CaptainABAB
Member
In addition, Valve currently has 116 people (based on their website.) Do they have the personnel required in order to launch a major hardware product?
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Valve engineer confirms Linux-based Steambox for 2013, could appear at GDC or E3
- Thread starter alexandros
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ComputerMKII
Banned
Make a partnership with Sony and release it as the PS4, problem solved.
The "People" section is far from exhaustive as it only includes those who wished to advertise a small blurb about themselves. Valve's actual headcount was "pushing 400" as of last August.
And who knows how many they might be adding with their San Francisco branch in the coming months!
Right, because Valve is putting all their eggs in this basket. EVERYTHING.
Hellsing321
Member
I seriously doubt Valve is going to be manufacturing the Steambox themselves. They'll partner with hardware manufacturers like Dell/Asus/ect. and create a standard system spec that others can follow to make a branded Steambox PC.
Most likely, yeah. I think the comparison to Google's Nexus devices is especially apt, since we'll probably have an initial "flagship" model by an existing OEM, with other devices that offer different feature sets and price points to follow.
Interestingly, the Valve Employee Handbook that leaked early last year mentioned an employee count of 293. Couple that with the aforementioned figure and you have a fun fact: Valve's employee count went up by about a third in less than a year.
Worth mentioning: if the Valve box takes off in any reasonably large way, would it not make sense for EA, Activision et al to publish Steamworks versions of their titles in the same way that they support infrastructure on360/PS3?
Steambox could cause changes in perspective, especially if you look a it as a console platform,
Steambox could cause changes in perspective, especially if you look a it as a console platform,
Ricochet 2 is in full development I see.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Activision already use Steamworks, as do Bethesda, THQ, Paradox, 2K Games and Squeenixdos
alexandros
Banned
Here's something to consider: Who wins with the current status quo in the console space? I would say Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and AMD (because AMD has their chips in all next-gen consoles). PC OEMs, Intel and Nvidia get nothing, that market is closed to them.
In comes Valve. "Hey OEMs, Intel and Nvidia, we have a plan to claim a piece of the console pie for all of us, but we need your help. Can you price components in such a way as to make our joint platform competitive in price?"
I'm guessing their answer would most likely be "yes".
Valve is only worth a few billion dollars, to actually launch a console would be "Putting all their eggs in a basket."
Can't wait until they go belly up and have to get bought out by a third party in order to survive.
Damn. You're already shooting for dumbest post of the year in January?
How? You don't know how much each unit costs, how much they're being sold for, how many units will be available on day one, where they'll be sold, how much Valve plans to spend on marketing, what the general reception of the Steambox is from places other than GAF, etc.
The Steambox costing enough to put Valve out of business and the Steambox failing are both unreasonable assumptions at this point, so rein it in.
CambriaRising
Member
It is clear that there are a lot of people who have not played a PC game on steam(in the last 4 years) posting in this thread.
Such ignorance.
Why is everyone assuming this will be direct competition to Consoles, and not just a first step into the HTPC market in order to make it grow?
Such ignorance.
Why is everyone assuming this will be direct competition to Consoles, and not just a first step into the HTPC market in order to make it grow?
Let's put things in perspective: Valve is worth 3 billion dollars, Microsoft lost 3.7 billion to keep the first Xbox alive, and then Microsoft lost another billion or two because of the Red Ring debacle.
As of right now, the PS3 cost Sony 5 billion dollars to keep afloat.
And these are successful consoles.
As of right now, the PS3 cost Sony 5 billion dollars to keep afloat.
And these are successful consoles.
KillerTravis
Banned
This could be very interesting. We will finally have another doomed member of the console maker family. Who will be the first one to make a Valve is doomed thread?
Edit: Not to dismiss the idea that it may as well be possible.
Edit: Not to dismiss the idea that it may as well be possible.
Making this comparison does a great job of illustrating your lack of perspective if you think it's applicable to this situation. Valve wants to bring Steam into the living room and sell it to new people. Becoming the fourth member of the "big four" or outselling Durango and Orbis hasn't been mentioned or even hinted at. This is an extension of what they're already doing with Steam, not an attempt to conquer the console market.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Which suggests that the razor blade model of console sales used by Sony and MS only works when you're pretty successful from the get go.
If Valve don't sell every box at a loss (and really, why should they? Whatever they make will be cheaper for a consumer than an equivalent Windows box) then they won't see massive losses even if it doesn't sell very well.
You notably left out the loser of the PS2 generation that had relatively moderate sales but was still profitable for the entire duration.
Worst case scenario they are selling more games through steam for people using linux as their O.S.
Valve is putting out a box that plays videogames in your living room. Using an OS and hardware that publishers need to develop for to use on that platform. It's going to be a competitor. If Valve doesn't see it that way, you're sure as shit that Sony and Microsoft will see it that way.
I don't understand why people actively want this to fail. Even if it doesn't become the next big thing or revolutionize the industry, how does it completely failing help anyone? Comments like this seem completely fanboy-ish and do nothing but expose your bias.
As someone who just enjoys playing games I'm definitely keeping my eye on this but it's hard to make any sort of definitive judgement with the details we have at the moment.
It was sarcasm, I actually am rather bummed out that all my PC games are tied with a company that is taking this big of a risk.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
How is it a risk if it is not sold at a subsidised price?
Graphics Horse
Member
What if Valve made the console out of magic and fairy dreams?
That reminds me of this:
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade#product_specs
I suspect that Razor hasn't sold a lot of these. They tried to innovate in the PC hardware space and we haven't heard any sales numbers or success stories from them. I'm sure if it was successful they would brag. The SteamBox can't use cutting edge anything or it will end up costing over $2000 and be dead on arrival.
Visualante2
Member
I wonder if Valve will mandate that third parties use Steamworks if they want to release on any Valve hardware. This of course precludes any major publisher wanting to release on it in the first place.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
what if you were able to respond to a question rationally?
How is it magical and unrealistic for them to sell a $400-$600 box using mostly off the shelf small form factor PC parts? Other OEMs do it, and Valve has the benefit of not needing to pay for a (rather expensive) Windows license for each unit.
This news only leaves me with a bunch of questions.
Will publishers release a Steambox version of their game in addition to a PC version, a Mac version, a 360 version and a PS3 version? That's sounds expensive. What kind of exclusive titles will it have that will make it a competitor the space beneath my TV? For media playback I have a bunch of alternatives already. Is it reasonable to expect that Steambox wil run classic PC games? If I'm going to invest in PC gaming again I need it to play classic PC titles.
Is this a pc competitor, a cosole competitor or a completly new platform? I feel the scene is too crowded with platforms as it is.
Will publishers release a Steambox version of their game in addition to a PC version, a Mac version, a 360 version and a PS3 version? That's sounds expensive. What kind of exclusive titles will it have that will make it a competitor the space beneath my TV? For media playback I have a bunch of alternatives already. Is it reasonable to expect that Steambox wil run classic PC games? If I'm going to invest in PC gaming again I need it to play classic PC titles.
Is this a pc competitor, a cosole competitor or a completly new platform? I feel the scene is too crowded with platforms as it is.
What is Valve's goal here? I'm assuming it's something long-term, because they've shown in the past that they think far ahead- they used TF2 and HL2 as loss leaders for Steam, and the results were miraculous.
I do think we'd see HL3/TF3 exclusive to Steambox if Valve is seriously trying to make a new market, or trying to make the successor to the traditional console (which is what I tihnk the attempt is here)
My worry is what would Japan do, as I can't see Japan warming up to the Steambox, especially given the handheld focus Japan has now.
If it hooks up to an HDTV and plays games, it will be competition to consoles.
That's because it's a stupid price for a stupid platform. 2.5k for something that you could get for 1k?
Why is Half-Life 2 a loss leader? It should a crapload of copies. TF2 is hard to gauge since a lot of its sales were with The Orange Box, but if you're talking about its switch to F2P, well, that wasn't exactly a loss either since the game's revenue increased dramatically afterwards.
Steambox is a competitor to consoles in the same way as Ouya is a competitor to cellphones and tablets.
What are the odds that Microsoft and/or Sony sells their hardware at a loss? And if Microsoft and Sony does so, how much stronger is their hardware going to be compared to whatever off-the-shelf parts Valve hypothetically crams into their console? How many units will this hypothetical unsubsidized Steambox sell when it doesn't have the software support, or graphical horsepower of it's competitors? How much money is Valve going to lose when no one buys this unsubsidized, comparitively weak console?
Okay, I'm out of rhetorical questions. Wait! One more: I wonder what Steam will be like when Activision purchases it.
Okay, I'm out of rhetorical questions. Wait! One more: I wonder what Steam will be like when Activision purchases it.
angular graphics
Banned
Interesting but suboptimal for the reasons we already know. But nevertheless interesting as a secondary solution.
Nah.
Pretty good. They did it the last two generations and it worked pretty well for them.
Unknown. It really depends on whether or not Valve offers multiple SKUs and what price point they target.
You keep saying "when." I think you mean "if." Again, significantly weaker hardware and lack of software support are unproven assumptions.
Another thing that pops into my mind after reading this thread.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=507005
What if the steamos is just a barebone os which enables us to get more out of our pc? It is interesting how a console when compared to a PC with similar spec will beat the PC most of the time. Won't it be an extremely interesting proposition to gamers if we can get extra performance without really upgrading our current PC?
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=507005
What if the steamos is just a barebone os which enables us to get more out of our pc? It is interesting how a console when compared to a PC with similar spec will beat the PC most of the time. Won't it be an extremely interesting proposition to gamers if we can get extra performance without really upgrading our current PC?
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Which do you think loses a company more money;
1) A unit comprising of off-the-shelf parts, sold at cost to keep prices low
2) A unit utilising one or more completely custom chipsets that had to be R&Ded individually and manufactured in bulk accordingly, sold at a loss to try and loss lead into software sales
feel free to look at your billions lost figures.
I'm thinking the minimum price is higher than that. I can see anywhere from $400 and somewhat worse, to $500-600 and comparable. Gabe also hinted that multiple configurations and perhaps end-user upgrades would also be possible, so that complicates things a bit further.
You really think Intel and Nvidia are going to give Valve deep discounts? No way. Valve will be paying the same price as everyone else.
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