Is Alienware's newest rig about to become a Steam Box?
March 5th, 2012
Rumors are swirling this week (literally swirling, I tell ya!) that Valve will soon begin licensing "Steam Boxes" to hardware partners, such as Alienware, to bring the popular Steam service beyond the desktop.
"According to sources, the Valve has been working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of a 'Steam Box,'" reports The Verge. "The actual devices may be made by a variety of partners, and the software would be readily available to any company that wants to get in the game," including the new Alienware X51, the report adds, "which will be retroactively upgradable to the software."
The report follows in the wake of Valve already filing a gamepad patent to power the new set top box, not to mention Steam's already released "Big Picture" mode, which is ideal for browsing your game library during lean-back situations, like in the living room on really big TVs.
Why now? It's not necessarily to combat consoles, the Verge reports. It's to beat Apple TV to the digital gaming in the living room punch. An official announcement is expected as early as this week; no later than June during E3.
What do you think of the "news"?
Read more: PC gaming headlines
Comments
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http://eu.alienwarearena.com/groups/guild-wars-2-gold-farmers/
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and yeah it does sound like a pretty good idea, but like the first two guys said, i'd rather my alienware have windows...
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Agreed. For now, I am well nested with windows. But We'll see soon enough whether steam boxes is any good or not, then I'll make the decision whether to stick with windows or move on with Steam xD
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my time has come.
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losing activity as I'm moving away from gaming.
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I got my toes in the water @$$ in the sand not a worry in the world and a cold beer in my hand
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I imagine that it's for the same reason that so many people prefer consoles over PC: it's cheaper and simpler.... most people today are lazy and don't want to spend time to learn about or raise money for a gaming PC.
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