Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 10th Dec 2012 23:24 UTC
Confirming the industry's worst-kept secret, Valve CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed Valve is working on its 'Steam Box', a Steam-powered HTPC geared towards console-like gaming. It'll most likely run Linux. "Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he told Kotaku. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some people are really gonna want for their living room." Steam has 50 million subscribers, so there's a market here. As a comparison: Xbox Live has 40 million subscribers.
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Member since:2005-06-29
Even then though, it would have to be dirt cheap to sell well, and that means poor hardware, which again begs: what's the point?
You've never heard of a loss leader? The other console makers never make a return on the hardware itself in the first year of a particular revision, and sometimes they never do at all. They make their money through accessories, licensing and, more recently, subscriptions. Eventually they get the build cost of the console down to the point where they break even or (rarely) profit a few pennies on it. But no successful console manufacturer goes into it thinking they will immediately profit on the hardware.
Bottom line, this is just a way to get Steam into the consciousness of of console-only gamers. I'm all for it!
RE[2]: Comment by Luminair
by Luminair on Tue 11th Dec 2012 04:41
in reply to "RE: Comment by Luminair"
Member since:2007-03-30
What I said stands. Even if it is sold at a loss (say a $300 box for $200), and even if it includes Half-Life 3 for free (and CS: GO and TF2), I still don't see why people buy this. It will run games minimally well and have a minimal game selection and will compete for your $200 with not only the new and old consoles, but also a $200 upgrade to your computer so all windows games run even better. Yep, still don't get it
RE[2]: Comment by Luminair
by Nelson on Tue 11th Dec 2012 06:15
in reply to "RE: Comment by Luminair"
Member since:2005-11-29
Does Valve have the money to become a loss leader? Microsoft, yes. Sony, yes. Valve?
It's a huge risk to absorb an entire console generations worth of losses to maybe one day take on the giant elephants in the room that are Microsoft and Sony.
The console market isn't attractive. It's cutthroat, margins are razor thin, and it's hard to establish a presence. Ask Microsoft how much it cost them to loss lead.
Microsoft needed it to ensure that no one found a back door into Windows' territory via the living room, but what does Valve need this for?
RE[2]: Comment by Luminair
by lucas_maximus on Tue 11th Dec 2012 08:46
in reply to "RE: Comment by Luminair"
Member since:2009-08-18
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2007-03-30
I don't see where this fits in today. Maybe they'll spend a year getting games ported to Linux so there is something to do with it
Even then though, it would have to be dirt cheap to sell well, and that means poor hardware, which again begs: what's the point?
This thing will have fewer and worse and older games than both the new and the old consoles next year. It will cost more than the old consoles. And the hardware might be worse than the new ones, which when combined with poorly optimized computer games means everything on it looks worse than on the new consoles.
Yep I'm having a hard time seeing where this fits in!
Maybe in a year there will be a cpu with onboard graphics that can run skyrim at 30fps and costs them $200 to build with a small hard drive, which they can sell at cost, ala amazon kindle and google nexus. Maybe that would work. If the selection of games for linux explodes....
Nope I still dont get it