I see, I didn't see the active part.  Gabe is cool in terms of giving away cool deals but he is very verbal at times as well.  Regarding the whole Windows 8 deal.  I don't remember why he complained about Windows 8.  He said it was closed off or something if I remember right.

Yup. Sounds like a very closed system, the exact thing that Gabe critisized Microsoft for on Windows 8.

I guess the whole point of this Steam console is to try and bring PC games to the mainstream. 

How many of those are actually gamers though? I'd say not many.

I don't see this device as competing with consoles so much as with PC's. I view it as a "friendly PC", much like Wii was a "friendly console". Easy to get into. It reminds me a bit of the concept of a Tablet... not really needed but if it seems cool and easy to use people may take to it instead of a traditinal PC. I think the market for it is small though. Most PC gamers want to play on a true PC. If they're playing in their living room it's hard to compete with the custom software, the ease of use and low cost of a console. So I think it could have a market...just like Alienware PC's have their niche, but I don't see it impacting the cosole market much.

If this were 6 years ago I could see a bit of a martket with Wii owners who wanted better graphics and the multiplats they were missing on Wii. They could pick this up instead of a PS360 if they had lots of cash. With the multimedia abilities of WiiU - and the assuredly excellent abilities of the future systems - I don't know that that market exsists anymore.

JayWood2010 said: hunter_alien said: Yes... if they can all deliver high quality content at a reasonable price. The idea of a console is outdated anyways. We have soooo many healthy game ecosystems already: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Steam, iOS, Android, Facebook... and the list goes on I wouldn't consider IOS, Android, Facebook consoles.  I see a lot of people talking about that kind of stuff on this website but lets face it, you don't buy IOS or Android products for gaming.  They're in the mobile market not the console market.  Just because they have games does not mean they're competing.

At one point I thought like you about gaming on Android and IOS devices. But I have done some research about the games available on those platforms, and the prices of those games and now I have to agree that dedicated handheld gaming devices are about to become extinct. It pains me like hell to say that because the Nintendo DS is my favorite gaming hardware of all time, and I love my PSP and my 3DS. I can get games like Dead Space, Mass Effect Infiltrator, Chaos Ring or GTA VIce City for less than 10 dollars on IOS or Android and I would be able to play them on any device just by using my account.  I would have to pay 40 dollars to download New Super Mario Bros 2 from the Nintendo eShop and if I lost my 3DS I am screwed. I now that the controls are not great for those platforms but they are perfectly playable.

Why do you ignore Ouya?

Sorry, I can put it in the OT.   

EDIT:  I put it in but personally I believe it will be a failure compared to the big 3.  Just my opinion though

if you mean the steam box, than yes. no problem. no different than right now with wii/ps3/xbox 360/pc. In fact with thrid parties not really doing exclusives i think there is more space for more consles, as long as they keep a similar architecture so games are easy to port.

only 3 can be supported IMO. Whoever launches last will be screwed :)

I think Valve may have trouble here. One of the main points of PC gaming is the more powerful system that can be upgraded instead of being replaced. If they don't offer that than they could very well lose alot of sales from the people most likely to be drawn to the idea, PC gamers. What does it give them when they can already just hook their PC up to there TV?

I don't know about any of the other console gamers on here, but I'm not interested in the "Valvebox". What can it do that a PlayStation or Xbox can't?