Slashdot Mirror
Gabe Newell Reveals More About Steam Boxes, New Input Devices
adeelarshad82 writes "Valve's presence at CES this year isn't to show off some new games, it's all about meeting with hardware manufacturers behind closed doors to talk about Steam Box. In an interview at CES which highlights Valve's plans for the console, Gabe Newell describes Steam Box as two projects. The first, codenamed Bigfoot, focuses on the hardware for use in the home with a TV. The second, codenamed Littlefoot, is investigating mobile gaming. Gabe goes on to discuss Valve plans on having three levels of Steam Box described as 'Good, Better, or Best' and expectations for the controller where the company wants something that's more high precision than anything else out there at the moment."
The interview at the Verge is pretty extensive.
Trust valve to be the first to be putting thought into this. If it’s truly a steam based console, I expect console players to be mixed in with pc players online. If that minor leap of gestimation is correct, they will need high precision controllers to stand any chance of not getting destroyed by much more proficient and accurate pc gamers with keyboards and mice. I will look forward to seeing how this developes.
Presumably that means higher precision than the current console controllers..
Dream come true: Half-Life 3 with a real crowbar controller!
A keyboard has no precision at all, it's either 1 or 0.
... is the universal prognostication from producers and technical directors where I work. I'd personally love to see a Linux console succeed, but I just don't know if this is gonna work. I'd heard that the consoles are going to be priced in the neighborhood of $500 or more, and I fear they may price themselves out of the market for all but people who were planning on getting the console anyways simply for the sake of owning one. As an even worse side effect, if their device does not succeed, it might even have the consequence of steering future people away from the idea of trying to use Linux as a viable gaming platform ever again.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It's nice to watch a company in that phase of its existence where it's still essentially "good", i.e. doing interesting things in a better way, just ramping up, and morally fairly neutral. If they get anywhere they'll inevitably metamorphose into rapacious consumer-o-phobes, but for the moment I wish them godspeed.
At the risk of feeding the troll...
First off it won't be competing against PCs. It's going to be competing against consoles.
Secondly... why not? You realize that under the hood most consoles are just small form factor PCs right? Have a look at the hardware in an XBox 360 or a Playstation 3 and things will look familiar.
Then add in the fact that console gaming isn't necessarily about just horsepower (look at the Wii). This product will be jumping into the arena with a tried and true digital distribution system already in place, which is one of the bigger remaining speed bumps in the console market. From TFA they're also looking at having tiered hardware, which is going to appeal to a lot of people.
I'm not saying you're wrong to be skeptical, but saying that it's because it can't compete with something it's not really competing with... well to use the old car analogy it's like saying, "That Nissan Leaf has some great innovation, but I remain skeptical that it can really rival the advantage of the raw horsepower and versatility of the F-150."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
From the Verge article: "For example, Valve intends to make Steam Box a server, which can serve games on multiple TVs around the home simultaneously. So you could purchase a single Steam Box and use it with multiple controllers for playing games on the different TVs around your home." I'd like this very much please, thank you. If I could share games in a steam account within a household that would be awesome. Currently, when I'm logged in and playing Game X from the account then no one can play Game Y. That's not any different than with consoles but you can buy multiple consoles. Buying multiple consoles solves the problem completely. Having multiple steam accounts with games split across them doesn't. You aren't going to have a separate steam account for each game. And then you still can have the issue of two desired-at-the-moment games being on the same account. And constant account switching. This is not a major issue, but it would be a very-nice-to-have.
Valve, please, make a "companion cube"-styled Steam Box and take all our monies
Signed, the Internets
Hopefully Ep3 will be worth the weight.
So if it's distributed digitally, it'll be worthless?
Considering a bit is the limit for how fine grained you can get on a computer
Actually, no. A bit is the smallest logical unit a modern computer can handle, but the more bits you use the more fine-grained you get, ie. a 1bit register can only represent on or off, whereas an 8bit register can register 256 different values. Ergo, your assessment is incorrect.
the keyboard is the most precise input device you could create....
Incorrect, see above.
Imagine gaming in binary.
That doesn't even make sense. Binary literally means a representation of two different values -- how do you game in a representation of two different values? Well, the answer is easy: you can't play a logical, numerical representation of a system with only two possible values. That's like saying "imagine gaming in biodiversity."
Depends on keyboard. PS/2 interface limitations are long gone in the age of USB keyboards, and this is mainly limited by the microcontroller used in the keyboard itself as well as how keys are linked to it.
For example, my G15 handles six simultaneous key presses. In some combinations it can handle even more, but six is what it's advertised for.
...why all the Linux talk when you are just going to enable people to Install Windows, which they will.
Hang on a cotton picking moment. One of the key principals of FOSS is that - it's your device and your software, and you should be free to do what you like to them. Locking down a person's device so that they can't install their own software on it is plain wrong, and Valve are sensible not to go that route. Would you prefer that their console was the new Tivo?
If I buy one, I'll relish that it has Linux on it. But one day, I may decide to wipe the Valve-selected version of Linux and put something else on there- my own version of Linux, or Android, or BSD, or whatever. And why shouldn't I be allowed to put Windows on it if I so choose? It is my device, right?
Valve selling consoles pre-loaded with Linux is still a huge deal, and a huge victory for the Linux community. Don't miss out on the potential party because you're bitter they're not leading some quixotic attack on Microsoft while they're at it.
A keyboard has no precision at all, it's either 1 or 0.
Dude. You need a new keyboard. Morse clickers went out a long time ago.
My keyboard has what - about 40 keys? And I know I can do combinations of at least 3 keys at once - but I don't know the full limit. Let's say it's 3, and any 3 at that.
That means my keyboard is capable of about 40^3 combinations. Hey - that looks like 64,000, which is closer to 2^16 than it is to 2^1.
Funny you mention 3 :)
3 just happens to be the number Valve is missing from all their keyboards.
More Twoson than Cupertino
You can pick up PSone games on the PSN store for 5.99. And yes they DO have sales just like steam. Just booted up the PS3 and checking out the weekly deals:
console games sale prices come nowhere near Steam sale prices, why even argue
Dungeon Hunter Alliance (Online PS3 Diablo clone similar to the PS2 Snowblind engine games): 99 cents
Blokus 99 cents
Earthworm Jim HD 99 cents
Eufloria 99 cents
But to be blunt, you argument is why some developers pay much attention to PC ports, since from what they see PC gamers are either:
Cheapskates in the "first world" unwilling to pay full price for a game even if they've spend 1500 dollars on their gaming rig.
Pirates in the "second world" and "third world" nations who don't want to pay for anything.