Microsoft's Phil Harrison's Thoughts on Steam Box and Shield: Hardware is a Hard

[nekromobo]

Pc is great for playing text games! Amazing fonts!
(no kidding, I still play muds and angband on my 7970 x)

Best games of few last years, to me atleast, are Dark Souls and FTL. Neither has the point of graphics while still looking quite good..

 

[takme12]

[citation][nom]chimera201[/nom]ps3 20gb was launched at 499$ and x360 core was launched at 300$.(Their actual production costs were higher)For under 500$ u can build a decent gaming pc at that time and still play games till now.console games more or less have a res of 720p(older games had lesser res) with almost no AA or AF. But u cant see that if u are sitting 10 feet away from ur TV.Consoles have exclusives for 2 reasons - one to make a selling point for the console and the other is excluding the pc platform because pcs got a big problem with piracy. But Valve has no problem with that.[/citation]

1) Doesn't matter the launch price. Valve has to compete with the current price. People aren't going to stores and buying the launch console price.

2) If you can't see something sitting 10ft away from your TV, then how is that stuff going to make any difference whether it's implemented or not?

3) Valve may have no problem with piracy, but developers may have problems selling a console game for $5 on Steam sales rather than $60 on other consoles if they consider the Steambox a console. And no, they don't have to support a console even if it is popular. (See Rockstar and Nintendo Wii).

 

[edogawa]

[citation][nom]bllue[/nom]The Piston is priced at $999. With a $999 budget you might as well build a system that outperforms the Piston. Even a smaller budget will outperform the Piston Then if you want it hooked up to your TV just buy an HDMI cable. This PC can of course be used for a multitude of other tasks as well (after it all, it is a PC).[/citation]

Exactly, but I think this is targeted at the non tech savvy group. Hardly any PC gamer will buy this, I think.

I would rather buy a HAF XB and just build a cheap AMD system for light living room gaming. It's small and would blend it with other entertainment systems.

This isn't targeted for me though, at 1000$ I think it's a stretch even for anyone when a PS4/XBox 720 will be so much more convenient.

Will probably see more in the upcoming months, for now I remain skeptical.

Steam Piston can be upgraded, has really good specs for how small it is, and just convenient. Price this at 600 and it will definitely sell.

 

[Guest]

Steam already has a huge game library with guaranteed future releases of A+ titles, and the steam sales keep the brand well known and respected. With Linux running the thing i think the Steam Box will have much more lasting power than the proprietary mess that is the corporate console market.

M$ is just scarred that console-tards will finally into modding!

 

[kinggraves]

Phil is correct. Several companies with more spending money than Valve and NVidia have failed at the console market for various reasons. It takes a lot of spending money to get a foot in the door, especially when the competition is an industry veteran like Nintendo, the (former) electronics titan Sony, and PC software monopolist Microsoft. If Valve fails with this gamble, Steam will be the one to suffer for it. He's not just betting Valve, he's betting the PC gaming sector on this.

 

[Shin-san]

Even though there's a little bit of the finger, overall this was a respectable response

 

[CaedenV]

MS knows all about the problems of bringing hardware to market...

Zune never took off
xbox never got as big as they expected
x360 was plagued with RROD for years
Surface has had lack luster sales so far
MS Brand WP8 device is likely delayed (according to rumors)
Kinnect for PC seems to be in perpetual development

And that does not even list the scores of products that they never even got to market!

But in spite of all that MS is actually pretty good with hardware. The Zune was great... but poorly marketed. The xBox was not a bad first entry into market, and the x360 is perhaps the real winner in the console wars (wii never sold games, and PS3 has only been a moderate success). Even the Surface is a great product for what it is... but it just is not something that people seem to want...

I am confident that nVidia and Valve can make great hardware... What I am not so sure about is if people want a screen that small, or want to pay for something that seems to be a PC accessory, or that they will be able to break into the retail chains to push their products. But barring those potential pitfalls, it should be pretty good all around.

 

[ojas]

"Entering the hardware business is a really tough business, and you have to have great fortitude to be in the hardware business, and you have to have deep pockets and a very strong balance sheet. It's not possible for every new hardware entrant to get to scale.

"They can be successful at small scale. But it's very rare for a new hardware entrant to get to scale, and I mean tens, hundreds of millions of units. There are a very small number of companies that can make that happen.

"And it's not just having a great brand or a great software experience. It's about having a supply chain and a distribution model and a manufacturing capacity and all the things that go with it. It's a non-trivial problem to solve and it takes thousands of people to make reality."

Sounds like what Acer was saying about the Surface... :lol:

 

[upgrade_1977]

I have a lot of my games on my steam account, so I'll probably buy 2 or 3 of these. Look at all the steam gamers, and im pretty sure valve's pockets are deep enough, and i'm pretty sure the millions of steam gamers will be interested to buy one of these so they can play there steam games on there t.v.'s or any where they want.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Shield is aimed at killing consoles/handhelds, and selling video cards. Not sure how that can fail. Anyone with a console or thinking about purchasing one and already has a PC is a potential customer for this. If my PC games can run on a TV I have no need for the next xbox/ps4. You get android games for walking around and pc games when at home (well, both can be output to tv). I don't think you can get the same gaming experience on a phone as you can with a gamepad/lcd. You just can't do the same things you can with a dpad/sticks and lost of buttons. You are and always will be limited by a phone's touch interface.

Even if they sell it at or near break even, it will hurt AMD, consoles and handhelds. Which I believe is the point. They can charge more (for decent profit) for round 2. The first should be to just cement their GPU lead (they own 67%+ of the discrete market vs. AMD ~25%) and cause fewer consoles sales which currently hold back their gpu sales. Games are made for consoles and ported to pc, thus holding back your need for a powerful gpu. If consoles are dead we get games made on PC etc, and needing more power. Hence I can sell you a needed upgrade that will actually show a difference on your pc.

I think a lot of you are missing the point of shield and how NV looks at consoles as basically the enemy of expensive gpu sales Also ~5in screens are sold for profit at ~$150 in car dvd players etc so I'm not sure why someone can't sell a gamepad with less heat/watt restrictions for a profit at even $200 or so. I men Ouya will sell for $99. A screen can't cost more than $100 or those car dvd players wouldn't exist. Ouya comes with the console and the pad for $99 AFAIK. I'd think NV could break even or make a profit at $150 for shield. Priced aggressively this could be a massive success vs. $300-500 next gen consoles. It would inspire some gpu sales also as your pc is upgradable for a long time to come. Your x720/ps4 can't be taken with you for games on the road in say, a doctors office etc. Of course on the other hand it will sell like crap if it's $400. Vita and 3DS sales are already plummeting as phones kill them off. Shield will add to the damage with PC games on TV as another reason to not buy a handheld.

If shield sells well (IE priced right) consoles will have an even tougher time from Nov+. If they were out now they'd be able to defend themselves before shield/ouya and phones get an even bigger beachhead built. But coming at xmas hurts them. Steambox is a wildcard, not sure when it will debut, but having steam as a platform should ensure some form of success. Of course Shield working with steam also helps it, as steam customers are an easy target for these too.
Here's a forbes article laying out basically what I'm saying, she's not alone as others are saying it:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/01/15/why-steambox-and-shield-may-cause-the-death-of-consoles-as-we-know-them/
The writer makes a lot of sense and I think is on the right track for what NV/Valve are doing here.