Valve is talking over....

[Taldiia]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/8/37443 ... -steam-box#

[Pestilencemage]

Its not just valve. Micro ATX motherboards and cases are popping up all over. These things get down to about the size of a CD case and pack PLENTY of power. Apart from size, there is no benifit to them really. It can actualy be a hinderance in most cases as they lack the room for discreet cards. They can still get pritty small and still support a full GPU, and that GPU is STILL going to be bisecting the mobo (and bigger then it actualy) so they are still in my opinion, missing the point. You know how everyone made fun of the I-whatever for being bigger then the I-phone and smaller the I-pad? that is the nitch filled by micro-atx. Smaller then a standard desktop, but bigger then a laptop. ANY of those options can easily be plugged into your television (the bigger, the easier) quite easily.

Valve correctly recognises that the small size really does little to bring PCs into the liveing room. Standard software must be choosen to eliminate many compatability struggles that plague game designers. This standardization would ALSO allow hardware to be more customized in placement. As "PC" is not a Company (makeing it alittle funny that crappy MAC advertiseing alwayse pitted itself agenst "PC" as if it were) but rather a combination of EVERY computer company from manufacturors like AMD, Intell, Nvidia and such; to assemblers like Dell and Alienware (neither of whom actualy MAKE computers, but rather assemble them from parts). Basicly EVERY company that does anything with computers (except for Apple) is "PC". Apple has simply excluded themselves from the rest of the world and for that trouble gains some stability with reguard to the aformentioned compatability due to them haveing few people who would bother to make hardware or software for the non-standard computers.

erm... back to the point: Noone can select the "standard" parts for a PC console because there are so many companies that make them and noone has authority over them as there is no CEO of "PC". Valve has therefor decided to step up and try to declare themselves capable of makeing that decision. The only way for them to have any chance of being taken seriously in this is to create the console themselves, otherwise they are just posting a list of parts like any bozo and only the companies that actualy make the selected parts would agree that it should be adopted as standard. Someone must take the risk... and that risk will most likely fail and fail HARD. There will be 50million other bozos that make other similur systems that are actualy BETTER in some or many ways then the VALVE system. They will therefor argue that the system THEY outlined is better and should be standard and will offer to sell them... This misses the point of being "standard" but that will not stop them from trying to eat some of the pie. Hundreds of similur systems will pop up as more people make a new "standard" and the whole point will be gone. It will just be another PC, in different wrapping paper, with less customization and capability then a full desktop PC...

Less capable/customization/repairability then a full size PC
Less Mobile/lightweight/compact then a laptop/netbook/whatever your mini-computer of choice is.

[Taldiia]

I'm all for making towers smaller but I will miss seeing them I think that putting the power of a mid tier desktop PC in your living room sounds pretty nice to me but the one thing I never liked about consoles was the control scheme. I never liked controllers and I'm very very very happy with my keyboard and mouse but I think that if valve starts to make a push into the console market it will cause Sony and Microsoft to innovate. Innovating sounds good right now seeing that consoles have been on the same tech for 7-8 years now I think it's time for a change.

[Pestilencemage]

I think the intended control system is wireless mouse/keyboard. You can alwayse use X-Box controlers with windows wireless reciever (perhapse the price will drop on those as they seem to run about $20 and be difficult to find right now) but useing a gamepad is not the prefered method for MOST games. Might see a burst in the market for portable keyboard/mouse lap tables, that would be nice.

[Taldiia]

I would actually like a wireless keyboard and mouse for that only thing that I would worry about for that is the lag between the key press and the time that the console receives the command but other than that I'm all for wireless KB/M!

[Maxloader]

Yeah i've used a wireless set once too, which had 'low latency' but still it was way too annoying.

[Pestilencemage]

Technology is improveing. I've used a wireless mouse where you dont notice any delay, but there technicly is one. You can't go cheap in that department.