Microsoft watching what Valve does with "great interest"

[Alby_da_Wolf]

Persistantthug said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Persistantthug said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Valve isn't trying to get into the console game business. They're competing with console gaming via PCs. As they always have but now with their own OS.

I assume Valve is pumping a massive amount of money into HL3 and I don't think it'll be a Steam OS exclusive.

Yeah....that's trying to get into the console business, bro.

Valve's wanted to get into it for a long time.

No, they're in the PC game business. Their new venture is still PC gaming just with their own OS.

With your logic a Windows PC is a game console.

Shall we discuss the line between game console and PC is getting blurry...?

Hmm...

We might have to revisit this when the thing comes out.

Valve will provide also SteamOS alone, that users will be able to install on their existing PC, possibly upgrading it if they need or want to, or on a new one. And SteamBoxes will be PCs too. So it isn't competing with the whole PC, but just with Windows. This is a very favourable situation, because being based on Linux, SteamOS can dual-boot with Windows, so Valve can hurt Windows not only without hurting PC users in general, but also without hurting Windows users in particular. It's just MS near-monopoly on PC gaming that gets hurt, and in a more effective way, because MS users don't get hurt in the process, instead they gain a way to get out of MS grip.
What does Valve gain from this? Not being tied anymore to MS will and power and not having to deal with possible quirks of new versions of Windows, neither to possible attempts by MS to close the market of future versions of Windows, to start with. Also, keeping SteamOS lightweight, while Windows desktop gets more and more bloated, Valve can sell newer and more power-hungry games also to users with relatively older PCs, so it widens its potential market (don't forget that looking at Steam users statistics Valve discovered that more gamers than in the past don't upgrade their HW very often, up to the point that despite using mid-range PC HW, PS4 and XBOne will be quite more powerful than the average gaming PC for some time after their launch). And I'm surely forgetting or missing many other good reasons.