Steam box approaching.

[Stark]

PCs already have these resources; his product is a PC. Why would it make any difference, especially considering that many of the sales through it will be sales the account wou have bought on PC anyway?

It's possible it's simply intended to get PCs out f the hands of fatties and sell them to normal people, which is a good decision but it'll take more than nerd buzz to put out the message. It'll be interesting to see their marketing, especially their out-of-channel marketing which I think I have never ever seen.

And man, fuckig lol at nerds calculating component prices for an appliance. Some people just Do Not Get It. :v

[Mr Bean]

The Steambox is what the Xbox was supposed to be Stark, it's a PC with a stripped down OS with exclusivity and worthless copy protection thrown in. The 360 is the same except improved and much better built in media features, stuff you've always been able to get on the PC but not pre-loaded. By that light the Steambox is just the next Xbox attempt, a PC that makes PC gaming Console easy and enables quick turnaround between the two.

As for Stark

If they're as expensive as expected

And man, fuckig lol at nerds calculating component prices for an appliance. Some people just Do Not Get It

[weemadando]

"What, you mean we now have six GB of RAM to play with for our games? Holy shit! What will we do now?" (says the guy at Shroomsoft who ports games to the PS3)

"Get slack and lazy with the port and optimisation to save money" says management.

[MKSheppard]

"Get slack and lazy with the port and optimisation to save money" says management.

Well, yes, there will be bugs and memory leaks; but if SteamBox can actually become a real honest competitor, then it bodes well for the next generation of gaming; because while it's been nice that my Q6600 and 8800GTS that I built back in 2007 have remained good enough to play AAA+ titles in 1080p at decent framerates; even up to now....

The memory limitations (lol 256 MB) and their affect on games has been quite irritating, since the core game has to be able to run on the lowest spec machine.

[Stark]

Bean did you know Nikes don't really cost a hundred dollars to make? Wow! Their price is set by market needs and risk strategy you say? WHO KNEW??

Ando/Shep, is there any indication the UI will be locked for the box? Couldn't the existing users just bring their PC to the tv and hit the 'make like a console now' button? This should seriously limit Vales exposure while simultaneously making their shit more accessible. Selling a pc-console is going to be harder than jut letting people use their existing shit like a console, and prevents them having to directly compete.

[weemadando]

Valve have talked about the "Ten foot interface" in the past and everyone just assumed it would be an alternate styling for people who already use their PC through a TV. No reason that this UI wouldn't be available to everyone who wanted it.

Hell, they're probably counting on those folks testing it for them.

[Stark]

Focusing on the console-like box might be missing the point then; anyone will be able to suit with anything so there's arguably little reason for Valve to risk a great deal of money unless it's a long term plan to et even more leverage over developers.

[weemadando]

If they can drop the price of it enough, then it enters the realm of PC replacement. If I could pick it up for say 400 (comparable to a console) at launch, then why the hell would I bother with running a desktop anymore? For the price of an equivalent PC you can get that and a good ~40" TV.

Who knows what Newell's long term plan here is but I just figured out one thing:

Their marketing plan will be dead fucking simple.

Halflife 3 - only on Steambox.

[Stark]

People have actual uses for pcs (although lots of people are moving to other devices or services) and there's little point having two unless its very competitive with consoles. Even then, it's arguable how lounge friendly much of the dross on steam and got really are. If valve start maintaining standards and expectations etc that'll help homogenize the PC market, and give the Great Fatty even more bully power.

I guess I'm not really seeing the benefit of the appliance beyond 'make lock tighter', which is a pretty long-term goal. Depending on how they see the benefits they could plan on maintaining a loss for some time just to get units out there, but let's hope they have sound standards in mind.

[weemadando]

Perhaps a better example would be "Get Steambox and plug into a TV/monitor and also buy a laptop for when you need to type a 100 page rebuttal you can't do on your phone."

[Stark]

My question is whether the people who aren't doing that already are going to add to steam sales. All the propel buying games already are already buying games; the project is intended to increase those sales, either through new customers or people buying games they wouldn't otherwise.

Oh, and trapping consumers and developers forever. Don't forget that. :v

[Havok]

Ok in case people didn't get it, I was playing the role of consumer, not necessarily me.

As to what I think? What's the point?
People that want to do compueter stuff to games, like mod, alteady have computers.
Exclusivity of games hasn't sent the gaming market in droves to buy both PS and XBOX as far as I am aware.
The next gen consoles will up the graphics ante and close the gap on PCs, if there even is one.
PC anti controller snobs will stay the same way.
Also, wont this kill PC porting of games now as they will be going to "competition" now instead of what is considered a comletetly different market?

[Stark]

It's possibly a good thing for existing customers for sure, but I'm not sure what their strategy for pulling in new marks will be. It could be price, promotions, media deals.

[weemadando]

As I'm already shamefully deep into crusted on Steam customer territory, depending on what deals they strike for access to some games and content (like getting sports titles from EA), Steambox would be a good console replacement for me.

[Stark]

You never use your console anyway and you'd buy steam shit anyway. They should have a plan to make more money instead of just increasing their supply chain needs by 100x for a few extra sales.

[Thanas]

The only reason I do not buy a console is that I would have to spend money on a capability I already get with my Laptop and buy a PC. So why should I buy a steambox?

[VF5SS]

If it means modding is dead I am going to scream at you and Stark personally all day every day for the rest of your lives. :lol:

You're going to have to compete with the Fire Bomber music, mah boi.

I'd rather see developers make professional and user friendly mod tools that can be ported to set spec platforms than the hacksaw stuff that happens with traditional modding. In the end there's more terrible, half-finished mods than anything workable.

[weemadando]

You never use your console anyway and you'd buy steam shit anyway.

Chicken and egg.

Do I not play my console because I buy games for cheaps on Steam (or sites that sell Steam keys), or do I buy games for Steam because I don't play my console?

Mass Effect 3 (by which I mean 2) and Undisputed 3 have me playing my console.

But I was going to get shit like Rock of Ages and Bastion for it, except they were like 3 bucks on Steam and so WHY NOT THERE? Same with other XBLA things.

[Stark]

Ps chicken egg is fundamentally stupid.

The point is that you are not increasing steam sales by using this UI unless you buy games you wouldn't have anyway. Your polemic about how institutionalised you are is irrelevant. If they launch a new service that allows you to give them the money you would have given them anyway, you are not a good reason to launch the service.

Are you literally unable to think about this beyond the marketing prison that is your perspective? Surely even the Great Fatty himself wants to see a return from this, so there must be some logic around how they intend to sell more games or get more prisoners.

[Havok]

Ando, you aren't who they are targeting. You are a brand slave already. They have you and you money regardless. Business is about bringing in new clients/consumers.

They are targeting me.
I don't play computer games, don't want to fuck around with keyboards, and super flight sticks and mice. I don't have the know how to do mods, but it may be cool if they were simplified because I want to see all the female characters in my games naked and with bigger tits just like all the other fat kids.
I occasionally see a game that I think would be cool to play on a PC, but not nearly often enough to go shell out the type of money required to play them.

IF however, I could do these things for say... $300.00, and be able to use a controller like normal people have been doing since the NES hit, and it was dumbed down a bit, so that I could use mods and skins and all that stuff, I would be interested.

And to the people that keep bringing up cost and components... My 2004 Harley Davidson FXDXI cost about 12-14K retail. IF, when I worked at the dealership, I priced out the entire bike part by part, It would more than double the price... and that is dealer cost. From manufacturer cost? It would be closer to triple.
What you are buying computer components for in the store is no where close to what it actually costs the manufacturer to make.

[weemadando]

Their controller theory concerns me (some modular gamepad where you can swap in and out sticks/buttons).

But seriously? 360 controller.

And yeah, in terms of hitting the "not a PC gamer" market, a big question mark for me is how much they try to sell the "depth" of it (like mods, indie/non market content if available) and how easy that stuff is to use, and whether that complexity, real or percieved still scares off the "casual" audience.

[aieeegrunt]

At 400 bucks a steambox would do everything my xbox does and it would let me install mods. My laptop is starting to get too old to play current games, I might be able to get Skyrim working. A steambox is cheaper than a new laptop and the next gen xbox and combines the best points of both.

THERE is your target market. Genius.

[Stark]

The cheap PC market is pretty crowded already. Being smarter than you, avalve knows they need to differentiate, and as Hav says PC games for non-OCD nerds is arguably a good target. That's why I expressed curiosity at their marketing plans days ago. The laugh of 'if it is better than everything and cheaper than everything Id buy it' is beyond imagining.

Ando, is that controller an existing product or some absurd pipe dream? Itd be interesting if it was some bullet-point sap to the MUST HAVE 105 KEYS crowd. That said, unless Valve will drop heaps of time and money on it much of the Steam library isn't suited to controllers, so something else is necessary.

[Havok]

At 400 bucks a steambox would do everything my xbox does and it would let me install mods. My laptop is starting to get too old to play current games, I might be able to get Skyrim working. A steambox is cheaper than a new laptop and the next gen xbox and combines the best points of both.

THERE is your target market. Genius.

So what happens if the next Gen consoles allow mods? UH OH!!

Microsoft is a fucking computer software company. I'm sure they have programs just sitting around that would allow customers to mod games, and if they don't, they can have one by the end of the day.

What is going to make the PS3 and Xbox360 owners of today, that encompass THE ENTIRE CONSOLE MARKET (The Wii is a gimmick), decide to get the Steambox and not the PS4 or Xbox3? Mods made by fatty nerds? Backwards compatibility of games? Oops. Motion playable games? Nope, don't have those as PC FNs are even more lazy than console FNs. AND too elitist.

There is also no way of knowing if the Steambox is going to be cheaper than the PS4 and Xbox3 and every reason to think it won't.

And talk about brand loyalty... who the fuck even know who or what a Steam Valve is? When the Xbox came out... everyone knew about it because it was made by Microsoft, which pretty much the entire planets population knows by name. The same thing with the Play Station... who hadn't heard of, or already didn't have a Sony product of some sort or knew someone who did?

I mean, you are talking about name recognition and branding that toppled Sega and Nintendo, which had complete dominance of the market and like a 20 year head start.

[Mr Bean]

Were I Valve I'd again hit the tie in market and have someone (Madcats?) get a something bundled in so it can take any controller. You can play on the Steambox with everything from an Atari 2600 controller to a Kinetic motion sensor. Something like that for a single controller would add two dollars to the price and they can use it as an awesome bizarre marketing point.

So what happens if the next Gen consoles allow mods? UH OH!!

Microsoft is a fucking computer software company. I'm sure they have programs just sitting around that would allow customers to mod games, and if they don't, they can have one by the end of the day.

Havok, there are few PC gamers willing to pay 15$ for a multiplayer map pack. But on Consoles they have no choice. There's a reason why Skyrim was supposed to have mods on the 360 but got axed by Microsoft because they want to charge for that.

What is going to make the PS3 and Xbox360 owners of today, that encompass THE ENTIRE CONSOLE MARKET (The Wii is a gimmick)

Funny enough the Wii has done nearly as much as both the PS3 and 360 combined worldwide. (94 mil Wii to 65 mil 360/62 PS3 mil)