Valve's Console (Steam Box?) - Games

So, apparantly Valve has a console coming up: [URL="http://kotaku.com/5890275/is-this-a-photo-of-valves-rumored-console"][IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17fctabw123kpjpg/original.jpg[/IMG][/URL] I feel I should've seen a console-specific move ages ago. Ever since Gabe commented badly about the PS3, you could tell he took the personal initiative to want to do something about it. Question is, are they partnering with Apple to do it? If so, I fucking called it. "We all know Gabe has huge fandom for Microsoft; but in the end, it's the profits that count. Thus, what advantage would Steam have in coming to the OSX if all it would do would piss off Gabe? There's got to be some profit margin there, and there is. More and more people are moving to Apple and their crappy Macs because of their bombardment of ads and propaganda. With more and more people moving to Macs, on par with the release of new Apple products like the iPad, which only fuel the movement more, there's got to be someone to finally take notice of this and decide to move gaming to the mac, as the market is virtually unchallenged and would reap mega profit. But how are just lowly Steam and (good quality) Valve games going to bring an entire market opportunity for mac? What "successful" application does Microsoft have which is currently competing with Steam and attempting to consolidate the gaming market further away to a corporate non-third party "seal of approval"? Windows Live. If Steam doesn't act, game developers will too soon realize how fruitless it is to support both WL and Steam (as the case with Dawn of War II) keeping in mind it just takes up resources to have each platform UI running by themselves. As such, game developers will have a hard time sticking to either just Steam or Windows Live, as each has its fees associated with it. I'm willing to bet that Steam will take advantage of the lack of the market for OSX, and launch themselves as the "Official" gaming platform for Macs (AKA Mac Live). Steam already has major trust and support of many game developers, both casual and hardcore. It's undoubtable that other game developers will take Mac development seriously. This will give a valid reason for the game developers to dive into both platform UIs, paying two separate fees: development for Windows and Mac gamers. The only regrettable thing is that it looks like Linux will miss out on such a grand opportunity, due to the lack of its popularity." - Me, in Facebook note (March 11, 2010) Will it happen? If so, will it be with Apple? Discuss.

Is that a picture of the so called "prototype?" If so, neat.

Click it (for Kotaku article)

It's just rumors, there's no official statement saying they're gonna make one. And if they did, it'd only be a gaming HTPC running windows and steam with the big-picture UI, and possibly it's own controller.

Assuming a Steam Box isn't that expensive I'd be willing to fork over the cash for one or two.

There was also already a thread about this. I don't think I can handle another thread of people not reading the article and thinking valve would be making a gaming console. [url]http://facepunch.com/threads/1167781[/url]

[QUOTE=I_Forgot;35045357]There was also already a thread about this. I don't think I can handle another thread of people not reading the article and thinking valve would be making a gaming console. [url]http://facepunch.com/threads/1167781[/url][/QUOTE] I know it's speculation, but I clearly don't doubt the motives. They just need their 'useful partner'.

Well thank god you "fucking called it", now we know who to mock. All the reasons you provided are borderline retarded, have you even seen how many people are really buying Macs these days? Apple's barely making a dent on the Windows share of the market, and those who switch from Windows to Mac OS X <animal name du jour> usually don't play games enough to contribute to the market. There's not a market to be made like your ramblings suggest. "Mega Profit"? Think more "Mega Bomb". Plus, Apple would never go along with it unless they bought out Valve, which is something they'd never do. Nobody cares about Games for Windows Live, not even Microsoft. Gabe called it years ago, and as always, he was right. Go look it up, he basically said that while Microsoft appeared to care about gaming when Vista and 7 were first released, they knew their systems would flop hard and forget to care anymore. It's not even competition at this point. So there, crafty research right there. So crafty in fact that you switched up the terms for the gaming platform and the social platform Microsoft handles. Well done.

[QUOTE=PacificV2;35045408]Well thank god you "fucking called it", now we know who to mock. All the reasons you provided are borderline retarded, have you even seen how many people are really buying Macs these days? Apple's barely making a dent on the Windows share of the market, and those who switch from Windows to Mac OS X <animal name du jour> usually don't play games enough to contribute to the market. There's not a market to be made like your ramblings suggest. "Mega Profit"? Think more "Mega Bomb". Plus, Apple would never go along with it unless they bought out Valve, which is something they'd never do. Nobody cares about Games for Windows Live, not even Microsoft. Gabe called it years ago, and as always, he was right. Go look it up, he basically said that while Microsoft appeared to care about gaming when Vista and 7 were first released, they knew their systems would flop hard and forget to care anymore. It's not even competition at this point. So there, crafty research right there. So crafty in fact that you switched up the terms for the gaming platform and the social platform. Well done.[/QUOTE] Gabe's fortune is now in the billions. It's not the money he makes off Valve's games, but those from third party publishers that tack onto his platform. It's the platforming service's flop on PCs that's going to encourage a deeper move to go to consoles, as that's where Valve will really make a dent, and Apple will be smart to tag along with Valve in order to really kick off support for their systems from gamers. I don't like the sound of Macs playing a dominant role in the future (or anything Apple for that matter), but I know a lot more people that have switched to Macs recently, and if Apple were to take any initiative in forcing the hand of gamers, that's a big PC market share right there I'd say. A move into consoles would be the step needed to get gamer support for Apple. There's incentive for both sides. It might not have play out like I thought so long ago, and I might not be seeing everything together right now either, but I know that Valve and Apple are aiming big. Oh, and probably one reason Microsoft didn't do so well with WL was because Steam was the elephant in the living room for them, as Steam for all intents and purposes competed with WL. Valve was smart to move Steam off of Windows (and in fact I believe it had something to do with their total 180 on love for Sony and PS3), to give game companies incentive to not develop for WL (thus why WL didn't do so well).

I know a lot of people that decided to trade their trusty PC companion for a white box with an Apple logo on it and a shiny UI. I also know those people don't care about gaming. That's the major flaw in your logic. Macs are not game machines by design. Apple knows and doesn't care. Also, I'm pretty sure all the subliminal messaging Apple uses doesn't cause a commotion in the brain of most hardcore gamers. They're too focused on finding game-breaking strategies. Plus, all of this is dependant on Valve actually seeking support from elsewhere when they have a history of inventing markets and pull breakthroughs all by themselves. It's not like they don't have the money internally to bootstrap the whole damn thing.

I hope not, Apple's a shitty company and doesn't deserve anyone's kindness. Don't disagree with me on this one, trying to monopolize the market is bad. Valve has the resources and their target market wouldn't buy it if it was from Apple either, they'd be better off making deals with AMD, Asus, Nvidia, or whomever else and doing their own thing, not only would they be able to easily secure good hardware that can be updated later easily (unlike anything made by Apple), which would be a selling point and a revolutionary concept for consoles, they wouldn't have to deal with the shitty Mac software. In fact, Valve would probably strike a deal with Microsoft, knowing that GFWL was going to fail, MS would be more than willing to do their part in such a project, may as well make profit right?

[QUOTE=PacificV2;35045528]I know a lot of people that decided to trade their trusty PC companion for a white box with an Apple logo on it and a shiny UI. I also know those people don't care about gaming. That's the major flaw in your logic. Macs are not game machines by design. Apple knows and doesn't care. Also, I'm pretty sure all the subliminal messaging Apple uses doesn't cause a commotion in the brain of most hardcore gamers. They're too focused on finding game-breaking strategies. Plus, all of this is dependant on Valve actually seeking support from elsewhere when they have a history of inventing markets and pull breakthroughs all by themselves. It's not like they don't have the money internally to bootstrap the whole damn thing.[/QUOTE] That may be the way Macs are now, but you're forgetting one thing. If Apple sees a valid demand and incentive to gear their products towards a gaming market, they'll wise up. The rule of business is to follow the money. Also, you admitted it yourself: Apple has already seen a large enough increase to their revenues from new Mac buyers to warrant a rethinking in the heads of the CEOs at Apple (and it'll be easier to rethink things now that Jobs is done forcing his ideas through his employees).

In my dream world Sega returns to the hardware market with a follow-up to the Dreamcast and Valve is their big competitor

[QUOTE=RaptillaMajor;35045459]Oh, and probably one reason Microsoft didn't do so well with WL was because Steam was the elephant in the living room for them, as Steam for all intents and purposes competed with WL. Valve was smart to move Steam off of Windows (and in fact I believe it had something to do with their total 180 on love for Sony and PS3), to give game companies incentive to not develop for WL (thus why WL didn't do so well).[/QUOTE] What the fuck are you smoking GFWL flopped because it was difficult to work with both for devs and users. The only thing worthwhile to devs was that the APIs used for the service were fairly easy to port from a x360 code base, everything else was a pain. Relic commented on this. The service for users was a total pain too. Multiple launchers, a weird cumbersome overlay, being limited to console levels of user interaction.. Microsoft totally missed the mark on that. That's not what PC gamers wanted from a gaming service. Once again, I reiterate - GFWL was not a competitor to Steam on accounts of it being a poor, cumbersome service, while Steam was pretty much everything a gamer could ask for. As for your more recent post - Apple has a way of doing things, and that has always worked out for them. They always assumed and mandated what was "good" for its userbase, and everything else gets kicked out. Valve has its own way of doing things, and independently of what that way is, it is a perspective Apple doesn't share (since it's not theirs). Apple doesn't cooperate unless they're mandated by a court order, and even then it's hard for them to actually help.

[QUOTE=PacificV2;35045676]What the fuck are you smoking GFWL flopped because it was difficult to work with both for devs and users. The only thing worthwhile to devs was that the APIs used for the service were fairly easy to port from a x360 code base, everything else was a pain. Relic commented on this. The service for users was a total pain too. Multiple launchers, a weird cumbersome overlay, being limited to console levels of user interaction.. Microsoft totally missed the mark on that. That's not what PC gamers wanted from a gaming service. Once again, I reiterate - GFWL was not a competitor to Steam on accounts of it being a poor, cumbersome service, while Steam was pretty much everything a gamer could ask for. As for your more recent post - Apple has a way of doing things, and that has always worked out for them. They always assumed and mandated what was "good" for its userbase, and everything else gets kicked out. Valve has its own way of doing things, and independently of what that way is, it is a perspective Apple doesn't share (since it's not theirs). Apple doesn't cooperate unless they're mandated by a court order, and even then it's hard for them to actually help.[/QUOTE] Yeah, that, added with the fact that they had to compete with a much better service (and Microsoft has a history with competition). As for Apple, they'd either better learn to cope, or lose one of the better opportunities they've ever been faced with.

[QUOTE=RaptillaMajor;35045718]Yeah, that, added with the fact that they had to compete with a much better service (and Microsoft has a history with competition). As for Apple, they'd either better learn to cope, or lose one of the better opportunities they've ever been faced with.[/QUOTE] They've been faced with that same opportunity years ago and decided they weren't interested. Go read up on it, Valve itself tried to make Apple see that gaming was important and Apple generally ignored them, saying it wasn't worth the effort. Valve has been trying to bring Steam to the Mac for years now, only recently they have succeeded. Gamers aren't their core audience. After all, gamers don't suck up all the Apple razzledazzle like the general populace. [editline]8th March 2012[/editline] Anyway, I'm not against a "Steam Box". I wouldn't buy one, but I think it's a wonderful idea for people who have no idea what PC gaming really is. I just don't think Apple thinks the same. It's not "PC Gaming" if Apple is onboard anyway.

[QUOTE=PacificV2;35045795]They've been faced with that same opportunity years ago and decided they weren't interested. Go read up on it, Valve itself tried to make Apple see that gaming was important and Apple generally ignored them, saying it wasn't worth the effort. Valve has been trying to bring Steam to the Mac for years now, only recently they have succeeded. Gamers aren't their core audience. After all, gamers don't suck up all the Apple razzledazzle like the general populace.[/QUOTE] I'm wondering how much of that mentality was influenced by Jobs (who is now no longer a deciding factor at Apple). Valve's been trying, and now is Apple given one final opportunity to seize the moment. [QUOTE=PacificV2;35045795]Anyway, I'm not against a "Steam Box". I wouldn't buy one, but I think it's a wonderful idea for people who have no idea what PC gaming really is. I just don't think Apple thinks the same. It's not "PC Gaming" if Apple is onboard anyway.[/QUOTE] And I'm wondering how much Valve will do to bridge the gap between PC gaming and console gaming (Steam is clearly the biggest PC platform already, and support from console devs wouldn't hurt). All in all, I find it's an ironic way for Microsoft to lose out, seeing as Gabe had such loyalty to Microsoft in the past (even worked directly for them in his early history). Then again, collapse always starts with the moment of defection from a powerful player (Gabe's 180 against Microsoft).

[QUOTE=RaptillaMajor;35045826]All in all, I find it's an ironic way for Microsoft to lose out, seeing as Gabe had such loyalty to Microsoft in the past (even worked directly for them in his early history). Then again, collapse always starts with the moment of defection from a powerful player (Gabe's 180 against Microsoft).[/QUOTE] You do know he shunned Microsoft due to the ridiculous update policies of the Xbox 360, right? Sony were willing to put Steam on PS3, and Valve has basically unlimited amount of possible updates on the PS3 compared to "1 free update" limit on the 360. It's not ironic, really. It's the way it is due to the extremely terrible flexibility on Microsoft's part.

[QUOTE=Fippe;35048538]You do know he shunned Microsoft due to the ridiculous update policies of the Xbox 360, right? Sony were willing to put Steam on PS3, and Valve has basically unlimited amount of possible updates on the PS3 compared to "1 free update" limit on the 360. It's not ironic, really. It's the way it is due to the extremely terrible flexibility on Microsoft's part.[/QUOTE] Terrible policy, yes. But I'm sure Microsoft did more to incite Gabe's rage against them, besides just having a terrible policy.

pretty sure they said they aren't making one

[QUOTE=Saza;35110677]pretty sure they said they aren't making one[/QUOTE] Actually, IIRC they were pretty careful to avoid saying that. All they said was that they weren't announcing one at GDC.

[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;35111958]Actually, IIRC they were pretty careful to avoid saying that. All they said was that they weren't announcing one at GDC.[/QUOTE] Same type of stance they gear towards Episode 3 release...

It's like the gaming press has never heard of a DIY HTPC scene before.

Well, too bad this isn't happening, but imagine a console.... with the casing of a companion cube! I would sooooo die to have one.

If Valve made a console I'm pretty sure hundreds of PC fanboys' heads would explode. "It's a console, so I should hate it... but... but... it's Valve..."