"Either way it's starting to look like a tough sell: the Piston (using PC architecture to run Linux and Steam's Big Picture mode), like other forthcoming Steam Box machines, is designed to bring PC gaming to the living room as small-form-factor, modular upgradeable, affordable units. If the Xi3 Piston is anything to go by however, Steam Boxes look set to be just as pricey as next-gen consoles, and not necessarily as powerful, given the size constraints."
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$300 steambox
$300+ 3rd party
Gabe in a way stated that.
If they can scale the systems to different pricing while making it competitive they might do ok.
That's only retail games. Console manufacturers take 15% off the top for retail console games (which doesn't happen for PC games).
For all games and content purchased through XBL and PSN, Sony and Microsoft both take a 30% cut, the same as Valve.
I know its small yes it looks cool but building you own rig is so much more rewarding and unique.
FX-8350 = $200
Radeon 7970 = $450
Asus M5A97 Evo = $100
That's $750... so plenty of headroom for the rest of that build.
Just demoing what $1000 can get you... I can build a complete rig for around $650 that will be more than enough for gaming. $1000 is actually the sweet spot for building a rig that will last.
and even that PC will show it's age after 4 or 5 years.
i still think it's totally worth it though. running games like crysis 3 and wither 2 on max settings is glorious! if the "next gen" consoles manage to look as good as crysis 3, i'd be surprised.
Lasts for long time
Edit - Just saw Tomb Raider for 30 dollars on CDkeyhouse. New game for 30 quid. PC gaming is cheaper than console gaming in the end.
@Irish
Its not even close guy. At least console gaming you can trade or sell your games and get half your money back. Or just rent tomb raider like i did for 10 bucks and have it beat and return it in 3 days. Not like im going to be playing it over and over.
also like someone said earlier many think Valve charges less for royalties but they actually charge more, consoles charge 15% while Valve charges 30% even to indie developers
Why would anyone buy a store built desktop pc when you can build that for half the price with better parts? Yet complete build pc's far number people who build their own. I build my own desktops and try convincing all my family and friends to do the same, yet some of them "just don't want to deal with the hassel".
** Looks at comment #1** Oh Tourette's Syndrome......^_^
This just outright prices them out of the market.
I love how everybody thinks Valve missed the blatantly obvious.
If it seems absurd maybe you need to rethink what YOU think they are actually doing.
What is the business case? I'm sure this may please people who are Valve fanboys for some reason, but there just isn't a strong business case for it which with any product, there needs to be for it to thrive.
So because you can't see the reason, Valve hasn't either?
When you look at what Valve is doing through the lens of "entering the console business along side Sony, MS, and rest", it doesn't make sense. Why? Because they aren't doing that.
Valve is NOT making a console. Everybody keeps missing this key point. They are NOT making a console.
What they are doing is pushing Linux and moving the PC off the desktop in various ways. But all anyone heard was Gabe talking about a PC in console-form completely forgetting that is was only a small part of a larger plan.
This Xi3 Piston is Valve testing the waters. Seeing what works and what doesn't. And its also not Valve developing this.
Valve is going to take things very slowly and will be very secretive. They build and don't tell you anything until their done.
@bobtheimpaler
Who are you to say it doesn't have a strong "business case"? And why is it you see the obvious and Valve hasn't?
Consider for a moment that your assumption about what Valve is actually doing...is wrong.
This is NOT the Steam-box.
Linux doesn't work. Just tried downloading Trine2 in Ubuntu...first error message: "Steam folder needs executable rights"...I'm too tired to dig this up now...really?
This looks like a nice box. But for a console it's to expensive and not even fast enough. If there would at least be high end components used, but the APU in the piston is low end.
And you haven't answered any question I still don't know what Valve is up to.
WE GET IT.
Will Steam not run on this machine? It operates Linux and the aim is Steam Big Picture. I don't understand what you're saying.
"The way we sort of think of it is sort of 'Good', 'Better', or 'Best'," Newell told The Verge. "'Good' are like these very low-cost streaming solutions that you're going to see that are using Miracast or Grid. 'Better' is to have a dedicated CPU and GPU and that's the one that's going to be controlled. Not because our goal is to control it; it's been surprisingly difficult when we say to people 'don't put an optical media drive in there' and they put an optical media drive in there and you're like 'that makes it hotter, that makes it more expensive, and it makes the box bigger'.
"Go ahead. You can always sell the 'Best' box, and those are just whatever those guys want to manufacture. [Valve's position is]: let's build a thing that's quiet and focuses on high performance and quiet and appropriate form factors."
ASRock Z77 Pro3 $90
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2X4) DDR3 2133 $60
HDD 1TB SATA3 7200RPM $70
AMD 7970 $380
Corsair 200R $40
RAIDMAX RX-600AF 600W $55
BluRay Burner (Read and Burn CD, DVD and BRD) $60
$955, and DESTROYS that little shit.
And you've got $45 extra to spend on Steam.
Or KFC. Dem herbs and spices...