Lady Lilith Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) http://www.polygon.c...r-steam-and-big Valve and Xi3 announce in-development Steam-optimized mini PC at CES Valve's oft-rumored "Steam Box" is making its first public appearance at CES 2013 thanks to a newly announced partnership with mini-PC maker Xi3. Xi3 today announced "an investment from Valve Corporation" and a "new development stage computer game system," which is being showcased at both the Xi3 and Valve booths at CES this week. The still-in-development is optimized for computer game play on large, high-definition displays. Xi3 says that the modular computer was designed specifically to support both Steam and Big Picture mode. "Today marks the beginning of a new era for Xi3," said Jason A. Sullivan, founder, president and CEO of Xi3. "This new development stage product will allow users to take full-advantage of their large high-definition TV displays for an amazing computer game experience. "As a result, this new system could provide access to thousands of gaming titles through an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand." It is unclear from the initial announcement what the specs of the product are. We have reached out to both Valve and Xi3 for comment. The device is at both the Valve and Xi3 booths at CES. This story is developing and we will provide updates when we find out more information. I wonder if it'll be cheaper to upgrade this rather than a full PC with Steam...I'd go for the console in a heartbeat if it's like, a fraction of the price. Edited January 8, 2013 by gamerm1337 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliteVega Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 My PC can barely play any games, so I would love this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreakon139 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) For the record, this is probably meant to cooincide with PC gaming... not replace it. Every time I see a thread about this it's ravaged by PC users talking about how useless it is because they would just "get games on their PC instead". As a old/new PC gamer, I'm excited for this and hope it succeeds. All it means is more people on Steam, more money for Valve and hopefully a better service and better selection of PC games all-around. If they make it affordable, and market it correctly. All that aside, I wonder how they'll fit any kind of gaming hardware in that... and better yet how it'll have access to thousands of Steam games without a Windows operating system. Edited January 8, 2013 by Dreakon139 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wandererster Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 How is this different from on-live? If this stream games from the cloud, we would be still be at the mercy of ISP providers with bandwidth cap and not everyone has fast internet speeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreakon139 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 (edited) How is this different from on-live? If this stream games from the cloud, we would be still be at the mercy of ISP providers with bandwidth cap and not everyone has fast internet speeds. I don't think it says anywhere that it's streaming games. it uses Steam. Edited January 8, 2013 by Dreakon139 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 I'm really interested in this because I don't want to spend $1k or more on a gaming PC, so the Steam Box is definitely on my radar. Parker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wandererster Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I don't think it says anywhere that it's streaming games. it uses Steam. But its small, even a laptop hdd couldn't possibly fit in it. If it uses internet connection to access your game collection from steam then it would require a high speed internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreakon139 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 (edited) But its small, even a laptop hdd couldn't possibly fit in it. If it uses internet connection to access your game collection from steam then it would require a high speed internet. Yes, but it runs games all the same. Look at Xi3's other products. They are legitimate. And no more bandwidth would be used than having Steam on your desktop PC, or downloading a few retail games from PSN. It may not be practical all over the globe, but it's far more than a service like OnLive which was doomed from the start unfortunately. If Steam has survived this long, there's no reason to think this is suddenly pushing our ISP's too hard. Edited January 10, 2013 by Dreakon139 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordfenton Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Going to wait and see how this comes out. Right now If I wanted to I can hook my PC to my TV and play it on that but still it looks like Valve is trying to change the market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw34kfr34ky Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 im very curious about what this thing will be able to do. but with that tiny size it doesnt look very promising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mio Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) Ive been thinking of building my own Gaming Pc with HDMI out for my bedroom, like a "Steam Box" But more to my fitting. I want to know how that little piece of crap can run anything more than Solitare, Would I need the Graphics Card DLC? E: I just noticed the article does not connect the picture to being a steam box at all. How Misleading. Edited February 10, 2013 by Mio-Senpai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I was really interested in this but since the announcement of the PlayStation 4 my interest has dropped to just about nil. They could still make a believer out of me but they'll have a hard time convincing me to spend my money on something other than PS4 games. Parker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kittens Are Awesome Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 But its small, even a laptop hdd couldn't possibly fit in it. If it uses internet connection to access your game collection from steam then it would require a high speed internet.I understand what you're saying. I'm sure this thing uses some type of flash storage if it doesn't use streaming. I'm sure all electronic devices are going to be switching to flash drives instead of a disk with moving parts, eventually. Least likely to fail and, with time, will hold more information with a fraction of the physical space. Just my two cents at least. By the way, anybody notice that there's a fucking DVI output on that thing? What stone-aged motherfucker thought that was worth putting in there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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