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Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

[Dec 09, 2012, 4:09 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Valve expands upon their plans for hardware, with Gabe Newell telling Kotaku they hope to begin selling appliance-style PCs next year to provide a turnkey way to play Steam games in the living room using the service's new Big Picture Mode. He explains this will help to unify two oddly defined environments:

"I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them," Newell told me. "Cause they won't have to split the world into thinking about 'why are my friends in the living room, why are my video sources in the living room different from everyone else?' So in a sense we hopefully are gonna unify those environments."

Newell said he's expecting a lot of different companies to release these types of packages—"We'll do it but we also think other people will as well," he told me—and that Valve's hardware might not be as open-source or as malleable as your average computer.

"Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he said. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some people are really gonna want for their living room.

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37.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:31

Bah. I will make my own.




Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net ...

36.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:23

RaZ0r! wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 15:35: You know there was one company that was the king of PC gaming and then it made a console and it nearly ruined PC gaming. But then there was this awesome game company that made a awesome digital download service that people trusted with their games that helped keep PC gaming relevant and afloat. But then they made a console.... That sums it up really well. Good-bye desktop PC gaming. Not tomorrow but gaming as we know it will look very different in five years from now. The last hope for us desktop PC gamers is that indies and crowdfunded games are going to be successful enough to keep the desktop alive.

35.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:21

Parallax Abstraction wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 17:02: Apparently one part of Windows 8 being a walled garden makes it a "catastrophe" but an entire box being a walled garden is A-OK if Valve does it. OK Gabe, sure. And yeah, he said "our hardware will be a very controlled environment," He wants to think Windows 8 is a "catastrophe" because of the completely optional Windows Store, that's his opinion and that's cool. But if Valve's going to do the same thing with the entirety of their living room box, I can't see how that's anything but hypocritical. I don't run Windows 8 and honestly, do kind of want to see Metro flop. But this seems a little two-faced to me. Wrong. A game console SHOULD be a walled garden. A desktop PC should NOT. It's that simple.

34.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:15

So much unnecessary whining in this thread. I like the idea of this and, depending on the specs, may consider buying one when it is released. It would be hilarious if this out sold the next-gen consoles.

33.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:04

How an it be a PC and not be general purpose? Otherwise it's a console. No sir, I don't like it.




"Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" - Jack Burton

32.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 18:00

Is this the same Gabe Newell that was saying that Windows 8 was bad because the store is a closed environment? And now he's saying that their own "pc" is not going to be as open source as a normal pc? hahah i think he's had one too many p0rtal cakes, and the icing has gone to his brain.




_________________________________________________ Adults are just children that are allowed to make their own decisions.

31.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 17:59

So, I guess it would have some sort of windows emulator for running most games? I wonder how well that will work out.

30.

Re: More Big Picture Details

Dec 9, 2012, 17:37

Beelzebud wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 17:28: As long as Steam and PC games still work on the PC, I really don't care. The PC as a platform isn't going anywhere. Depends on how deep the investment goes for Valve, between this specialized console and the "next gen" ones a true PC version of Half Life 3 might be more of a port, gameplay and controls will most likely be tuned for console / TV first and foremost. that would be rather dreadful.

29.

Re: More Big Picture Details

Dec 9, 2012, 17:28

As long as Steam and PC games still work on the PC, I really don't care. The PC as a platform isn't going anywhere.

28.

Re: More Big Picture Details

Dec 9, 2012, 17:26

I would be interested in next-gen consoles if they supported k/m type controls.

27.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 17:02

Parallax Abstraction

Apparently one part of Windows 8 being a walled garden makes it a "catastrophe" but an entire box being a walled garden is A-OK if Valve does it. OK Gabe, sure. And yeah, he said "our hardware will be a very controlled environment,"

He wants to think Windows 8 is a "catastrophe" because of the completely optional Windows Store, that's his opinion and that's cool. But if Valve's going to do the same thing with the entirety of their living room box, I can't see how that's anything but hypocritical. I don't run Windows 8 and honestly, do kind of want to see Metro flop. But this seems a little two-faced to me.

That said, it'll probably still be cool and I'm interested to see their ideas.




Parallax Abstraction Geek Bravado \| Retro Flashback \| All Together Now

26.

Re: More Big Picture Details

Dec 9, 2012, 16:55

So is this running Windows 8? Linux? Other?

25.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:51

Prez wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 16:28: I just hope they never get it in their heads to abandon the PC and move to the console market only. I might get violent. Seeing as how the PC market makes them 1+ billion dollars a year, I doubt it. Plus, this box of theirs is in essence a PC, just with fixed hardware specs. So they couldn't abandon the PC in favor of it; they're the same machines. Creston

24.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:51

IF it's a custom linux box, that runs every steam game flawlessly (much like how GoG makes sure old games run on modern Windows OS's)... AND if it's using some sort of in-lap keyboard and mouse, instead of a frickin' gamepad... I'd consider purchasing it. Other than that... not really interested.

23.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:50

If it makes PC gaming easier for the masses I'm for it.

Though I would argue that PC gaming is already pretty damn easy these days.




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

22.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:46

theyarecomingforyou

Hellbinder wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 15:58:
the PC market is collapsing.. do you want to play games or not.

I guess that's why nVidia is predicting that PC games revenue will overtake consoles in 2014 then?




Core i7 2600-K (4.6GHz) \| 12GB DDR3 \| GTX680 SLI (1215/1605) \| OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD \| Windows 8 Pro Hazro HZ30Wie 30" \| Saffire PRO 40 \| Razer Mamba \| Coolermaster RP1000W SteamID: theyarecomingforyou

21.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:28

While this is not something that would interest me in the least, I see it as a very smart business move. It might end up going nowhere, but the again it has the potential to be huge. Time will tell, and it should be interesting.

I just hope they never get it in their heads to abandon the PC and move to the console market only. I might get violent.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

20.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:27

Oh, and Valve: make sure there is a sticker "Optimised for Keyboard and Mouse" on your box. Either that or NO SALE! Deal

Deal




Consoles? I owned two: a Pong clone and an Atari 2600. And that's it.

19.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:26

Hellbinder wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 15:58:
RollinThundr wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 15:21:
I hope this flops harder than the non existent Phantom.

the PC market is collapsing.. do you want to play games or not.

So how is life on your planet? Here on Earth the PC is doing quite well...




[VG]Reagle Beagle

18.

Re: Valve Living Room PCs Next Year?

Dec 9, 2012, 16:06

Simon Says wrote on Dec 9, 2012, 15:26: So Gabe, on one side you hate Win8 for it's Walled Garden approach and on the other side you want to build a Walled Garden of your own and that is OK? Yeah... right! I don't see any evidence that they'd try to lock out non-Steam games, or require the SteamBox for any games. Most store-bought computers make quite poor gaming machines. Hopefully this can make it easier to get into PC gaming.

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