Newly Detailed 'piston' Could Be The Future Steambox

[Barbarossa_5]

Xi3 has recently given limited details on the Piston computer at CES. At the moment, said details are scarce, with just a few pictures to speculated on and that it will reportedly offer 1TB of internal storage alongside modular components. It is purely speculation that this will be the future Steambox, but an investment in Xi3 by Valve certainly makes it seem more plausible. Only time will tell as to what will come of this.

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[CorruptDictator]

I have to wonder how viable the price tag of this supposed Steambox will be. The average consumer will be comparing it to the cost of a new console so it will need to be in line with that to break into the market.

 

[VintagePC]

I have to wonder how viable the price tag of this supposed Steambox will be. The average consumer will be comparing it to the cost of a new console so it will need to be in line with that to break into the market.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was sold at or slightly below cost, given the nature of Steam itself as a storefront.

Oh, and it's valve. So there's the "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" thing.

 

[CorruptDictator]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was sold at or slightly below cost, given the nature of Steam itself as a storefront.

Oh, and it's valve. So there's the "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" thing.

I question because supposedly the base unit from the xi3 company is already around $500, meaning a unit that could game would be even more expensive. Even if Valve did subsidize some of the cost it may be hard to be competitive. The "supt up and take my money" aspect appeals great to those of us who are already users of Steam, but to induct new "console generation" users who do not understand that experience takes time.

 

[Nightshde]

If they plan on selling this like a console, $500 isn't a bad price for a initial release especially with xbox releasing a new console at the end of this year. $500 is about the avg price of new consoles depending on how much future proofing they put into the system though some have charged more(PS3) and some for less(WII-U) but it usually is always around 500. Valve could always offer a few free games to go with the console besides the already free games to offset the cost.

I personally wouldn't buy it since I just built a new comp this past year with all the best tech available but I could see some people like my friends who mostly play console games and don't spend money on top of the line comps buying something like this.

 

[CorruptDictator]

Valve came out and said the Xi3 is just a possible hardware company they could theoretically go with. They have not made any hardware agreements with anyone yet and part of the reason the Xi3 is getting all this press is because they are voluntarily going to be shipping their product with Steam pre-installed.

 

[VintagePC]