappointed it will run linux. It is a black-box, be happy it runs linux, it'll just work. Expect the presence/popularity of such a device to make linux versions of popular games commonplace instead of a rarity.

I'm unclear on the market that such a device would exist for. Current Steam users are already deeply entrenched in Windows PCs and we already have three major competitors in the console space. Is there an untapped "hardcore" market this would be reaching?

Deeply entrenched? More like a 3-year cycle at the end of which you upgrade your CPU/GPU, and RAM.

[Lanark]

All other consoles run on non Windows operating systems, have those been DOA too? Don't get some of the logic in this thread...

No, but they do have strong first party exclusives (Nintendo), hundreds of millions in marketing dollars behind it and companies that are willing or at least capable to lose several billions of dollars on the machine. Does the Steambox have that?

[aeolist]

What if you could install Windows on it? Would this be possible?

Depends on how much customization they're doing to the hardware and firmware. I doubt they'd lock the bootloader and BIOS but if it's anything that more than slightly deviates from stock PC stuff Windows might not like it.

[x3sphere]

I don't want 80% of my Steam games not avaliable on a SteamBox. Dosn't make sense...

I don't think Valve would be moving forward with such an idea unless a signficant amount of publishers were on board. Plus, it'll probably be competing with next gen consoles, not just a box for your older Steam games.

[Relaxed Muscle]

Kind of funny to see people who are disappointed it will run linux. It is a black-box, be happy it runs linux, it'll just work. Expect the presence/popularity of such a device to make linux versions of popular games commonplace instead of a rarity.

That's highly unlikely unless the system sells well enough...which won't because people won't be able to play like 90% of PC games....

I don't think Valve would be moving forward with such an idea unless a signficant amount of publishers were on board. Plus, it'll probably be competing with next gen consoles, not just a box for your older Steam games.

Significant amonut is not all of publishers, something, people like it or not, is what we have already on Windows PC.

Most PC gamers will just buy a PC like until now and console gamers won't be interested on a box that won't get, potentially, some of the major third party games....

[GregLombardi]

And the chess board against which console makers have to compete changes again.

This will be extremely high on my list, especially if Half Life 3 is an exclusive to it for like 6 months to a year.

[alerus]

Is this thing supposed to have Linux as an OS or a more traditional like Console OS? If this thing is Linux-only, how in hell are they supposed to support all games available on Steam?

According to this article, linux *is* the OS. However, given the nature of linux, nothing is stopping them from layering their own "desktop manager" and "windows manger" on it, which would probably be dominated by big picture mode with some extra stuff for managing the system. That is, it can be linux and still have a very console-like experience.

[Gianni Merryman]

Wait did anyone really expect this to be Windows-based? Microsoft wouldn't license their OS to anyone.

Yeah, especially considering that Microsoft is going to be a direct competitor of theirs with their new rumoured XBox, they could not rely too much on their support in the first place.

[DigitalOp]

So its true.......

Our consoles are changing!!! :O

Steambox, Ouya, Durango, Orbis..... what's next?

[Swifty]

In other words, this is just going to become another console instead of the bridge between PC gaming and televisions like we were hoping it was going to be? Existing PC gamers need not apply?

[aeolist]

That's highly unlikely unless the system sells well enough...which won't because people won't be able to play like 90% of PC games....

It depends on how easy Valve is able to make the API porting process. They have some very smart engineers so it's definitely possible. Drivers are another big concern but I don't doubt they'll be able to get AMD and nVidia on board, Intel is already there.

[Radec]

All other consoles run on non Windows operating systems, have those been DOA too? Don't get some of the logic in this thread...

They are ported to run specifically on each console.

If Steambox will gain millions of users in the first 6 months, devs might be interested with it.

I doubt this will be backwards compatible with current games.

[Nibel]

This could be huge, like - reaaallly gaming-landscape-changing-huge

[Makoto]

Linux-based, huh?

I can't wait to not bother with it until several years later when it actually has a respectable library of titles.

[lethial]

Maybe I'll hold off upgrading this relic of a pc. Pretty neat stuff if true.

[Fireblend]

Lol @ Gaf jumping the gun at the mention of Linux. I trust that if anyone is able to pull this off, it's Valve. I'm calling it, this is gonna be huge and you Linux naysayers will be eating lots of crow after its release.

[Dark_AnNiaLatOr]

Yeah, especially considering that Microsoft is a competitor of theirs, they could not rely on the support of Microsoft in the first place.

Well, at first, I merely thought this was going to be something like an Alienware X51 type of deal.

[Visualante2]

Valve needs to split with Steam.

[aeolist]

In other words, this is just going to become another console instead of the bridge between PC gaming and televisions like we were hoping it was going to be? Existing PC gamers need not apply?

Existing PC gamers have plenty of options when it comes to hooking their hardware up to a TV.

Also this whole thing is based around Steam for Linux and BPM, which means you'd be able to build your own Linux system from scratch and get basically the same experience.

[JaseC]

Because it's a stupid idea and they're not big enough to make a costly mistake. WTF would I want something that can only play 1 percent of my library? And if they think they can compete with Sony or MS in the console space, perhaps they should recheck and look at how much they lose in those opening years (and only recoup after massive volume). If this is all there is to the plan, it's a terrible mistake they're going to regret. There has to be some exciting caveat (beyond HL3 being exclusive, because they would just compound the mistake). EDIT: Fixed for wrong quote.

I don't think the idea is to compete with The Big Three at that level but instead assume Valve will partner with at least one PC manufacturer to make the Steambox a made-to-order product using typical PC hardware; you won't see it lining the shelves of your local EB Games.

[Eideka]

If a game releases on the Steambox, does that mean it will release on the PC as well ?

[Air]

I'm down.

[pestul]

Lol @ Gaf jumping the gun at the mention of Linux. I trust that if anyone is able to pull this off, it's Valve. I'm calling it, this is gonna be huge and you Linux naysayers will be eating lots of crow after its release.

Yeah, way too early until we see what this thing can do. Might be some devs out there working on ports of many games already.

[Durante]

In other words, this is just going to become another console instead of the bridge between PC gaming and televisions like we were hoping it was going to be? Existing PC gamers need not apply?

The bridge between PC gaming and televisions already exists though. It's called a HDMI cable and it's really cheap.

[Vol5]

lol, no.

Way to justify your argument.

It's not going to be some Ubuntu desktop. It will be Big Picture mode running on a Linux kernel and the games using an OpenGL derivative. Kind of like the PS3 (which uses Linux for the XMB).

Crazy how many people think because it's not windows it's already a piece of shit.

...and more competition the better in my eyes.

[Exuro]

I'm guessing all gfwl type titles will be unable to be ported due to contracts and other titles with non steamworks drm would need some changes? Sounds like a lot of work to get windows titles running on a new OS.

[Xater]

Lol @ Gaf jumping the gun at the mention of Linux. I trust that if anyone is able to pull this off, it's Valve. I'm calling it, this is gonna be huge and you Linux naysayers will be eating lots of crow after its release.

Except for Valve and indie games what is there for Linux?

I really doubt that this will get all the PC game devs to put out Linux versions. At this point you are more likely to get a Mac version of a game than a Linux one.

[JaseC]

If a game releases on the Steambox, does that mean it will release on the PC as well ?

I don't see why not. Steam is the platform, not the device.

[MrNyarlathotep]

Wait did anyone really expect this to be Windows-based?

Yup.

I'm unclear on the market that such a device would exist for. Current Steam users are already deeply entrenched in Windows PCs and we already have three major competitors in the console space. Is there an untapped "hardcore" market this would be reaching?

I would happily drop my windows-dependency for PC gaming if I could.

That $50-$100 licence fee would be much better spent on RAM / HDD space / next tier CPU/GPU / Whatever

[GrizzNKev]

It will take a big shift in the amount of effort most devs put into PC ports for multiplats to get any significant amount of games working on Linux unless Valve pulls some magic out of their ass.

I'm all for Valve seeing more success though, especially since they want to bring more innovation to the hardware market, so I hope they pull through and this thing they're making serves a purpose.

[Shrinnan]

I could see it being exclusive in that it might not go to other consoles, but I can't imagine Valve would deny the PC players the game for any length of time.

Why would they anyway? I mean, I doubt this means that Valve will suddenly abandon Steam. For all we know, the thing probably runs on Steam with a very limited library of games due to it being Linux based.

[jbug617]

Wouldn't Valve have to leverage their own IP to make sure Steambox to take off?

[alerus]

If a game releases on the Steambox, does that mean it will release on the PC as well ?

The cool opportunity they have here is if it releases on Steam, then it could be accessible to any Steam-running system, provided it runs on that platform. If a dev make a linux-based game, it's probably safe to assume they will have a windows and perhaps even Mac compatible version released (since Macs are unix and openGL based). So that kind of has the cool possibility of your purchase being playable on PC/Mac/Linux.

[Woo-Fu]

I'm guessing all gfwl type titles will be unable to be ported due to contracts and other titles with non steamworks drm would need some changes? Sounds like a lot of work to get windows titles running on a new OS.

There are few GFWL titles, even fewer of which are Microsoft-published and thus will never see anything other than a GFWL/XBOX release.

Valve has to promote and sell enough of these devices to make a linux version attractive to the publishers. If anybody can do it it is probably Valve.

[ChosenPredator]

A console with infinite easy to do upgrading...would be cracra

[Necron]

Sad to see people already negatively commenting on it because the OS will be based on Linux. What the hell...

[DerZuhälter]

If they make HL3 Valve-Console exclusive Valve can suck a bag of dicks....

And have my cash...

[1st Course]

1)What the point? Why would anyone buy this thing when the entire library is already available on Windows/Consoles?

2) Does Valve have the man power to distribute this product in multiple regions around the world?

I like Valve but I don't see how this will works in any possible way.