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Valve has recently announced their intention to enter the next console war with the Steam Box, a new custom PC designed to go head-to-head with next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony.
A quick look at statistics on Steam’s Wikipedia page (Steam - Wikipedia) shows that as of November 2012, 1800+ games are available through Steam to an active 54+ million accounts. Concurrent users peaked at 6+ million on Nov 25th, 2012. Now, Valve wants to enter the console market. To rephrase that:
Valve, the 1000 pound gorilla of digital distribution for PC games, has decided he wants a piece of the console pie. Maybe even all of it. Gorillas are not known for restraint. What implication’s does this hold for the future?
• 1800+ gaming titles will presumably become available to the console market through the Steam Box. Although a percentage of these games are readily available on existing consoles, many however are not. This inevitably leads us to the next point,
• Steam is known for holding regular sales which offer deeply discounted titles for direct download. The sheer size of the discount amount, upwards of 75% off, offered on both regular titles and packaged bundles of games, far exceeds anything you can find in a traditional brick and mortar store.
This means on the Steam Box you, the consumer, the video game connoisseur, will potentially pay significantly less for video games than you currently do; and all from the comfort of your own home.
• Of the 54+ million Steam accounts, there are undoubtedly a significant percentage of users that own at least one console. The Steam Box gives those users the option of playing their games on their TV, independent of their PC. This begs another inevitable question,
• The current console market is heavily saturated with titles with the majority breaking even on their production costs, or failing to achieve even that. This means that a small percentage of games are actually profitable, and a very, very small percentage of released games are actually sales blockbusters (i.e. Call of Duty: Black Ops, 25+ million copies sold worldwide for $1+ billion in sales).
So with those points in mind, what is going to happen when the Steam Box arrives as a console? It brings along easy access to 1800+ titles, many of which eventually become deeply discounted. Console games are already facing pricing pressure from the glut of social and mobile games which have flooded the market in recent years.
This has created tremendous price pressure to offer premium games, with high production values, for only a few dollars. Steam will bring with them 54+ million active accounts, many of which have games already on their Steam account, which they will now be able to play on their TV with their existing social network of friends.
This begs the question: How will Microsoft and Sony react when a title is simultaneously released for all three consoles, but Steam offers you a discount since it is downloadable and does not have to deal with the physical distribution of the disc?
This scenario does currently happen. On Steam, the recent release of Hitman: Absolution saw users able to preorder the game for a 10% discount prior to release, however after the release date the game went back to its full retail value.
Why stand in line for hours outside in the rain to purchase a game for full retail value at midnight (or later depending how far back in the line you are), when you can purchase the game at a discount, pre-install the game, and download a small patch at midnight and be playing by 12:05 all from the comfort of your own couch?
There are signs that Microsoft and Sony want to raise the price of premium console games to help recover the ever increasing costs of AAA title development, however that could become difficult given Steam’s pricing models and the situation described above.
The confirmation of the Steam box entering the console market comes at a time when OUYA has received $8.5+ million dollars in funding from their Kickstarter campaign (OUYA), and amid constant speculation that Apple is thinking of joining the console wars in one form or another.
Who will reign supreme in the next-gen console war remains to be seen, however it is shaping up to be a hell of a fight for your entertainment dollars. One in which gamers’ are poised to be the clear winners.
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Why do actors want to be singers and singers actors. Do what you do, and do it well and be content.
Additionally, steam is actually in a relatively good position to do the console addition to it's family. For instance, it'd be really cool to play Trine 2 in the living room with my friends right there or over the net.
Keep in mind this is also great for indie devs such as myself because it opens up my game's possible audience to people who don't have fully decked gaming rigs, but like owning a console in their home for family game night or what have you.
But then I need a Wii U, and I have to pay for a copy of Trine 2 that ONLY works on the Wii U, keeping in mind that the Steam version is easily installable on any computer with Steam (log in with you account, press install).
As well for price comparison of Trine 2 Director's Cut:
Steam: $24.99
Wii U (Best Buy): $59.99
Being able to play Trine 2 in front of any TV, or any computer, means I can use my TV when it's available, my computer at home if no-one is using it, someone else's computer or SteamBox, or my computer at work if it's a slow day/lunch.
I think generation plays a part too, older guys have a hard time with gamepads, while kids play with touchscreen as good as I can play with gamepad, and their kids will be playing easily with virtual reality!
It seems more like them trying to put another store front option right in your living room. It would be just as bad as Netflix trying to place yet another box in your living room that will provide the same services it already achieves from any other box / computer / console device that can use the service.
I just don't see this announcement as the second coming. I mean why would I want to pay for another box (possibility rent another box) for my living room, if all it offers is a store front for Valve and its partners? Why lock the tech to one box when you got the PC market that never has a lock down in specs and can always upgrade.
This box is not geared toward the people who already enjoy Steam on their PC, its geared toward the people who don't care to use a computer to use games. I find it hard to believe that Valve is going to get those people to play games on a computer if they don't care for it by placing a store in their living room that serves no other purpose. This sounds like the Phantom device.
It would be better they pair up with Microsoft's next Xbox and call the system Xbox Steam or XSteamBox or something. But given the news about the Windows 8 disappointment in the developer community, it seems like this is the response to that feeling of being irrelevant on PC in several years.
Comparing the current XBox digital platform to what Steam offers, XBox live is a huge downgrade. Less games, that cost more, that are less portable, for a subscription cost. Steam would have to make so many sacrifices to get their games on XBox, that they are going to end up with a service just as bad as what Microsoft offers.
If Steam releases a competitively priced console, MS's current pricing and models are going to look like garbage in comparison, and so Steam has a viable chance to taking a HUGE chunk of the console market if they do it right. If I can buy a game for 10% off, pre-release, and install to both my computer and console simultaneously so it's ready on launch day, and have cloud save files for both platforms, and know that I won't lose these games when there is a new console, and not have to pay any subscriptions, and have a massively higher amount of games (and variety of genres, production values), I'm going to take it.
The idea of a SteamBox is simply that many people either A) Have their computer not right next to their TV and so have difficulty using it for both, B)Use their computer and TV at the same time, meaning you can't play games on the tv and have someone else use the computer to work C) Don't realize that you can just buy a computer to put next to your TV without ever using a monitor, and so rely on consoles to play their games on TV. Some people do already know this and run Steam's Big Picture, but they realize that a lot of customers can be sold by doing the setup for them and selling them a 'computer as a console' pre-installed and setup to run as a set-top box, (pretty much what the consoles already are).
Good points, but I think the TV comes into play most heavily here. One of Ouya's main selling points, in the words of their CEO, is that "The TV is still the best screen for playing games on." This is the major reason to release a console box in addition to a PC platform. - the difference is in the user experience (recliner and huge screen far away vs. computer chair and smaller screen right in your face)
Relaxing in front of a large screen in a comfortable chair or couch is much more preferable.
Is one of the selling points behind the Steam Box that it will provide a specific Linux distro for developers to target?
Oh and we don't need yet another closed platform in the gaming space!
Bringing over as many titles as possible to the Steam Box is an important strategic move for Valve, so I imagine that they will investigate all possible options very thoroughly.
Also, Toby Grierson, if Valve has any sense they would avoid Transgaming's product and rather use a straight winelib-based solution. This would fall very much in line with their general manifesto of getting involved with any open source projects that could benefit Linux as a gaming platform.
Steam's Linux beta application form did ask the question "Do you use WINE for..." so it would appear as if they are looking at that.
Let's start w/ the easy one. Where is valve getting their OS? It's not cost effective to use windows on these systems, and created an OS on your own is going to require some major planning. One of the my major conserns would be API's. Every console uses it's own library of API's, and PC games tend to use the directX library which Valve would have to liscense from microsoft. I have no clue how much this liscensing costs, but I bet it ain't cheap or somebody would of done it by now. Valve could create their own API libarary but that would require reprograming every game available for the steambox. Valve has shown favor for Linux, and has a few games that work on linux, but on the otherside of the coin linux has been very anti-valve when it comes to their commericial endevors on linux.
Next lets take a look at quality control. PC games tend not to have any governing body when it comes to quality unlike consoles. Steam has done extremely well keeping a handle on quality. I don't know if this is something they're activily doing, or it's just how their market works. Still it's always a good idea to have some sort of certification process to protect your users against malicious software. Console quality tends to be the highest because they have the ability to strictly control the software on their systems. So the question is will the steam box continue steam policy or will it create a new certification based system that the other consoles use?
Hardware questions. Will valve stick w/ the mouse/keyboard pc setup, are they creating their own hardware. What will the system specs be for the valve box, and how is this all going to effect price? As people mentioned before the keyboard mouse setup isn't really fit for a living room setup, and a controller isn't fit for PC gaming. Valve might have some sort of hybrid hardware they're working on, or they could let users decide. Still I don't think anybody will be happy w/ the final outcome. If Valve is going w/ medium grade pc equiptment I can't see the thing costing less than $400 which might actually be compedtive w/ next gen systems anyway. Still I feel that a system that low range isn't going to meet PC standards very long, and then you might have an extinct system that's not easily upgradible like a pc.
Still I hope Valve figures this stuff out cause they have a lot they can bring to the market, and even if they fail they'll like make Sony, MS, and Nintendo step up their game which is a win for consoles.
I think a lot of gamers hope Valve figures out the answer to these challenges. Like you say, even if they are only partially successful it forces the rest of the industry to elevate their own game.
The idea going forward is: know what your game is worth and its production cost. Price according to that. Not a fixed price like $60, the fact is most games are not worth $60, perhaps $20,40,50,80,70,120, but not always $60. While people are notoriously poor at judging prices, they certainly know when the pricing is "off."
I backed the OUYA on Kickstarter.
I will probably get a Steam box if it can indeed mesh both PC and console gaming in a package that has all that I like about each. I can also see it replacing my desire for a PS4. I'm sort of getting tired of the "exclusivity" of the publisher, first party and back door dealings with PSN, Live, Origin, Uplay
It's all been a battle for control of a medium where we the consumers should drive the production not the other way around.
The next Box needs to focus on the best content delivery and user experience and not focus on content control and restricting users by locking them into one method of access.
I highly suspect a defense move from Valve, defense against the W8 Windows Store. they'll try to move the PC gaming away from Windows/Direct X to another OS, probably some Linux variant.
by entering the next-gen console war with a product (or platform) that can be either used as a console (plugged into the TV with controller(s) as interface) or a gaming PC (plugged into a monitor with kb/mouse as interface) they could rally a lot of game publishers around this. Even more if they provide a good engine (next-gen Source may be) and some exclusive titles (Half-Life 3 ?, Portal 3 ?, etc) to launch this.
as a dual gamer, console and PC, I'd really like to have a single platform for all my games, switching from one form to another as I feel.
Also...dare I say they could use HL3 as a launch title for the Steam Box? That would be a crafty, brilliant kind of genius.
What this says to publishers is "Your going to release a game and ignore 54+ million potential customers that play games on the PC?"
Imagine how that would go over with Microsoft and Sony!
Why stand in line for hours outside in the rain to purchase a game for full retail value at midnight (or later depending how far back in the line you are), when you can purchase the game at a discount, pre-install the game, and download a small patch at midnight and be playing by 12:05 all from the comfort of your own couch?
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Mostly for the social experience,
other than that the couch sounds better!
They will have completely missed the point of a console like experience if people are having to tweak ini files to get games to run or if the forums are filled with stuff like, "the installer won't run" and "the game crashes at the title menu" and all the stuff I see when I goto forums for the few PC games that I play and pray that I never encounter on my machine.