WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]
top | item 5026333

Valve shows off 'game console' hardware at CES

95 points| wr1472 | 13 years ago |bbc.co.uk

36 comments

order
[+] zyb09|13 years ago|reply
Was there ever an actual statement from Valve on this? All I see is a company called Xi3 showing of their computer, while making some vague remarks about having received an investment from Valve - whatever that means. Not to doubt it, but if this is really "the thing", I'd like to hear some actual conformation.
[+] rthomas6|13 years ago|reply
It's called a Piston. That's not any sort of confirmation, but it makes it plausible to me that it will be the Steam box.
[+] nthitz|13 years ago|reply
More pictures and info here: http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/7/3849284/piston-valve-steam-b...

8 USB ports? Ha wow.

[+] kyrra|13 years ago|reply
I got to see some intel test boards at one point. They tend to put the max number of ports possible during development to make sure the CPU and bus all behave properly. Adding ports after being in dev is really error prone. Removing ports tend to be easier.
[+] IsTom|13 years ago|reply
4 keyboards and 4 mice. Image projector not included.
[+] anonymfus|13 years ago|reply
For comparison, latest versions of Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Wii U have 5, 2, 2 and 4 USB ports respectively.
[+] ebbv|13 years ago|reply
There's no mention in these articles about the most important thing; what kind of GPU is in these if any? If they rely on the HD4000 included in an i3/i5 CPU then they're going to make for really shitty gaming consoles.
[+] ajross|13 years ago|reply
Not really. Throughput specwise HD4000 a little better than a XBox 360 or PS3 and way out in front of the Wii. Those are the competing consoles. It's true that it's well behind the discrete GPUs (and frankly no integrated on-SoC solution will ever compete with a separate chip with its own memory bus!).

But it will compete in the existing console market just fine, technically. It's not really clear if extra 3D rendering performance in the console market is really needed; people who want that are already in the PC market anyway.

[+] shmerl|13 years ago|reply
As long as games released for this console would be regular Linux games runnable on the PC as well, it wouldn't be too bad. But in general old beaten console vs PC gaming arguments stay in place. Console market degrades games quality (interfaces and performance wise), which backfires to PC gaming scene with crippled console versions being adapted for PC by developers with minimal changes, instead of creating normal and rich PC interfaces for games from the beginning.
[+] kristofferR|13 years ago|reply
It looks absolutely beautiful. It seems like it's going to be really expensive compared to regular consoles though.
[+] BHSPitMonkey|13 years ago|reply
It looks a bit like a fancy cheese grater to me, but to each their own.
[+] arriu|13 years ago|reply
I think the next set of consoles are going to be a little more expensive than the current generation. At launch, the PS3 was $499 in the US.
[+] CisSovereign|13 years ago|reply
Interesting they left 'Portal' off of Valves most noted games.
[+] phormula|13 years ago|reply
you can already have the Steam console experience in your living room if you hook up a computer to your tv. so buying this console wont even be a requirement, if it happens to be underpowered

http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture/

[+] DannoHung|13 years ago|reply
So this thing is going to be really underpowered compared to a mid-range ($500 or so) gaming rig, right?
[+] wmf|13 years ago|reply
It is a mid-range gaming rig... with Steam preinstalled.
[+] pekk|13 years ago|reply
If that is true, it would only be like every console made for years...
[+] arriu|13 years ago|reply
I wonder how large the power brick will be compared to the size of the console.