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Valve engineer confirms Linux-based Steambox for 2013, could appear at GDC or E3
- Thread starter alexandros
- Start date
AstroNut325
Member
With GTX780 class hardware... Day 1 if less than $799. Even if it is a Linux box.
They could also include HL3 as a pre-installed pack-in.
HL3 as an exclusive to steam-box (and PC), with a pre-installed pack-in deal, would probably help push the system. If Valve really wants it to sell a new console that would be the way to do it. HL3 is a pretty close equivalent to Mario, Halo and etc in terms of killer app potential.
HL3 as an exclusive to steam-box (and PC), with a pre-installed pack-in deal, would probably help push the system. If Valve really wants it to sell a new console that would be the way to do it. HL3 is a pretty close equivalent to Mario, Halo and etc in terms of killer app potential.
quickwhips
Member
I think your right but they need to show off media features at E3 if they show it at all. If it doesn't have netflix and other apps like that its dead on arrive for under the tv.
A lot of people in this thread are confusing DirectX with Direct3D. DirectX and OpenGL aren't comparable since DirectX is more than just a graphics API.
Valve isn't stupid. It'll be nowhere near that price if they want it to be at all competitive.
From what I've read it seems like it's going to be the Steam equivalent of AppleTV. I don't see Valve getting into the PC manufacturing business so assuming it's a console seems like a safe bet.
Valve isn't stupid. It'll be nowhere near that price if they want it to be at all competitive.
From what I've read it seems like it's going to be the Steam equivalent of AppleTV. I don't see Valve getting into the PC manufacturing business so assuming it's a console seems like a safe bet.
MikeE21286
Member
For the people who would maybe buy a steam box....yes I agree with you about HL3 as a killer app.
As I said earlier its brilliant. Hl2 launches Steam and HL3 launches Steambox
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
It's just stupid. Apparently they have some stupid beef with windows even though if they didn't support windows they would pretty much be nonexistent. It's still stupid to have such crappy compatibility for no reason. It's yet to be seen if anyone will give a shit enough to develop for linux, vast majority probably won't.
Sentenza
Member
You are either wording this poorly or you are completely wrong.
It will undoubtedly cause a peak of users in the Linux desktop. That's really a given, there's no way it could be otherwise.
The question is if it will be sufficient to make it successful compared to the other competitors.
Beside, your "snarky" rebuttal is completely beyond the point.
The problem with his statement isn't if he's with the lovers or the haters.
It's the intrinsic silliness of believing that they are going to launch a Linux-based platform without putting any effort in expanding their Linux library.
I can't see it being less then $1000. The parts break down is huge. They will most likely want a i5 in there for the CPU, that's about $220 there. Then the graphics card. If they go at least mid end like a 7850 that's another $250. So at just two parts I'm already pushing $500. Throw in the motherboard, HDD, power supply, and memory and some overhead and your looking at $1000 easy.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
An OS specifically designed for gaming is going to give much more bang-for-buck than it's windows equivalent does.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
No, people complain because it has no support. Their linux support those far is a handful of indie developers and only Team Fortress 2 from them. They've shown nothing to prove that anyone will develop for linux besides maybe a handful of indie developers, that doesn't have much allure to anyone. When they get a single major release on linux then I'll maybe consider it more than the seemingly garbage it is now.
Even if it is and say it's $400-$500, do you think it's worth that much with them seemingly having no linux support right now?
How so? The parts don't get cheaper depending on what OS I use.
It's going to be x86 based so its going to use off the shelf parts.
dragonelite
Member
Dont know what factory prices and bulk buying are but they should drop the prices quit fast.
But i don't think they even have enough orders to do bulk orders. But from what i heard valve is making the OS only and give specs to other to build hardware.
So im wondering if i could make my own steambox if im willing?
No it really won't. Maybe a few % at best. Windows overhead while running a game on a modern PC is massively overrated.
What would provide a visible advantage is optimization for a fixed platform.
Quick to give it up when you know jack shit about it really.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
I think he's talking about it being more efficient with the parts so they can use lower end parts to get good performance.
TheDarkKnight774
Member
Who would the target audience be? I always thought it was supposed to be a cheap PC In a box with full steam PC catalog compatibility. Something to bridge the gap to PC games. It's doesn't sound like that.
Console gamers, I'd assume.
Glorified G
Member
Not sure if you're serious. Spend that kind of money on a pc and you'll have access to over a thousand more games on steam and you can still hook it up to your big screen.
vasametropolis
Member
A back catalogue of games will be irrelevant to the audience Valve is going to market this thing to. They would not be moving forward without publisher support either, so it's probably safe to say Valve has devised a way to port games very easily from a Windows platform to a Linux one, as indicated pretty clearly in one of their Linux blog posts. Apparently it is extremely easy to do with the work they've done, so it would be minimal effort to release Linux versions.
I'm sure they haven't totally forgotten about the back catalogue either. If not available from the start, I expect them to have a pretty sophisticated compatibility layer like WINE, but actually usable and available at some point later. Any performance hit from not having these games be native Linux applications would be offset by better hardware, which we're likely to already be at.
Here's a video of Crysis 2 in Ubuntu 10.10 using WINE. There are also several more games with this that look great overall, like Skyrim. I don't expect Valve to use WINE exactly, but just so people know it can be done:
Crysis 2 (doesn't explicitly show it's in Linux, but I hear it does work pretty well)
Skyrim (explicitly shows it running in Ubuntu)
There are likely issues for sure, but it's a proof of concept more than anything. If something was developed seriously for graphics intensive games, you could probably see the entire back catalogue no porting necessary.
I'm sure they haven't totally forgotten about the back catalogue either. If not available from the start, I expect them to have a pretty sophisticated compatibility layer like WINE, but actually usable and available at some point later. Any performance hit from not having these games be native Linux applications would be offset by better hardware, which we're likely to already be at.
Here's a video of Crysis 2 in Ubuntu 10.10 using WINE. There are also several more games with this that look great overall, like Skyrim. I don't expect Valve to use WINE exactly, but just so people know it can be done:
Crysis 2 (doesn't explicitly show it's in Linux, but I hear it does work pretty well)
Skyrim (explicitly shows it running in Ubuntu)
There are likely issues for sure, but it's a proof of concept more than anything. If something was developed seriously for graphics intensive games, you could probably see the entire back catalogue no porting necessary.
I get that, but it's a PC running PC games. It's not a console that can get away with using less to get more.
Increase? yes. Huge increase? no. Maybe I am wrong but you seem to think Linux on desktop will have a huge increase. I could see it double to 3 or 4% maybe but nothing beyond. What do you think?
Robot Pants
Member
I swear to god they better show off half life 3 if they reveal this steam box at e3
I have a feeling it will, or at least HL3 will be apart of the marketing for it in the future.
@ some of the people thinking HL3 would be exclusive to it, I highly doubt that. If that were the case (and I'm a big Valve fanboy), I'd give them 0 respect from then on out. Mark my words if you will.
Why is Linux desktop market share even relevant for this conversation?
The Steambox will be a platform on its own, and likely one much easier to support and more profitable for gaming than Linux on PCs ever was.
dragonelite
Member
He is actually quit right because a PS4 will probably for 99.999% have a shit load more support then some steam box from a rival for the gamers money.
I don't know, but i think people are expecting better linux drivers or valve contributing back to the opensource community huge.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
It's not a "stupid beef" It's smart long term thinking. MS could pull the plug on the Steambox any time they wanted to. Or at least make things very difficult for Valve.
On PC, Half-Life 2 is Steam-exclusive since you need Steam to run the game. The only ports of Half-Life 2 are the one for Xbox and The Orange Box for PS3 & 360, neither of which sold nearly as well as the PC version to the best of my knowledge. Before the NES, Nintendo games like Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. were on all the major console platforms as well. I do like how one person phrased it though... To Valve, Half-Life is the launch title. Half-Life 1 launched Valve, Half-Life 2 launched Steam, so it makes sense for Half-Life 3 to launch Valve's console.
AstroNut325
Member
Valve and the hardware manufacturers aren't going to pay retail (NewEgg) prices for the components. Even the 680 chip is like $80-90 itself.
I would assume a company like Valve is smart enough to have been working on making sure their library is linux compatible by launch.
I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak on third party though. How will this effect third parties if they want to support another platform? easier to start from linux and port or easier to port to linux?
Does this mean no more valve games on playstation/xbox?
Is Sony's os linux based?
Could this mean more beefed up console worthy android games that could eventually be ported to smartphones and tablets?
I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak on third party though. How will this effect third parties if they want to support another platform? easier to start from linux and port or easier to port to linux?
Does this mean no more valve games on playstation/xbox?
Is Sony's os linux based?
Could this mean more beefed up console worthy android games that could eventually be ported to smartphones and tablets?
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Steam Linux is still in beta; everything HIB should be on there for example, and I can't see any problems with the OSX titles being ported too.
If this is being treated as a new platform however, it's not what is currently available that is important, it is future support.
I dunno, most PC users have a bunch of other crap running in the background while they game. I agree that a reference model level of hardware would be a good thing though.
I was.
That could be true but why not give it ANY thought when you really don't know much about it. It's stupid to dismiss it completely.
Indeed, if MS/Sony can come up with a beefy GPU and release an affordable console, so can Valve. Perhaps they can take an even greater loss but I have no idea what kind of hardware they're aiming for.
If they want to stand a chance against Sony/MS they better go with some powerful hardware, that might not guarantee support but this is always something nice to have.
Yeah, if that was the case dell and hp would sell you a desktop at a cheaper price also. Right now i can build a better computer for cheaper. Just because it costs them little to make does not mean they will sell it cheap to you.
Dell wants to make a profit selling you computers. Vale wants to make a profit selling you games.
Pretty much my question. Console gamers don't drool for Valve and thus won't really care for this (unless it's cheap which I doubt it is) and PC gamers will own a gaming PC anyway. Casuals will probably never even hear of Steambox.
Sentenza
Member
No, I don't "think" it, I hope it, because that would be a good thing for everyone.
That's a VEEEEERY conservative estimation. Are you serious?
But as I already said that's beyond the point. I'm not saying this thing will be the best thing ever (because i don't know enough about it) and I'm not saying it will be successful (because no matter how good it is, customers aren't exactly famous for picking always what's best for them, so that's actually hard to predict).
What I'm saying is that claiming "it will have no games" because "there are only 40 Linux games on Steam today" is a DUMB argument, regardless of how good this thing is going to be.
It's *obvious* that they are going to expand their Linux library if they are diving in this thing.
Ding, ding, ding. And that includes software optimizations as everything is either Open Source or involved in optimizing necessary closed source drivers (notably Nvidia).
Steambox is the all-included-carefree Steam package, consumers likely won't ever see anything not offered by steam itself (it may offer some way of root access for the geek minority like Google's own Android units do). Those who want a little more access to other stuff can buy some Apple Mac OS X machine and use Steam there, and who wants all-out access to the grit PC hardcore style can keep using Steam on Windows PC.
You also have to remember that dell and hp most likely have great deals going with intel and others for parts. Valve is not going to have that kind of deal. Plus they now need someone like Foxconn to put this together for them. Selling this thing under $800 dollars would be a massive loss on each box, plus if it has the hardware I guessed at and they do sell it at crazy low prices, I might just buy one and throw windows on it since it would be cheaper then building it myself. They just took a hit and got nothing back in return.
Wiktor
Member
Yeah, by getting into console market, which is crumbling ten times faster than PC one...
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