Proto Steam box may feel your arousal, hints Valve daddy

Re: Alienware

And Alienware is stupidly expensive.

Re: Alienware

Well if it runs Linux, at least it likely won't be very secure and will be easy to hack and just download the games from TPB then....

"So you need to actually be able to directly measure how aroused the player is - what their heart rate is, things like that - in order to offer them a new experience each time they play.”

Brings a new meaning to they way we play!

Re: Electric shocks when hit by a plasma bolt

Valve has finally found a way to implement the SlapPacket©®™

Re: Electric shocks when hit by a plasma bolt

old news - MS ActiveDeath technology has been around since 2001 - just waiting for developers to support it :)

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/06/xbox.html

Re: Apart from Kerbal Space Program

Same here.

Outside of legacy code and GOG.com re-re-re-re-re-purchases (pretty sure that I own the original Syndicate several times over), Steam is the only games platform I use. Hell, I buy the indie bundles primarily because they come with Steam codes.

My brother has a Steam account (birthdays / Christmas = exchange of Steam gifts), my parents have Steam accounts (for Peggle and assorted silliness), my girlfriend has a Steam account (chock full of point-and-click adventures) and - since I met them - her parents in Italy have a Steam account (for playing puzzle games because it's so easy to "send" them a gift internationally like that).

I'd buy them a SteamBox in a heartbeat if their listed games are supported on it and it was a half-decent price. No more tech-support hassle so they can play Peggle, etc. and it feels like a "real" console rather than something they have to manage.

The only problem - as usual - is software support. Most of the indie developers get off their backsides and make a Linux version (usually nothing more than a compile with certain options turned on if you have a Mac etc. version and designed it properly at the start), most of the humble bundle titles are Linux-capable already (were before Steam even had a Linux version). Get people like PopCap (which is now EA-owned, I believe) on-board and you'd make a killing. But, unfortunately, that's the weak-point again.

Stop knocking Move!

Play Portal 2 on PS3 with the Sixence motion control patch.

Oh look my Move controller is a portal gun!

Even the correct colours.

I do like the colour matching on Move games Gold on Resistance 3 to match the Chimeras eyes. Red on Killzone 3 to match the Helghast goggles. Now Portal 2.

I find that the knockers have basically never played a well supported decent Move game.

Re: Good idea but

It's more like a cheap but well supported box for the living room, that's how I'd see it.

PS3 I wouldn't say counts in the same area, it's not a standard PC.

Re: Good idea but

A Steam Box could do many things:

1. Encourages non-MS-specific development of pc games - Develop for OpenGL, and you can cover MS, OSX and Linux. Develop for DX and you've got a non-portable game.

2. That's important because MS are pushing their own shop. Valve don't want to lose business to MS' store and game devs don't want to be locked into a system like Apple's store (a single store to sell through) so Valve offering a non-MS gaming platform is attractive route to market.

3. Many of the old games will run on WINE. Despite their age, they make good console/tv games can be resurrected & sold to a generation who have grown up on PS3/xbox rather than PC gaming. More sales of old games.

4. Console games are expensive. Valve have a great competitive sales opportunity by placing their sales model in the living room.

5. x86 Linux can give way to ARM linux (if the market goes that way).

6. If its always on, it gives more features. You've already accepted the DRM for games - would you like to download films too? We've already got Steam voice chat - would you like a DDI number with that? Would you like Asterisk, to integrate your local phone with VOIP? Would you like MythTV? Would you like to buy a year's supply of cleaned-up TV schedules with that? Have a free copy of LibreOffice for this console, Windows or Mac. Here's a samba share and if you'd like, we can back up your data to the cloud. I see you also run OSX - would you like to be able to use your Steambox for time-machine? Ah, you are running Windows - why not back up your Documents directory to Steambox? Would you like to sync all your Documents between systems without sending all your data to the cloud? This is vast feature creep, but who knows if Valve have greater ambitions?

7. A local game server. Invite your friends to a game at your house, or anywhere on the internet. You can make sure that the hardware is spec'ed to support this and Valve have more freedom to configure the box if its a "console." Various functions could be put into virtual machines - so for example, an L4D2 server could virtualised, given internet access and then wiped to reduce threat exposure.

Nobody is kidding themselves that linux is currently a better gaming environment than windows, but that doesn't mean that there aren't compelling reasons for it to become one. Valve is also quite well-placed to to help make it happen and with the trend towards closed ecosystems popularised by Apple, I'd be surprised if Valve didn't have quite a bit of industry support, even if the market is currently rather small.

Re: The next generation of consoles

It is the here and now.

Why would I want to stream a film in lower quality than a BluRay which I can buy for under £10 from Asda? And I can keep it.

Good idea, it will sell, but no idea how well. Valve are not stupid.

Re: Interesting times ahead

And, most importantly, will it have Half-Life 3 (or possibly HL2Ep3) bundled as an exclusive?

That way they might sell more than a handful of the things...