Alright, so apparently all of the reports coming out of CES 2013 were in some way wrong about how the Xi3 developed "Piston" is the final iteration of Valve's Steam Box. It turns out that Piston may be one of several different hardware configurations under consideration from Valve.
At CES 2013, Valve's Gabe Newell said that their presence at the show is mainly to meet with hardware manufacturers. Right now, there is no single Steam Box and that there will probably be no release of a Steam Box in 2013, at least until extensive testing has been made by Valve. Newell said that Xi3 is one of the many potential hardware vendors working with Valve and hopes that no matter what the Steam Box ends up being, that it will at least be a gaming PC designed for HDTV's and not another PlayStation or Xbox console.
Ben Krasnow, the Valve employee that initially mentioned a 2013 release of Steam Box during a speech at a German tech conference last month, now says that the company has no plans to announce anything this year. He also went on to say that "the box might be Linux-based, but it might not." Newell at CES said that they may ship Steam Box with Linux but will not keep it as a closed platform, meaning that users could install Windows on it if they so desire.
Speaking with The Verge, Gabe Newell said that internally they have Steam Box devices that are codenamed Bigfoot and Littlefoot. Littlefoot is Valve's effort to try and extend the desktop experience to the mobile space. One of their hopes is that they will be able to improve gaming input on both mobile devices and tablets.
To that end, they are also looking into biometric data to create better controllers.
So, there you have it. The Steam Box, or Steam Boxes aren't yet finalized yet. It, or they, probably won't be released in 2013. Xi3's "Piston" is just one potential Steam Box from one possible hardware vender that Valve is working with.
(via The Verge, Engadget)
At CES 2013, Valve's Gabe Newell said that their presence at the show is mainly to meet with hardware manufacturers. Right now, there is no single Steam Box and that there will probably be no release of a Steam Box in 2013, at least until extensive testing has been made by Valve. Newell said that Xi3 is one of the many potential hardware vendors working with Valve and hopes that no matter what the Steam Box ends up being, that it will at least be a gaming PC designed for HDTV's and not another PlayStation or Xbox console.
Ben Krasnow, the Valve employee that initially mentioned a 2013 release of Steam Box during a speech at a German tech conference last month, now says that the company has no plans to announce anything this year. He also went on to say that "the box might be Linux-based, but it might not." Newell at CES said that they may ship Steam Box with Linux but will not keep it as a closed platform, meaning that users could install Windows on it if they so desire.
Speaking with The Verge, Gabe Newell said that internally they have Steam Box devices that are codenamed Bigfoot and Littlefoot. Littlefoot is Valve's effort to try and extend the desktop experience to the mobile space. One of their hopes is that they will be able to improve gaming input on both mobile devices and tablets.
To that end, they are also looking into biometric data to create better controllers.
"We also think that a controller that has higher precision and lower latency is another interesting thing to have," he said. "I think you’ll see controllers coming from us that use a lot of biometric data… Biometrics on the other hand is essentially adding more communication bandwidth between the game and the person playing it, especially in ways the player isn’t necessarily conscious of. Biometrics gives us more visibility."
So, there you have it. The Steam Box, or Steam Boxes aren't yet finalized yet. It, or they, probably won't be released in 2013. Xi3's "Piston" is just one potential Steam Box from one possible hardware vender that Valve is working with.
(via The Verge, Engadget)