Gabe Newell Reveals More About Steam Boxes, New Input Devices

adeelarshad82 writes "Valve's presence at CES this year isn't to show off some new games, it's all about meeting with hardware manufacturers behind closed doors to talk about Steam Box. In an interview at CES which highlights Valve's plans for the console, Gabe Newell describes Steam Box as two projects. The first, codenamed Bigfoot, focuses on the hardware for use in the home with a TV. The second, codenamed Littlefoot, is investigating mobile gaming. Gabe goes on to discuss Valve plans on having three levels of Steam Box described as 'Good, Better, or Best' and expectations for the controller where the company wants something that's more high precision than anything else out there at the moment." The interview at the Verge is pretty extensive.

High precision controllers

[Noctis-Kaban]

Trust valve to be the first to be putting thought into this. If it’s truly a steam based console, I expect console players to be mixed in with pc players online. If that minor leap of gestimation is correct, they will need high precision controllers to stand any chance of not getting destroyed by much more proficient and accurate pc gamers with keyboards and mice. I will look forward to seeing how this developes.

Re:Carmack, Newell and Stephenson

[Missing.Matter]

Considering a bit is the limit for how fine grained you can get on a computer, the keyboard is the most precise input device you could create.... it just has many other shortcomings. Imagine gaming in binary.

Re:Carmack, Newell and Stephenson

[Dancindan84]

At the risk of feeding the troll...

First off it won't be competing against PCs. It's going to be competing against consoles.

Secondly... why not? You realize that under the hood most consoles are just small form factor PCs right? Have a look at the hardware in an XBox 360 [wikipedia.org] or a Playstation 3 [wikipedia.org] and things will look familiar.

Then add in the fact that console gaming isn't necessarily about just horsepower (look at the Wii). This product will be jumping into the arena with a tried and true digital distribution system already in place, which is one of the bigger remaining speed bumps in the console market. From TFA they're also looking at having tiered hardware, which is going to appeal to a lot of people.

I'm not saying you're wrong to be skeptical, but saying that it's because it can't compete with something it's not really competing with... well to use the old car analogy it's like saying, "That Nissan Leaf has some great innovation, but I remain skeptical that it can really rival the advantage of the raw horsepower and versatility of the F-150."

So it's not a console

[thetoadwarrior]

They're making a PC and not only that they're already planning for people to install windows on it. So it sounds more like this is a half assed move to piss of Microsoft.

Re:Valve watching

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that Valve doesn't have shareholders to answer to.

Re:So it's not a console

[Patch86]

...why all the Linux talk when you are just going to enable people to Install Windows, which they will.

Hang on a cotton picking moment. One of the key principals of FOSS is that - it's your device and your software, and you should be free to do what you like to them. Locking down a person's device so that they can't install their own software on it is plain wrong, and Valve are sensible not to go that route. Would you prefer that their console was the new Tivo?

If I buy one, I'll relish that it has Linux on it. But one day, I may decide to wipe the Valve-selected version of Linux and put something else on there- my own version of Linux, or Android, or BSD, or whatever. And why shouldn't I be allowed to put Windows on it if I so choose? It is my device, right?

Valve selling consoles pre-loaded with Linux is still a huge deal, and a huge victory for the Linux community. Don't miss out on the potential party because you're bitter they're not leading some quixotic attack on Microsoft while they're at it.