8 replies to this topic

[bp9801]

It is alive.

 

 

 

Valve and Xi3, maker of super tiny PCs, have teamed up to reveal "an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand." This tiny PC, the famed Steam Box, will be shown this week during CES at both the Valve and Xi3 booths, but until then, details are extremely limited on what's all inside the PC. Most likely it'll run on Linux, probably Ubuntu, but other than that your guess is as good as mine for now. Jason A. Sullivan, founder, president, and CEO of Xi3, had the following to say on the product:

 

Today marks the beginning of a new era for Xi3. This new development stage product will allow users to take full-advantage of their large high-definition TV displays for an amazing computer game experience. As a result, this new system could provide access to thousands of gaming titles through an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand.

 

Valve has invested heavily in Xi3, so it looks like we'll be getting a Steam Box for sure. There are more questions than answers currently, like just how powerful this computer is, what the storage is like, how consumers will respond to it, and if this is the killer app to replace consoles once and for all. As CES officially kicks off in a matter of hours, we shouldn't have too long to go to find out. Hopefully. We already have Big Picture mode and Linux support on Steam, so why not a tiny Steam Box that can do both of those and be barely noticeable in your living room? If the price is right on this Steam Box (or whatever it's officially called), will you jump in without hesitation or is the possible console-ization of PC gaming a bad thing?

 

Looks like we'll finally have a Steam Box after all. Potential to be a game changer, depending on more factors than I'd like to think of at this hour.

 

So, yea or nay on this whole thing? Would you want one and for how much?

[Stonerboy779]

Wonder if you can get console like multiplayer....

:

[Deathmineral]

Wonder if you can get console like multiplayer....

:

I would say you can, I'm not so sure that it will have local multiplayer though. I mean it's been done on the PC before, Trine being a good example. My guess is that it's difficult to do however, and I think a lot of it depends on the operating system being able to support stuff like that. That's a lot of what I'm interested in though, if they will just be running Ubuntu or another standard Linux distro, could be they'll have a customized distro though, I doubt they would have an original they created but a modified version of Ubuntu I can see. I'm not sure they will go for Ubuntu even, I think they will aim for something lighter and simpler, I mean, no offense, but it is aimed at the console gamers.

 

I'm excited for it though, it's not often you see me excited for a console type thingy but I think this could be a game changer. I would like to see this succeed, I think some people believe that this will bring about consolitis but I think it's actually going to be the exact opposite. Instead of locking everything up like Sony or Microsoft like to do, I think this will encourage a very open and limitless experience overall. For starters, it's Linux, I'd say it doesn't get too much freer than that, but I also look forward to how this might transform Steam for the better as well, and really the gaming industry overall. With a big player like Valve showing this much support for Linux, I think it will definitely help encourage more developers and publishers to develop for Linux. I've liked Linux ever since I was in middle school but because I'm kind of a gamer first and computer enthusiast second, Windows was the clear winner for me and there wasn't a lot of reason to keep messing with Linux, so I'm hoping this can help change that.

[Guest_Jim_*]

I wonder if it's going to have something similar to nVidia's Shield with game streaming from a Windows PC, to give you access to your complete Steam library.

[Locutus]

Saw some pictures, they're calling it the "piston" which is honestly kind of a catchy name for something that's supposed to run Steam.

[AZNguyen]

Price point under $500 for entry level model  Gaming/high performance model price hasn't been announced yet.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/xi3corp

Edited by AZNguyen, 08 January 2013 - 10:47 AM.

[EuroFight]

I think they should have styled it like this: 

[dr_bowtie]

This company is in the market of Modular Computers and Has a neat concept of "Stacking" boxes or Hard Drives....

 

 

they started off under Kickstarter

[ComputerEd]

This looks really cool but based on current tech I am not sure we are there yet. Right now the box they showed would have to rely on integrated graphics, which means the AMD solution will be the best option for a gaming box. However the AMD chips still have the issue that they need to be more efficient to be viable for this type of system. Even then the game play for many games will be limited to 720 resolutions with medium at best detail level. I suppose we could see the design tweaked to allow for mobile graphic solutions, which would mean we would see the market shift hard.

 

On top of that they will need to find a way to keep cost low. The idea of this box is to make it an alternative to the consoles. From a tech point of view I do not think that is hard to do but they will have to keep the price under $500 or they might as well fold the project now.

 

As for the OS they have no real choice, they HAVE to go Windows or eliminate a majority of their library right out of the gate. They could create a DX overlay to work within Linux and go that right but with the horsepower of the system based in likely specs you would not want to put another layer of software in the way. I would imagine we will see a customized version of Windows, very bare with a Steam created overlay.

 

Should be interesting to see where this goes.