Steam Box/Carbon Nanotubes/Space Elevators and Mars Colonization thread

[Mac Sirloin]

So discuss this weird machine you fat clowns. I think it's an awesome idea, totally what the gaming world needs and a bit of a Linux powered pipe dream.

[OANST]

I'll buy it.

[Dynamithix]

I wonder how much it's going to cost.

[Nate]

I don't think we know enough to comment just yet.


But I do like the fact that other manufacturers are starting to make living room computers especially to run Steam.

[DarkHoodness]

Gives games companies something else to develop for if the traditional PC/laptop market keeps declining in popularity due to tablets. So that's always a plus.

[Bullet Magnet]

What's this about carbon nanotubes?

[Varrok]

I'll buy them.

[Crashpunk]

Looks good but I'm still wanting a desktop PC.

[OANST]

I don't think that this is a solution meant for you. It's a solution meant for people like me.

[MeechMunchie]

All in all, I think it has massive potential. If Valve use that potential wisely, it'll be nothing short of a revolution. Minus the bit where people get off the sofa.

PROJECT BIGFOOT

What it is:

- Small
- Simple to use
- Free to modify (install your own programs)
- A computer

What it isn't:

- A console
- A new platform
- Useful without an internet connection
- A particularly powerful computer

If you're a PC user: The only impact is that Steam will be getting a lot of updates in the lead-up to release, more of the gaming social network they're trying to build. Future developers will be more inclined to develop for PC.

If you're a console user: The impact is that you can now play PC games. Without having to learn anything, nor change your life (or posture. Hi, OANST!) in any way. That's all. Buy this box, and your games library is immediately expanded by four or so free-to-play titles and as many others as you feel like buying.

Valve are doing everything they can to keep costs down. The price of PCs is restrictive to many. Think Rasberry Pi, or '80s air travel; lowering the price barrier is an achievement in itself. There probably won't be a CD drive, though I expect it'll have USB. This reduces the need for cooling systems. The box gets smaller and cheaper. Valve use the project's potential and their god-like influence in the PC industry to get components cheaply (nVidia are already on board - and on the motherboard hohoho).

So what makes this better than just buying another cheap PC for your living room? To me, not that much. A PC can do everything that the Steam Box supposedly can, and more. But then, that's also true of an XBox. People still buy XBoxes.

To quote Sekto Springs and concur with OANST: It's a gaming computer for people who don't like computers.

The OS will be geared towards gaming and connectivity, a sort of gaming center PC in the way that a Mac is a media center PC. Everything's front-end, no mucking about with... well, anything.

If this seems like more of a restriction to you than an asset, stick to the PC. Like iOS, you could download third-party plugins to give it more versatility, but if you did, then you'd be an idiot for buying a Steam Box in the first place. Plug a controller into it. Plug your TV into it. Plug six TVs into it and play with five other people. Browse the web. Watch a movie. Don't expect to be blown away. It's just a computer, simplified.

But this doesn't make it a console. There's no "XBox is better than YBox" argument because despite its simplicity, the Steam Box won't be rigid in it's capabilities, because the platform isn't controlled by any company. Valve make the OS, but they don't control a Steam Box any more than Microsoft controls a Windows PC. Install whatever you want. In fact, you don't even have to use their OS. If you wanted, you could install Windows on one. But see my "Don't-buy-a-Mac-if-you-want-a-PC" point above.

Valve anticipate and encourage people to repurpose their technology. They won't make any complete overhauls for Steam-Linux-OS (Steanux?). But they'll put the tools to create them out there anyway. Why? Because Valve love the internet. They're confident that people will find their own ways of making their products more useful (i.e. profitable), so they're all too happy to hand over the keys.

The only real hooks of this for me are:
a) I can play games with my friends who just like shoving discs into a box and knowing it'll work.
b) I want to see what people make of it. Valve aren't making a box that I would buy, but with enough mods, I might want to just to access those. Like Skyrim!
c) Valve tend to come up with some interesting fallout when they work towards pleasing a particular demographic. They're looking into making their own controllers, and they're not like the things already available.
d) Phil Fish's head will explode.

Note: This entire post was extrapolated from rumours. May contain traces of accuracy.

Interview with GabeN: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/385...ture-of-gaming

Steam games that currently run on Linux i.e. will run on Steam Box from launch day: http://store.steampowered.com/search...1=998&os=linux

[Mac Sirloin]

What's this about carbon nanotubes?

Oh you know, generation ships, asteroid mining, sucking natural gases for our own purposes off of jupiter.
Not to mention morally relate able artificial intelligence, the peaceful pious society and military application of jet dogs.

[Havoc]

Oh you know, generation ships, asteroid mining, sucking natural gases for our own purposes off of jupiter.
Not to mention morally relate able artificial intelligence, the peaceful pious society and military application of jet dogs.

Sounds like EVE Online.

[MeechMunchie]

OFFICIAL: MACS BETTER THAN CONSOLES

The biggest challenge, I don’t think is from the consoles, I think the biggest challenge is that Apple moves on the living room before the PC industry sort of gets its act together.

I think that there’s a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?

I think a whole bunch of hardware companies are going to be releasing products in the next 12 months — you’ll hear it referred to as Miracast, [Project] Shield from Nvidia, or lots of other people. There are going to be a huge set of products that say, ‘If you want something that’s incredibly cheap, at a price point well below anything that consoles will be able to reach, you’re going to take advantage of the PC that’s running somewhere in your house.’

It’s like one of those things where afterwards it will seem like it was very simple, when beforehand, everyone sort of denied that it was possible.

So why isn’t Gabe stressing the existing consoles? He counters that, for Steam users, the benefits of carrying their existing content over is just too great.

We’re happy to do it if nobody else will do it, mainly because everybody else will pile on, and people will have a lot of choices, but they’ll have those characteristics. They’ll say, ‘Well, I could buy a console, which assumes I’ll re-buy all my content, have a completely different video system, and, oh, I have a completely different group of friends, apparently. Or I can just extend everything I love about the PC and the internet into the living room.’

You can stop cheering now, Manco.

[Nate]

OFFICIAL: MACS BETTER THAN CONSOLES



You can stop cheering now, Manco.

Mac might be better than consoles, but Gabe wasn't talking about Macs. He wasn't even talking about Apple TV. He was talking about what Apple could acheive if they put in a focussed effort on the living room.

And I think he's probably right.

[MeechMunchie]

It was a joke, Nate. Macs will never be better than anything.

[Manco]

I heartily disagree.

However I will point ut Apple has never managed to crack the TV market.

[Mac Sirloin]

Mac might be better than consoles,

GET YOUR DIGITAL FIX--HOT MEAT GAME, GET THE LATEST ACTION SET. STICK THE CONTROLLER UP HIS BUTT AND PLAY AWAY THE DAY. SWAT PARASITES, EAT HAMBURGERS AND WALK THE DOG! CYBERVERSE SOCIALISING, MEAT YOUR NEW DIGITAL FRIENDS AND SEND E-DELIVERY OF MESSAGES STRAIGHT TO YOUR THEIR AVATAR IN AT LEAST TEN SWEATY MINUTES. BICYCLE AND EMPLOYMENT SOLD SEPERATELY.


Sort of more on topic:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
These are what I'm hoping the Steam Box will resemble: Cheap, easy to use and open to a fair bit of attachable hardware that adds more features and capability. I know a malignant tumour of console parts and computer guts isn't aesthetically pleasing, but people will want to know what the electronic abomination jutting out of your TV is.

[Steamer_KING]

So...

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/03/1...tUlA4.facebook

$999.99................
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[Daxter King]

that isnt valve's steambox tho

[Steamer_KING]

But it's part of it. And it's fucking $999.99...

[Havoc]

I wouldn't say the price is instantly a dealbreaker if I were in the market for such a device. It isn't just a typical console. It's a piece of hardware that is meant to replace every console known to man (now and in the future) and your media center. The price is actually pretty fair when comparing it to a new built PC with the same specs. And the SSD alone is like 200 dollars. Explains the major pricetag.

The concept is pretty solid but it will take time for people to adapt to the idea of having a small box that has all forms of home entertainment on it. Especially with the current console market being pretty saturated, I imagine it to be quite difficult to introduce a new console, let alone a new home entertainment concept such as this.

[Steamer_KING]

The thing is, that compared to other High-end PCs, it falls a bit short, no? I mean, I bought my laptop for about 1200 euros and it plays every game to date in the higher definitions. I've never built a tower from the ground up, so I'm just assuming things from past experience.

[Phylum]

That article doesn't say much about the specs. Their site doesn't say much about the specs.

Am I missing something, or are they really expecting people to preorder a box with 8Gb of ram and any old processor that clocks at 3.4GHz?

[Steamer_KING]

That article doesn't say much about the specs. Their site doesn't say much about the specs.

Am I missing something, or are they really expecting people to preorder a box with 8Gb of ram and any old processor that clocks at 3.4GHz?

That's my point, it isn't much powerful, even when you compare it to PS Vita:
2 Ghz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore
512 MB RAM, 128 MB VRAM

Well, I guess it can run Minesweeper without any problems, eh?

[Daxter King]

But it's part of it. And it's fucking $999.99...

What? No.

[MeechMunchie]

Valve have worked with Xi3 in the past, but Piston is nothing to do with them (though the name suggests it might once have been).

[Steamer_KING]

What? No.

"The Piston was revealed at CES and is backed by Valve as part of its Steam Box initiative (Valve will also manufacture its own hardware soon)."

I can't say if it's wrong or right, but that's what it says in the article.

[Vyrien]

They also often have this great habit of keeping the numbers the same over all currencies, so $900 will probably become £900 and €900

[Wings of Fire]

They also often have this great habit of keeping the numbers the same over all currencies, so $900 will probably become £900 and €900

And if that's not incentive to move to Japan, I don't know what is.

[Steamer_KING]

They also often have this great habit of keeping the numbers the same over all currencies, so $900 will probably become £900 and €900

Yeah, which is stupid. Conversion ratio? Fuck that!