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Valve, in case you didn't already know, is that wonderful company that has brought us hits such as the Half Life series and Steam. Recently there has been talks of Valve producing their own hardware and The Verge has unveiled some more information on the topic.
They have gathered information that hints at the fact Valve has been working on a gaming console in secret. The rumoured deployment strategy involves Steam possibly being the centre of this gaming console. OEMs would then produce hardware to run Valve's software on, mimicing what Google has done with Android.
Valve co-founder, Gabe Newell said in a recent interview that “We'd rather hardware people that are good at manufacturing and distributing hardware do [hardware]. We think it's important enough that if that's what we end up having to do, then that's what we end up having to do.”
If Valve does decide to pursue this avenue they may deliver a software bundle to be distributed to hardware manufacturers such as Asus and Samsung.
Further information The Verge gathered suggests the company has been working on hardware specifications with OEMs (think of the 3 P's; performance, power, portability.) Specifications could include an Intel i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and a Nvidia GPU. This would mean any PC title available today would be able to run on this ‘Steam Box,' as well as offer support for other game libraries such as EA's Origin.
The ‘Steam Box' could be seen as soon as GDC in a few days time or later this year at E3.
Kitguru says: It looks as if things are about to become a lot more interesting in the gaming console world.
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, now Valve console?
Sounds like a desperate shot in the dark
i7 console, with 8 GB RAM and a nVidia card? Yes please!
Actually it would be one of the best things ever in the Console Market. Consoles right now sit around for years without getting Hardware Updates because they only work with 1 batch of Hardware. One bit of the quote missing from here states that Valve would be willing to create Hardware if it meant driving innovation forward. The current Consoles which are the focus of most Developer Studios have driven innovation to almost a complete halt, as the Hardware only allows for so much performance and some Studios aren’t even interested in pushing it as far as they can.
A Valve Console, Steam Box or whatever, especially one that works like Google with Android would be the best thing. It would force both Sony and Microsoft to update theirs more often (Sony keeps rambling on about a 10-year life span for their already outdated PS3 which would mean another 5 years left on this ShitStation 3), as they’d have to compete with the more advanced Hardware available to the Steam Box, and PCs would stop getting shafted with Low-Res outdated Graphics ports.
Of course, it also unfortunately means another Controller Platform, but yeah…. >.< Gabe did say at one point he wanted to see WoW on Consoles however, so it might be a Mouse/Keyboard Console which works Wired/Wifi like the Sony PS3 Controller, as that's the only way WoW would ever work on Consoles. It'll be interesting to see this if it actually does exist. I just hope this doesn't mean Valve is shifting focus away from the PC however. No matter what they do with a Steam Box, it'll never be as upgradeable or as powerful as a Custom-Built PC, and they need to remember that.
That apart, the Steam Platform is great, and expanding it into the Console Market for more people to experience with a version for a Steam Console would be fantastic. Especially if it doesn't use this ridiculous weeks-long approval process Sony and Microsoft use with their Consoles which delay Patches to no end. Not to mention the Advertisements. I mean seriously Xbox 360 users spend more time waiting for ads to piss off than actually using Xbox Live.