Posted December 09, 2012
I think Valve in many ways are one of the good guys, but their insistence on "games as a service" puts me completely at odds with them.
Posted December 09, 2012
Valve the distributor... well...
Posted December 09, 2012
Valve the distributor... well...
Of course, in time, they will lose key court battles, and this will change. We will have full ability to trade games out of our Steam accounts, sell to "used" vendors, etc, but Valve will fight us, every step of the way, and expect us to come back to them for more after we defeat them in courts of law. I wish they would just be proactive and innovate in this sphere, and set a good example of digital distributors.
Posted December 09, 2012
Nah, it'll just be a 'badged' gaming PC with standardised specs so they can say on Steam "runs on Steambox!".
I hope this is a massive flop and puts Valve out of business. Seriously.
Also there are already account based crap on current consoles so I fully expect the same from the next gen consoles. Do not forget the WII was one of the worst offenders in that your DLC and crap only work with that specific WII it was bought on...does not matter if the WII craps out it will not work on any other WII. The PS3 has multiple games where the DLC only works for the account it is purchased on...thats nothing new, and the 360...it has similar issues already.
Post edited December 09, 2012 by SirPrimalform
Posted December 10, 2012
Hook a pc up to a tv! No way! That is just totally a new idea. Wow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_TV
Posted December 10, 2012
Hmmmm, i don't really know what to think about it. I just can't see the audience for such a product. Linux sucks when it comes to games support, unfortunately, and all Steam users have PCs anyway. Why anyone would spend money on a "console" to run just a few Linux-supported games is beyond me.
And like someone said, i doubt the main publishers will bother porting games to Linux. Heck, some of them don't even care about making a decent Windows port, let alone another OS with a very small userbase. Valve just isn't as big as Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo to make it happen.
And like someone said, i doubt the main publishers will bother porting games to Linux. Heck, some of them don't even care about making a decent Windows port, let alone another OS with a very small userbase. Valve just isn't as big as Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo to make it happen.
Posted December 10, 2012
The cost would be more than next gen consoles as Valve can't afford to subsidize hardware and make it back on game sales like Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo can. Unless we have another 599 US Dollars! incident, a device made out of PC hardware will cost more unless it's low end.
It wouldn't get a big push from major retailers. Gamestop might be ok selling Steam gift cards, but try getting them to push a no used games system and see how far it gets. Also when people come in to buy a console for their kids for Christmas, they won't go for the unknown one that won't let Jimmy trade games with his friends.
They would have to convince developers to support their version of Linux on the machine. If they used Windows, it would be prone to being cracked open easily, plus they would have to pay Microsoft for every console sold. Getting even the majority of games from Steam working in Linux would take a huge effort of which Valve doesn't have the man power. Companies like EA and Activision get far bigger sales on other consoles than PC to bother porting games to Linux or Valvebox.
I agree that the costs & benefits don't weigh up for AAA publishers for a Steambox.
However, I think there will possibly be a market for these consoles. Money hasn't been a concern to Valve for a while. Furthermore, games like TF2 & DotA 2 are being used as loss leaders to get people on Steam, buying games via Steam.
They could offer free hats/ items like they always do, the hard-core players/ supporters will nab it up.
IMHO, Steambox only further shows how much control Valve want over gaming.
Post edited December 10, 2012 by FantasyNightmare
Posted December 10, 2012
Valve the distributor... well...
Edit:
Wow, the thread is reaching GOG forum levels of quality again. Before any more great experts spout their take on this I rather avoid this thread ..
Post edited December 10, 2012 by SimonG
Posted December 10, 2012
For me it's like:
-insignificant developer (don't play Valve games)
-big market place and community builder (it is after all)
-closed plattform aimer (not good for PC gaming in general)
-innovator (pushing the limits although not always good)
So if they want to aim for the living rooms, I guess I will not be overly happy but I see the chances there is something good coming out, maybe as a side product. They should continue.
-insignificant developer (don't play Valve games)
-big market place and community builder (it is after all)
-closed plattform aimer (not good for PC gaming in general)
-innovator (pushing the limits although not always good)
So if they want to aim for the living rooms, I guess I will not be overly happy but I see the chances there is something good coming out, maybe as a side product. They should continue.
Post edited December 10, 2012 by Trilarion
Posted December 10, 2012
Heck, even I can do that and I tried recently for ten minutes to plug my micro usb cord into a HDMI socket ...