"A powerful micro-computer, the Piston fills the role of Valve's long-rumoured, though still elusive Steambox, by allowing users to play downloaded Steam games on their TVs. Revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it was expected that the Piston would cost between £150 and £300, offering a cheaper alternative to the big consoles and attract back would-be consumers put off by the expensive computer rigs needed to play PC games.
"But last week came the bewildering announcement that the Piston would cost $1,000. Far from offering an accessible, budget alternative to mid-range gaming computers, the Piston now seems to be on a par price-wise with the same complex set-ups that have put people off PC games for the past 15 years. It's an unexpected, sideways pricing move, though not wholly surprising says Enders analyst Heloise Thomson."
It wasn’t hard or expensive to build the Steam Box, more of a case of know-exactly-what-you-are-doin g. Purchasing wrong parts for the build can be costly or even dangerous, but it’s something that can be solved with decent research.
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Is PlayStation Neo Sony's answer to the onslaught of console like devices ushered in by Valve?
That doesn't matter - Sony can get the business model right. It's about the concept and premise behind the Steam Machines, rather than the units themselves.
The premise behind the Steam machines is to give a console-like device that uses the Steam store.
The Neo is more like Sony salivating over Apples upgrade revenues and trying to cash in on that
PS4 Neo is nothing like Iphone upgrades. That smartphone business is yearly. It's something like Xbox 360 arcade
Steam machines were licensed products with a baseline spec to run games. Not really the same thing. This is just an upgraded console more akin to a new console generation than a closed off limited PC.
Steam Machines are a special take (open source OS) on Living room PCs. And although SteamOS may not get off the ground, the latter are far from dead. I exspect Microsoft to move heavily into that direction - providing an Xbox-like experience for all Win10 PCs. Maybe dual boot into Gaming/Livingroom UI as alternative to standard Win10. (... similar to SteamOS)
That's an interesting idea. theoretically they could then get out of the hardware business and say all pcs are Xbox compatible.
Please read the article - its about the business model and the concept behind it rather than as a direct competitor.
Well the business model and concept are unsuccessful failures, as demonstrated by the sales figures.
Business model is different though, and the concept isn't really the same at all.
Business model is Valve licenses a baseline spec to hardware manufactuerers to produce a closed off PC environment(which is open source) so they can compete against one another on their own hardware, and leave the OS up to Valve(similar to Droid). Sony's business model is they will control both the hardware, the OS, and the licensing.
The concept of Steam Machines is to provide a simple model to access the steam store with the possibility to be able to do other things through the open source initiative,although it may not be officially supported, at various specs depending on hardware manufacturer. Sony's model with Neo is to have a closed off system, where they will control all content, and nothing is open.
The only similarity between the two is that the specs can vary between devices.
Thats how I have perceived the direction for Xbox since Spencer discussed it at Build earlier this year. Backward/forward compatibility and more frequent hardware releases spells it out plainly.
I actually thought MS may partner with Valve to provide steam machines as Xbox, but MS would provide the OS itself. But that was assuming they wanted to get out of the console manufacturing business, and go back into the OS provider business with consoles, since that's their main interest.
I think that premise is off base now in light of their recent Windows Store push, since I can't see how the two would mesh that well, and I can't imagine Valve would want Windows store games to run on Steam OS....or why MS would allow that.
Nope. Neo (if it is happening) is just a way for people to watch 4k movies with their PS4, and play VR with a little extra power.
I thought this was well established?
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Major videogame brick-and-mortar retailers GAME UK, GameStop, EB Games, and Valve have announced that the stores will be including special "Steam Sections" dedicated to selling Valve's upcoming hardware coming 10th November 2015. The hardware will include the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines. The sections will of course also include a variety of Steam prepaid cards, which most stores already sell.
I imagine the Vive will eventually be on the shelf? Its already into October and still no release date, preorders, or price. Valve/HTC better have a good strategy in place.
Yeah, I wonder about the Vive too. In any case, this will definitely give Valve's pc hardware more exposure, which is a good thing.
How do they keep getting 'Only at GAME' exclusive deals like the MGSV LE console? It grinds my gears that consumers lose out over retailer exclusives.
Whenever I go into my local GAME the prices are a lot higher for any game than on Amazon or other sites. How do they get sales?
Mums who don't know any better to get little billy the new FIFA or COD.
Anyhow I take it they will just half the Nintendo again. My local GAME stores have a tiny section for Wii U and a bigger section for Wii and 3DS. Then a big section for preowned games. Then the other half of the shops is for PlayStation and Xbox.
Im finding even Amazon is often more expensive than other online retailers these days.
OH HELL NO!!!
Size of a Volley Ball and almost Passively Air Cooled!
The $999.99 price tag gets you a 128GB SSD, a 3.2GHz quad-core AMD R464 processor with integrated graphics, and 8GB of DDR2 (YES DDR2) RAM.
My HTPC is more powerful than this CRAP and way cheaper.