Steam Console To Shake Up Next-gen

Valve may unveil its own gaming 'console' sometime this year

, according to a report by The Verge. The Valve console would be an open hardware standard that computer manufacturers could build to. It could potentially play standard PC titles and make use of competitors' distribution services, like Origin. Despite any possible 'Steam Box' (as many are referring to the device) branding, the device would essentially be a small, reasonably powered PC connected to a television that also hosts a couch-friendly controller-based interface. If true, the Steam Box would be both a surprise entry into the next-gen console race and the first viable console from a new company since Microsoft's Xbox debuted in 2001.

1UP's Ryan Winterhalter and Chris Pereira sat down today to discuss the prospects of the system and what kind of impact it could have.

Ryan Winterhalter: The lengthened console lifecycle combined with the death of the AAA PC-exclusive have ironically given the industry a PC gaming renaissance. With aging consoles to compete against, developers lack the incentives to create games that push PC hardware to the limit. Instead, they create console titles and then port them to the PC. While in the past these ports rarely turned out better than their console counterparts, modern titles like Saints Row: The Third prove that console-to-PC ports can be done right. Add the amazing explosion in the popularity of indie games and development to these console titles and the PC offers the deepest and most diverse library of titles available today.

However, a new console from Sony or Microsoft could undo this golden age overnight. A new platform would offer developers the chance to develop for advanced hardware currently only available in high-end PCs. The reason you can play almost any PC game released today on a low-end machine is because the 360 and PS3 serve as the lowest common denominator. The games must run on those platforms. Any corresponding boost to PC performance is a simply a bonus -- one that publishers and developers will abandon the second it threatens the bottom line. The new WOW Gold console generation will increase PC game hardware requirements significantly, because the new, high-end consoles become the new target platform, and any PC below their hardware level won't be able to run the PC versions of next-gen titles.

By offering an intermediate step, Valve not only helps smooth the rate at which PC gamers need to replace their hardware, but expands the PC gaming audience. That doesn't even begin to address the effects the 'Steam Box' may have on consoles, indie games, or set-top-boxes like Roku or Apple TV.

Chris Pereira: Assuming this thing does exist and manages to experience any degree of success, I think there's no doubt it will have some effect on the way console manufacturers go about things. You mentioned the popularity of indie games, an area that Microsoft has tried to capitalize on to some degree with its Xbox Live Indie Games service. Although dashboard revisions have pushed them further away from the eyes of potential customers, the Steam Box could outright kill the service. XBLIG have already been deemed commercially unviable by some, and if a TV-connected platform were to come along that allows indie developers to create games without paying licensing fees or being forced to make use of the XNA framework, I can't see there being an enormous amount of interest left in the Runescape Money

Indie Games channel.

On a similar note, other restrictions would no longer stand in the way of developers. Nintendo recently decided not to allow The Binding of Isaac on the 3DS eShop. It presumably would have done the same had the developers been looking to release the game on Wii or Wii U, and while we don't know exactly how Microsoft or Sony would have handled the situation, we do know the console manufacturers place limits on what content can appear on their platforms -- limits which PCs don't have. Based on the Steam Box's rumored support for something like Origin and Gabe Newell speaking out against the closed nature of Xbox Live and Apple's iOS, it seems like a relatively safe assumption that Valve will make this a very open platform. If it does, that would ensure people who only want to play games on their TV could do so and have access to more risqu content without resorting to using a traditional PC.

by: LISHA

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