Valve to release its own 'tightly controlled' console-like PC for the living room

[Arthur]

It's official! Valve are indeed working on their own console.

 

Source: The Verge

 

Valve will release its own console-like PC for the living room

Valve has stayed mostly quiet about its plans to enter the hardware business, but in an interview with Kotaku at last night's Video Game Awards, Gabe Newell confirmed the company's plans to sell its own living room PC that could compete with next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The biggest revelation is that Valve seems set to release its own complete hardware and software solution. When we first reported that the company was working on a "Steam Box" back in March, it appeared that Valve was working on a prototype that would establish a baseline for hardware manufacturers, but it wasn't clear if the company would sell its own product or simply release the designs to others. Newell's comments to Kotaku provide a much clearer picture of what's happening; Newell said that he expects companies to start selling PCs designed for the living room next year — which Kotaku says could have Steam preloaded — and that Valve will create its own distinct package.

 

Newell suggests that the company will create its own carefully managed PC ecosystem that's distinct from the one offered by other hardware partners — a possibility that our own Sean Hollister exposed after looking at the company's comments and actions in recent years, including its aversion to Windows 8, its recent embrace of Linux, and its existing push into the living room with Steam's Big Picture Mode. Newell tells Kotaku that "our hardware will be a very controlled environment," and that some people will want a "turnkey" solution for their living room. "The nice thing about a PC is a lot of different people can try out different solutions," he said. "Customers can find the ones that work best for them."

 

As a digital distribution platform, Steam is wildly successful, with more than five million concurrent users on any given day and over 50 million users in total (by comparison, Xbox Live has more than 40 million users). But Valve doesn't reap any income from the sale of hardware that runs its platform or the software it hosts, and the company doesn't control Windows, which is the most popular platform among computers running Steam.

 

Newell stopped short of saying that the company was building a Linux-based Steam OS, but he reportedly said that the next step for the company's living room operation is to enable Big Picture on Steam for Linux. From there, the timeline is still pretty murky — we only know that Newell expects some hardware to show up sometime next year — but Valve's intent to compete in the living room in a big way is no longer a secret.

[CAM]

That explains the Linux push. I just hope they don't do a Google and end up making their own branch of Linux then isolating it from the rest of the community.

[CyberNerd]

That explains the Linux push. I just hope they don't do a Google and end up making their own branch of Linux then isolating it from the rest of the community.

 

How have Google done this? The source code for both Android and Chromeos are freely available to developers under open source licenses.

 

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

http://source.android.com/source/licenses.html

[oxide54]

not sure what the current situation is but this is what he is refering to:

 

linux kernel monkey log

[CyberNerd]

not sure what the current situation is

 

The source for android is here

http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html

 

Android is just like any other Linux distribution. You're free to modify it, copy it and hack it all you want.

[Steve21]

The source for android is here

Downloading the Source Tree | Android Open Source

 

Android is just like any other Linux distribution. You're free to modify it, copy it and hack it all you want.

 

Nope They changed it recently to try to stop it becoming so spread out. As there's so many versions of it now.

 

3.4 You agree that you will not take any actions that may cause or result in the fragmentation of Android, including but not limited to distributing, participating in the creation of, or promoting in any way a software development kit derived from the SDK.

 

Terms and Conditions | Android Developers

 

Steve

[Arthur]

Android is just like any other Linux distribution. You're free to modify it, copy it and hack it all you want.

...but you can't download the source for the next release (Android 5.0) or any of Google's own apps!

 

Other Linux distros are developed in the open and you can almost always get the source to the next version while people are actively working on it. e.g. Ubuntu 13.04.

[Arthur]

They changed it recently to try to stop it becoming so spread out. As there's so many versions of it now.

I think the main reason Google changed the T&C's was to stop Aliyun.

[CyberNerd]

Nope They changed it recently to try to stop it becoming so spread out. As there's so many versions of it now.

 

3.4 You agree that you will not take any actions that may cause or result in the fragmentation of Android, including but not limited to distributing, participating in the creation of, or promoting in any way a software development kit derived from the SDK.

 

Terms and Conditions | Android Developers

 

Steve

 

 

That's the T+Cs for the SDK. Android is published under Apache and GPL licenses.

 

...but you can't download the source for the next release (Android 5.0) or any of Google's own apps!

 

Other Linux distros are developed in the open and you can almost always get the source to the next version while people are actively working on it. e.g. Ubuntu 13.04.

 

There's loads of Linux apps that are closed source. And I can't download RHEL 7 or the next version of Oracle yet.... I don't really see the difference.

[Steve21]

That's the T+Cs for the SDK. Android is published under Apache and GPL licenses.

 

Doesn't that include pretty much everything?

referred to in this License Agreement as the "SDK" and specifically including the Android system files, packaged APIs, and Google APIs add-ons

 

Not sure what you're left with without any system files, APis or addons? If you want any apps to work on the end platform surely you need to use those APIs etc?

 

*Edit - Bearing in the mind the SDK change is from 4.2 as well, from how I understand it it's changing the whole license to Android from then. Past ones obviously not

 

Steve

Edited December 9, 2012 by Steve21

[CyberNerd]

Doesn't that include pretty much everything?

referred to in this License Agreement as the "SDK" and specifically including the Android system files, packaged APIs, and Google APIs add-ons

 

Not sure what you're left with without any system files, APis or addons? If you want any apps to work on the end platform surely you need to use those APIs etc?

 

*Edit - Bearing in the mind the SDK change is from 4.2 as well, from how I understand it it's changing the whole license to Android from then. Past ones obviously not

 

Steve

 

So the SDK is used for developing applications that run on Android. It includes emulators and such like. The Operating system is licensed under Apache 2.0 and GPL. The license can't be changed. You can download the source code for 4.2 using repo (written by google and published as OSS) here: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest

[Arthur]

Does "mkdir android; cd android; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git; repo sync; make" still work?

[CyberNerd]

instructions are here:

 

Downloading the Source Tree | Android Open Source

Building the System | Android Open Source

[Arthur]

Thanks CyberNerd!

 

Back on topic, nVidia claims that PC games will outsell console games by 2014, so Valve's new console does make sense. I wonder how much it will cost?

 

http://i.imgur.com/Aex77.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/RQqx4.png

[Steve21]

Thanks CyberNerd!

 

Back on topic, nVidia claims that PC games will outsell console games by 2014, so Valve's new console does make sense. I wonder how much it will cost?

 

I'm guessing it's more a don't make money, but keep people using steam kind of move. With the large influx of living room devices from consoles, to smart TVs etc, combined with every company bringing out their own "steam platform" and some like EA limiting games to their own platform, there seems little reason to use steam to buy nowadays.

 

I used to use steam a lot as it was an all-in-one place, that gave downloads that most companies didn't. Nowadays you can find lots of places that download their games, and to be honest steam annoys me with the amount of updates etc every week.

 

Steve

[Arthur]

I'm guessing it's more a don't make money, but keep people using Steam kind of move.

It looks like you may be right (assuming this is true of course).

 

Valve announces Half-Life 3 exclusively for Linux

If anyone had any doubt about the commitment of valve for Linux, here is the answer, a warning to Microsoft and its latest Windows 8. The company has announced the exclusive launch of Half-Life 3 for Linux.

 

This was announced during the Ubuntu Developer Summit by Drew Bliss, an employee of the company, later confirmed by Gabe Newell, head of Valve, who consolidates the position which I already had announced a few months ago, Valve commitment Linux expense of Windows 8. (Source)

[CyberNerd]

I think the best thing they could do is release a Valve distro - and use that as the basis for any console they release.

The community input of the distro would aid the development of the console.

[Rawns]

I reckon that its true, and Half-Life 3 will be Valves flagship game release on the new Linux powered PC/console. Will be interesting times ahead!

[localzuk]

I'm guessing it's more a don't make money, but keep people using steam kind of move. With the large influx of living room devices from consoles, to smart TVs etc, combined with every company bringing out their own "steam platform" and some like EA limiting games to their own platform, there seems little reason to use steam to buy nowadays.

 

I used to use steam a lot as it was an all-in-one place, that gave downloads that most companies didn't. Nowadays you can find lots of places that download their games, and to be honest steam annoys me with the amount of updates etc every week.

 

Steve

 

Huh? Keeping games up to date annoys you? That makes no sense.

[featured_spectre]

Steam updates can be done silently...just like chrome Edited December 11, 2012 by featured_spectre

[Steve21]

Huh? Keeping games up to date annoys you? That makes no sense.

 

Steam != Games

 

Been using steam since 1.6 days and even after 90000000000000000000 updates still seems to want more, even though the basic steam platform worked fine years ago

 

Steve

[localzuk]

Steam != Games

 

Been using steam since 1.6 days and even after 90000000000000000000 updates still seems to want more, even though the basic steam platform worked fine years ago

 

Steve

 

Sorry, still not getting it. So steam fix bugs in their platform, and introduce new features such as the Workshop in order to make life easier for the modding community, and you complain? You'd not get on well on Linux then... I'm running Linux Mint on my laptop at home, and there are updates daily.

[tmcd35]

I haven't kept up with PC gaming for years, I prefer the big screen and a good old fashioned sixaxis, but that's just me. This could be interesting though. Waiting to hear what MS and Sony have planned for their next releases, I'd like to see how this stacks up with them. How well have Valve got Windows games running under Linux now? I assume they are using Wine to make it all work? If they can get a good catalogue of games to run on Linux, with a gamepad and get developers interested in Linux native code then I'd be very interested.

 

For me I think Gaikai and PS+ might just give the PS4 an edge though...

[Steve21]

Sorry, still not getting it. So steam fix bugs in their platform, and introduce new features such as the Workshop in order to make life easier for the modding community, and you complain? You'd not get on well on Linux then... I'm running Linux Mint on my laptop at home, and there are updates daily.

 

But most of their "bug fixes" aren't bug fixes, it's rubbish like hats etc. Not to mention workshop etc was only released this year... I'm not talking about features you find today, I'm talking about Steam. It's life, pre Chrome etc to quote Neph Steam goes back years, and years.

 

And I run Linux fine, It doesn't force updates on you, It doesn't make you have stupid hats etc etc, Doesn't deny logins until it does updates etc etc Nothing at all like Steam

 

Steve

[localzuk]

I haven't kept up with PC gaming for years, I prefer the big screen and a good old fashioned sixaxis, but that's just me. This could be interesting though. Waiting to hear what MS and Sony have planned for their next releases, I'd like to see how this stacks up with them. How well have Valve got Windows games running under Linux now? I assume they are using Wine to make it all work? If they can get a good catalogue of games to run on Linux, with a gamepad and get developers interested in Linux native code then I'd be very interested.

 

For me I think Gaikai and PS+ might just give the PS4 an edge though...

 

You're kinda the polar opposite of me, lol. I don't keep up with consoles - preferring the keyboard and complexity of PC games.

 

But most of their "bug fixes" aren't bug fixes, it's rubbish like hats etc. Not to mention workshop etc was only released this year... I'm not talking about features you find today, I'm talking about Steam. It's life, pre Chrome etc to quote Neph Steam goes back years, and years.

 

And I run Linux fine, It doesn't force updates on you, It doesn't make you have stupid hats etc etc, Doesn't deny logins until it does updates etc etc Nothing at all like Steam

 

Steve

 

Hats? You're talking about TF2 which is a game, not the platform as far as I can tell, which still updates pretty regularly. You're talking about something that doesn't exist now then - why talk about something that you don't use now? I get updates on the actual Steam platform about once or so a month. Nothing heavy. I just don't understand your complaint about a platform that was growing and updating, and way back when you're talking about it, stablising itself and adding things (steamworks, the overlay, improving the update mechanism for games, etc...).

 

Steam doesn't force updates on you either. It informs you an update is ready and you can ignore it and carry on if you want. I've been using it for at least 5 years now and not once has a login been denied due to a lack of update.