Awkward .. In a statement to Eurogamer, Valve has revealed it is no longer doing business with Xi3. Valve's marketing head head Doug Lombardi stated, "Valve began some exploratory work with X... Valve distanced itself from Xi3 PISTON gaming PC
Not surprised. If it isn't vapourware/scam in the first place then it is destined to be a big flop and hurt the official product's name in the future.
That takes a s1hit load of great games out of the question. And if they are planning to run those win games on wine or so, IMO its a mistake........ Glad I just plugged a nice Toshiba Laptop with discrete 1GB 4xxx series GPU to my 32' TV and call it a day.
if it was running windows, it would be too obvious what they're actually selling - an overpriced PC sitting in your living room.
Isn't the whole point of the steam box a lower costing pc gaming machine? I believe I read that somewhere.
I think it's not really about the actual price of the box but what most people would perceive and/or expect about it. Words on the streets are that "Valve working together with Xi3 to make Steam Box based on GNU/Linux", and if Xi3 are releasing their Piston around $1000 for the basic model, then it's no surprise people'd expect Steam Box's price to be around the same, which is already rather expensive. If the specs are any lower in order to reduce the price, then the Steam Box will not be making any more sense, especially if it's already rather limited (in terms of games compatibility) by having GNU/Linux for the base OS. Hence, if it uses Windows, then most people'd just see it as a 'normal PC'. And at $1000 at the cheapest, it is an overpriced PC, irrespective of size. (although it'd still be a PC regardless of the OS) If Valve didn't figure out most people would think Xi3's Piston as the 'preview' of their upcoming Steambox, they wouldn't be distancing themselves from Xi3, especially when there were news about 'developer boxes' (of the same Piston with the dev's logo printed on it IIRC) being sent to some devs. A wise move (to distance themselves), to be honest. Doesn't really matter what the facts are, the real price or whatever; it's how the people connect the dots.
I think they (Xi3) just need to wait about 4-6 years and try again. It seems like the technology isn't quite there yet to fit the power of a current gaming PC in a shell that's less than the size of a grapefruit and still be affordable. They'd be better off (imo) putting their money into R&D...but more "R" and less "D".
I think it is pretty clear, as someone also mentioned in the other thread, that Valve worked with Xi3 to get some knowledge how to build a steam box, not to flat out build them a steam box. You really think a smaller company like Xi3 could produce something in mass for what Valve is looking at? I'm pretty sure they simply sent out specs to various manufactures to get back some design ideas, so they can eventually find a large manufacturer and also set forward some design specs so that any company can make a "steambox" following these rules. To me, Xi3 is clearly trying to cash in on Valve's name knowing their device already being somewhat synonymous with the Steambox, but at the same time they are tarnishing its name with an over priced model and while calling it the "unofficial Steambox". To me it looks as though Valve should be pissed that Xi3 is pissing in their pool and terrorizing their marketing before the real Steambox is out. People already getting in their mind its $1000 for the Steambox when the truth is we dont know yet.
I think Stukov hit the nail on the head here. We have no idea what the official pricing or even price range will be for the steam box at the moment. Xi3 are just piggy backing Valve hoping to cash in on their popularity. Their claims at it being $1000 is almost forcing Valve to produce information they would have preferred to hold back in order to counter act the negativity on this high priced unofficial product.
That's fair, but I can't expect a shrunken down proprietary PC of similar spec to a normal PC in a small case to be evenly priced.
It will come with linux pre-installed, but i think you'll be able to install Windows, this is a mini-pc after all.
Unfortunately, I would still imagine that the price of the "official" Steam Box is going to be moderately above average console prices. Even though they will have a propriety design and be mass produced, they are still going to be "gaming PC's" fo the mid-range variety I imagine (to at least play all games @ standard 1080p with reasonable frame rates). I imagine around $500-$600 (or a smidge more?) would be expected.
They have both distanced themselves from each other over the last few days, appears to me that there has been some sort of disagreement. Probably about the OS and price, i doubt Valve want to sell a $1000 box as that isn't bringing PC gaming to the masses and Xi3 don't want to use Linux as it's just not a gaming OS and will always be several decades behind Windows. I think Valve and Xi3 are throwing money away as both of idea's look like massive failures at the moment.
