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It seems that a Linux based Steam console will be out this year an engineer at Valve (Ben Krasnow) has confirmed!

I may be tempted to get it, would love to lazy on my sofa and play some games...that I already own and on Linux! One great thing about this is that we should get access to our existing libraries.

The main problem I can see with this is that it will of course be controller based game play, so it means we will need a lot of developers to put in game pad support.

You can pretty much guarantee it will be a mostly locked down device though using Steams new Big Picture Mode:
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According to Ben it's not the only thing they will release in 2013 hardware wise either!

As always take this with a pinch of salt, valve time and all!

Thanks to the german site: http://www.golem.de/news/pc-spielekonsole-steam-box-ohne-windows-1212-96609.html Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc
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9 comments

Wurmphlegm Jan 5, 2013
They are going to have alot of porting to do, if they choose to make this Linux based, and supply their entire library to work on this box. Unless they have some new program that runs Windows games flawlessly in Linux that we dont know about.
Daniel Harvison Jan 6, 2013
Quoting: "rioninja, post: 7507, member: 147"We can assume that all of the Source engine games will be ready for release, plus a large number of popular indie games. Besides those games though, why would they need to port old Windows games? I don't think they have to. A Steam based console would be grouped in with the next generation of console releases, and should be treated as such. Some consoles have backwards compatibility, but it's not always expected. The Xbox 360 only had backwards compatibility (through emulation) of the most popular Xbox games. The PS3 and Wii initially had backwards compatibility, but later removed it. My point I guess is that we shouldn't be expecting all of the existing library to work, if we're going to consider it as a new console. The existing games that do get ported to Linux will be icing on the cake, but I think what people really want to see are next generation games (Source Engine 2 anyone?) on any "Steam Box" we might see.


I think Valve would be very badly advised to not port at least a large portion of their existing steam games to the new device, as not doing so would stick them with a platform with little to no existing games. As they're venturing into the console world, (at least after a fashion) that's something that would strongly disadvantage them. Plus, I really want them to do that porting work, would be so good!
Xpander Jan 6, 2013
im sure they have been in talks with big publishers to get their new titles to steambox. so probably they are quite well prepared for it already atm, if it really wants to come out this year.
about the old games. i guess its just the choice of the publishers, if its worth to port them to earn extra cash, wont really hurt steambox sales imo, cuz if there are some big hits coming right on the launch day, people will buy it anyway.
Evil Bastard Jan 6, 2013
Quoting: "Wurmphlegm, post: 7506"They are going to have alot of porting to do, if they choose to make this Linux based, and supply their entire library to work on this box. Unless they have some new program that runs Windows games flawlessly in Linux that we dont know about.


Valve has been beta testing Steam on linux since late November.
Liam Dawe Jan 6, 2013
If it really wants to come this year then they will need some sort of library already there, every console does. So we should see in influx of more games up to the release of it I reckon.
Haggie Jan 6, 2013
I was laughing about some comments saying that HL3 might come to Linux first. :)
Now it seems this could actually happen. If Valve gets out a (Linux-based) Steam console, they might consider to choose HL3 as an exclusive release title. PC and other consoles may follow later.
Bumadar Jan 6, 2013
Quoting: "Xpander, post: 7510, member: 92"im sure they have been in talks with big publishers to get their new titles to steambox. so probably they are quite well prepared for it already


those big publishers:
EA: origin store
Ubisoft: rumours are they moving everything to uplay store in 2013
Activision: rumours are they moving their current store and everything else to Bnet

if the big 3 are not in on it, then 90% of the AAA titles won't be in on it
Xpander Jan 6, 2013
there are more than those. who plays EA games anyway? nothing good hasnt been coming from there lately anyway...
same with Activisions-Blizzard .. just milking the money with few franchises they own. and just tweaking little bit the graphical quality every year without bringing anything innovative to the table.

well while many gamers do play EA, Activision and ubisoft games - there are still lots more than those.
Square Enix, Capcom, Bethesda(Zenimax), 2K Games, Eidos, all kinds of Sony departments, THQ, Rockstar, Gamersfirst (K2 Network) just to name some of them
Bumadar Jan 9, 2013
[url="http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/valve-ben-krasnow-steambox"]www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/valve-ben-krasnow-steambox[/url] and now the linux steambox might or might not be.
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