Gabe Newell: Valve will release its own console-like PC

[manux]

Within 5 minutes, I made this build on newegg:

Keep in mind that the newegg margins are already there (which are also paying for the transport/distribution), and the fact that it's a Mini-ITX takes about $50 more (board+case) than a similarly specced Micro-ATX form factor.

It's a gaming machine that would be 3/4x faster than that Xi3 at half the price.
It has less memory bandwidth for the GPU than PS4 (though it's not shared with the CPU), but it's definitely within the same class of performance as the next-gen consoles.

I do believe it's possible to build (and sell with a profit) a Mini-ITX gaming PC for $500 at a similar theoretical performance to next-gen consoles, just by going through standard reseller prices for off-the-shelf products. No crazy deals needed.

Of course, it's $500 for the box alone. Then we're missing the peripherals, the OS, all the network infrastructure and services that the other consoles will bundle out-of-the-box. Not to mention that the hardware can't be pushed as much as the consoles because of OS/API/driver inefficiencies, so it wouldn't output the same level of graphics as the next-gens.
I guess this is where SteamOS and Mantle enter the game to get the "full package" as a console competitor.


EDIT: yes, there is a 300W Silverstone PSU included with the case. Silverstone PSU are made to be taxed at the nominal wattage with the advertised efficiency. In this case it's 300W at >%80. 300W should be more than enough for the 100W CPU + 85W graphics card + everything else.

You would also need os licence, optical drive, game pad, cabling, localization work for manuals and software, nice box to put hardware in, assembly and whatnots(like reasonable blu-ray playback software)...

And then how is the insurance and durability on the newegg hardware versus consoles? It's not like those parts alone make a console unless you have similar software and UI experience as consoles have. Also to compete with XB1 or ps4 you might need to beef up the cooling to be quieter and hence more expensive. Before you notice it's 699 vs. 399 against ps4. Comparison against XB1 is even worse as where do you get kinect2 experience to pc?

 

[Cjail]

I dunno why but HL3 no longer excites me. Maybe because it's been so damn long, I dunno but I find myself not caring a whole lot about it anymore as there's tons of other good games out there anyways.

Quoted for truth.

 

[Grall]

Quoted for truth.

Yet when the game finally releases (in 2021), everyone including you guys are gonna run out to get it (well, no, since retail game stores will no longer exist by then, but you know what I mean...)

Every time I see people who go "oh, HL3 no longer excites me!", I go:

 

[Deleted member 13524]

You would also need os licence, optical drive, game pad, cabling, localization work for manuals and software, nice box to put hardware in, assembly and whatnots(like reasonable blu-ray playback software)...

And then how is the insurance and durability on the newegg hardware versus consoles? It's not like those parts alone make a console unless you have similar software and UI experience as consoles have. Also to compete with XB1 or ps4 you might need to beef up the cooling to be quieter and hence more expensive. Before you notice it's 699 vs. 399 against ps4. Comparison against XB1 is even worse as where do you get kinect2 experience to pc?

Looks like you looked at the picture in my post but then decided to TL;DR whatever was written afterwards.

Yet when the game finally releases (in 2021), everyone including you guys are gonna run out to get it (well, no, since retail game stores will no longer exist by then, but you know what I mean...)

Every time I see people who go "oh, HL3 no longer excites me!", I go:

If the game is good and gets positive reviews, then sure I'll buy it eventually. Probably in a sale or something, because of all the other great games in my to-play list.
The difference is that if the game had released in 2008-2010, I would've definitely pre-ordered it and paid full-price with no regrets.
Nowadays? Meh.. I forgot about most of the story. I think Ep.2 ended in a cliffhanger but I don't remember how and I don't really care anymore. You can only keep an audience interested in a cliffhanger for a limited amount of time and Valve surpassed that limit quite a long time ago.

 

[Grall]

I think Ep.2 ended in a cliffhanger

You THINK it ended in a cliffhanger?! Hedy the Headcrab got shot out into space in a rocket for frigs sakes!!!

but I don't remember how and I don't really care anymore.

You lie of course, but feel free to try to delude yourself into thinking that, if that's your fetish... (Emphasis mine, obviously...)

Btw, everyone who states in absolute terms, "I don't care about HL3 anymore" lies. Of course you care, it's in your blood. If you REALLY did not care, you wouldn't bother stating that you don't care.

But seriously now, yeah, they're taking way too long cooking up what's essentially just a first-person shooter. It's now taking them even longer than the HL->HL2 transition, which in of itself was pretty epic in length, so unless HL3 (I'll drop the "episode" crap here) is absolutely massive in size it's gonna be quite the letdown. Well, at least they're not up to Duke4 territory yet, but with valve time involved maybe they'll get there eventually...

 

[Cjail]

Yet when the game finally releases (in 2021), everyone including you guys are gonna run out to get it (well, no, since retail game stores will no longer exist by then, but you know what I mean...)

Every time I see people who go "oh, HL3 no longer excites me!", I go:

Actually I didn't even like Half Life 2.
Here I said it.

 

[Gubbi]

Actually I didn't even like Half Life 2.
Here I said it.

BLASPHEMER !!!

Cheers

 

[joker454]

Yet when the game finally releases (in 2021), everyone including you guys are gonna run out to get it (well, no, since retail game stores will no longer exist by then, but you know what I mean...)

Every time I see people who go "oh, HL3 no longer excites me!", I go:

Maybe that will happen, who knows But with 33 games sitting in my Steam wish list I doubt I'd buy HL3 at launch as I have so many other games still waiting to get to. Plus render engines have moved one somewhat from what Source engine is capable of. With Valve being so busy with other things I fear their engine won't stand up visually to what the competition now offers.

 

[Rangers]

You THINK it ended in a cliffhanger?! Hedy the Headcrab got shot out into space in a rocket for frigs sakes!!!


You lie of course, but feel free to try to delude yourself into thinking that, if that's your fetish... (Emphasis mine, obviously...)

Btw, everyone who states in absolute terms, "I don't care about HL3 anymore" lies. Of course you care, it's in your blood. If you REALLY did not care, you wouldn't bother stating that you don't care.

But seriously now, yeah, they're taking way too long cooking up what's essentially just a first-person shooter. It's now taking them even longer than the HL->HL2 transition, which in of itself was pretty epic in length, so unless HL3 (I'll drop the "episode" crap here) is absolutely massive in size it's gonna be quite the letdown. Well, at least they're not up to Duke4 territory yet, but with valve time involved maybe they'll get there eventually...

It's funny, and kind of gratifying to me as some kind of closet Valve hater, that no matter what Valve does (now with Steam, etc), at the end of the day and all their grand plans, people might as well say to them "that's cool, now shutup and give us Half Life 3"

It must suck to know that people dont really care about all your other great ideas

I also laugh at just how spectacularly wrong Valve was back in the day pushing the whole "episodic gaming is the future" thing. Boy could they have been any more wrong, as I predicted. Didn't help that it takes them years to do anything, so yeah good luck with pushing out episodes in a timely manner.

I saw in a later interview they just played it off as "we weren't wrong, DLC is just what episodic gaming is called now!"

Actually I didn't even like Half Life 2.
Here I said it.

Me either. Overrated at best.

 

[Rodéric]

I finished HL² at least 8 times, I also played each episode at least 4 times each, and I'm looking forward to HL3
That said I'm in no hurry I barely play anymore and I prefer couch coop over anything else now.

But we are getting off tracks...

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I will take notice of Half Life 3 only if they have Source 2 to launch with it. Otherwise, it isn' the juggernaut it used to be. Just like Doom and Quake and Unreal, the charisma isn't as huge anymore. Newer games have come in and taken the pedestals.

Newer versions of these games will excite only if they bring with them new head dropping visuals , just like they did back then.

Spoiler

(Except for Doom 4, i am excited for that as long as it dark and has lotsof realtime shadows ! )

 

[joker454]

I will take notice of Half Life 3 only if they have Source 2 to launch with it. Otherwise, it isn' the juggernaut it used to be. Just like Doom and Quake and Unreal, the charisma isn't as huge anymore. Newer games have come in and taken the pedestals.

I kinda feel the same way, new games like Borderlands, etc have taken the pedestals for me.

 

[milk]

I will take notice of Half Life 3 only if they have Source 2 to launch with it. Otherwise, it isn' the juggernaut it used to be. Just like Doom and Quake and Unreal, the charisma isn't as huge anymore. Newer games have come in and taken the pedestals.

Well, I guess everybody is exited about a potential HL3 because they expect exactly no less than that. I also think Valve is taking so long to even talk about it for the same reasons.

 

[wco81]

Some hefty specs Valve announced for their reference boxes.

 

[Malo]

Some hefty specs Valve announced for their reference boxes.

Well it's a range of specs from i7+titan down to i3+660. I'm not sure anyone would want to have decent gaming across a whole range of titles on anything less than that minimum.

 

[liolio]

Reading the specs for their high end prototype I instantly lost interest in their adventure.
For that kind of specs I see no point in passing on windows.
I firmly believe their timing is off, they should have waited till competitive APU hit the streets, as it is it won't have any advantage against Windows, only disadvantages (minus Windows price).
I'm highly underwhelmed, there is nothing visionary to it and I do get why Valve did not do much noise about the unveiling, it is pretty much a Linux PC.

Now I wait to hear about what Google is cooking (whatever it is) I could be underwhelmed too...
I hope though that somebody with healthy financial means enter the living room.

 

[Blazkowicz]

They could have waited for Steamroller APUs. Then wait for great linux drivers. Then they're late and release a product long after the consoles, slower than the consoles, priced the same as consoles.
The way it is, timing and performance are right at least.

 

[Ike Turner]

They could have waited for Steamroller APUs. Then wait for great linux drivers. Then they're late and release a product long after the consoles, slower than the consoles, priced the same as consoles.
The way it is, timing and performance are right at least.

But price is not. A Titan alone is north $900 alone. So what's exactly the point of this whole adventure besides Newell's hate if Windows 8 and fear of loosing money ?

 

[ninelven]

You don't need a Titan for PS4/X1 quality graphics at 1080p. The 760 version would be sufficient, and it currently retails for $250. These are also prototype systems and probably forward looking to 20nm.

 

[liolio]

They could have waited for Steamroller APUs. Then wait for great linux drivers. Then they're late and release a product long after the consoles, slower than the consoles, priced the same as consoles.
The way it is, timing and performance are right at least.

Well they are not under pressure to do something imo, for all Newell's complain about Windows8 the gaming PC market is still pretty healthy.
I don't think that Kaveri is enough either, there is no appropriate off the shelves hardware shipping.
Now it is just a PC running Linux, with possibly drivers sub part compared to Windows and lots of questions, which support from editors, when Mantle will get port, etc.

If it works and have sane traction it could get interesting 2 years from now but I doubt it, now I feel like either MSFT (if xb1 doesn't do well and PC continue to suffer) or Google are more likely to "re-invent" PC/Desktop market with gaming as central functionality.
Side note about a hypothetical renewed PC market, you need competition there is no longer enough competition in the X86 world so I bellieve that it may be build around ARM and its many actors.