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Forums - Gaming - Gabe Newell shares information about Steam Box

Jaywood2010 on 08 January 2013

It’s Official: Gabe Newell Shares Details About Valve’s Steam Box

 Luke Plunkett

With the first of many "Steam Box" computers making its debut at CES, Valve boss Gabe Newell has really opened up toThe Verge about his company's hardware plans, revealing that the range of gaming PCs might be even more ambitious than we would have imagined.

Some of the main things he touches on:

• Valve's own Steam Box (Gabe actually refers to it as this) will be sold by Valve and will run Linux, though you can install Windows on it if you want. "This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination", he says.

• The controller shipping with Valve's Steam Box won't use motion, but as expected, they will probably use some kind of biometric feedback. "Maybe the motion stuff is just failure of imagination on our part, but we're a lot more excited about biometrics as an input method." He also mentions gaze-tracking as being "super important".

• Valve wants you to make your own Steam stores. "Some people will create team stores, some people will creates Sony stores, some people will create stores with only games that they think meet their quality bar. Somebody is going to create a store that says 'these are the worst games on Steam.' So that's an example of where our thinking is leading us right now."

• The Steam Box - code-named "Bigfoot" at Valve - won't just be a PC. It'll be a server, too, with the near future enabling you to "have one PC and eight televisions and eight controllers and everybody getting great performance out of it". The LAN party just made a comeback. Only without all the cables.

There's way, way more stuff - all of it interesting reading - in the full interview.

Exclusive interview: Valve's Gabe Newell on Steam Box, biometrics, and the future of gaming




       

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darkknightkryta on 08 January 2013

I'd trade it all for a little more.



techhunter80 on 08 January 2013

This thing is sounding better and better but still I need to know the price!



Soleron on 08 January 2013

This Valve/Nvidia relationship makes me wary. They only seem to be working with Nvidia on Linux, they mention the Shield partnership, and he says "post-[Nvidia] Kepler" will be 8 GPUs.

Also this biometric data is gimmicky hardware BS like every other failed feature on a console. It's hilarious how he correctly criticises motion control for not adding anything and causing its own problems and then says biometrics are awesome.



JWeinCom on 08 January 2013
Soleron said:
This Valve/Nvidia relationship makes me wary. They only seem to be working with Nvidia on Linux, they mention the Shield partnership, and he says "post-[Nvidia] Kepler" will be 8 GPUs.

Also this biometric data is gimmicky hardware BS like every other failed feature on a console. It's hilarious how he correctly criticises motion control for not adding anything and causing its own problems and then says biometrics are awesome.

He explains it fairly well.  Motion controls essentially limit the amount of data you're sending the game, because you can do less with your arm than with your fingers.  Essentially, imagine typing with your elbows as opposed to your fingers.

Biometrics is something you can do in addition to your fingers.  Looking to the left or right doesn't limit what you're doing with your fingers, so it's more additive.

Keep in mind, I don't agree with him (I like Motion controls) but he explains his position fairly well.

 



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bonkers555 on 08 January 2013

Goodbye Xbox, Valve just cut half of your market share.



My Video Games Collection/Set-Up.

MARCUSDJACKSON on 08 January 2013

well it's getting more interesting



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JWeinCom on 08 January 2013
bonkers555 said:
Goodbye Xbox, Valve just cut half of your market share.


Nothing in that interview really makes me thing that this will be appealing to the mass market, which is where most X-box owners fall.  The real question to me is if they can convince PC gamers that this is worthwhile.