That $1000 ‘Steam Box’ May Have Nothing To Do With Valve

11 responses to “That $1000 ‘Steam Box’ May Have Nothing To Do With Valve”

1. 

   zac

   March 13, 2013 at 8:17 am

   It did strike me as odd that Valve would be working on their own product and contract another company with the same or similar product

   Reply
2. 

   cesario

   March 13, 2013 at 8:29 am

   thank good this bs is officially unraveled, dont know a single person who was even considering buying this as the cost was killer for a ‘gaming console’

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3. 

   owlix

   March 13, 2013 at 8:31 am

   The price still makes me laugh

   Reply
4. 

   spanner

   March 13, 2013 at 8:39 am

   Seems like Xi3’s PR has worked like they intended, and the press have fallen for it completely.

   Xi3 announced the Piston in September last year, not mentioning Valve or Steam at all in their PR materials. Then the Steam Box concept is confirmed by Valve in January. Xi3 put out a new press release that for the first time makes the claim that the Piston was designed for Steam, the Piston will be shown off in Valve’s booth at CES, and claim Valve has invested in the company (note, they don’t directly claim that the Piston is the Steam Box).

   Doug Lombardi says the next day that Valve would be using their booth space to meet with hardware devs – that the Piston would be there as one of many prototypes to be explored. Some writers express doubts that this is an official Steam Box but those doubts are quickly steamrolled by the hype train.

   Fast forward to March, and Xi3 do not mention Valve or Steam at all in their press release announcing preorders for the Piston. Now Doug Lombardi again says that they have no formal relationship with Xi3, but still the Piston “May Have Nothing To Do With Valve”? Not “may”, it has nothing to do with Valve. Xi3 have simply managed to manipulate the media in order to get free PR.

   Reply
   1. 

      zap

      March 13, 2013 at 9:10 am

      Doesn’t mean they had no detailed input on how to design the system and required specs.

      Valve also did not release this statement until there was growing backlash over price.

      Valve’s still a company, still does PR. You shouldn’t give any company a free pass.

      Reply
      1. 

         thom

         March 13, 2013 at 9:29 am

         Yeah – except Valve was building their own box, and there was absolutely nothing to suggest Valve was involved in this box. The fact is, the company pretty masterfully played the gaming press here.

         Reply
         1. 

            zap

            March 13, 2013 at 9:41 am

            Certainly did. So did Xi3.

            Reply
5. 

   mchaza

   March 13, 2013 at 9:57 am

   I highly doubt valve will release their own PC, instead they are working on a Steam-Linux and their own controller on how to use it. It will be then up to hardware manufactures, Dell, HP, Asus etc to release machines with the Steam-Linux designed as a HTPC and probably with Valves controller.

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6. 

   Login

   March 13, 2013 at 12:01 pm

   IT ISN’T A GAMING CONSOLE. Why did anyone ever make that assumption? Why the hell are you all now economists? Even if Valve’s one was $1000, would i pay that for a gaming computer? Absolutely. One that’s portable and small and well-designed? Of course. Because right now they cost twice as much as that. It’s upgradable and you have access to ridiculous Steam sales. People pay that much for tablets, this is a gaming compute with (again) portability and cheap as shit current gen games. What is wrong with you people? Are you even people who live in the real world and react to every single thing you hearevery day with blind outrage? IS THIS HOW YOU ARE?

   Reply
   1. 

      dknight1000

      March 13, 2013 at 1:45 pm

      To be honest portability isn’t a feature for me, and looking at the specs I think I’d get more bang for my bucks with a custom designed rig. At $1000 I’m not looking at an SLI graphics option so I could make a pretty small machine because the MB only needs a single Graphics port everything else is on the MB now days. Sound wouldn’t be as good but it’s still decent.

      But if it’s portable I’m probably using a USB headset and the onboard sound is irrelevant.

      Reply
7. 

   mrtaco

   March 13, 2013 at 1:11 pm

   If I was a guy named Doug Lombardi, I would totally call my kid Falco.

   Reply