Piston Maker Takes A Shot At Valve

[Karloff]

Piston Maker Takes A Shot At Valve

The $1,000 minimum Piston could be seen as more than a Steam box, Xi3 CEO Jason A. Sullivan claims.

Xi3's Piston - the box that will cost you $1,000 minimum to acquire [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122605-Update-Xi3-Opens-Piston-Steam-Box-Pre-Orders] - is not a Steam box, and Valve's Doug Lombardi has said as much, and more. Lombardi said, after the Xi3 preorder announcement, that Valve had worked with Piston's maker, but it wasn't working with them now, and had no official ties to the Piston. Quite right, Xi3 CEO Jason A. Sullivan responds; in fact, his Piston could be perceived as "something more than just a Steam Box."

After all, Sullivan points out, his Piston will still be able to access Steam - Linux edition or Microsoft - and other internet-based gaming platforms. "Which is more than what Valve apparently has planned for its official Steam Box," says Sullivan, going on to add that, "contrary to Gabe's vision," burnt at the stake [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118517-Steam-and-Linux-Are-Now-an-Item], so there may be some philosophical differences between Newell and Sullivan.

Sullivan rounded off his statement with a slightly hopeful remark, that just because he wasn't working with Valve right now didn't mean he would never work with Valve in the future. He then capped it with "what Valve does or doesn't do with its Steam Box will be up to them. So Gabe, it's up to you. The ball is in your court."


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[Kazedarkwind]

"This system will beat out that crappy Steam box...but i still want to work with Valve <3, BUT THE NEXT MOVE IS YOURS VALVE"

um...this guy kinda reads like he has multiple personality disorder

 

[Smooth Operator]

Wow shit on either side isn't even out yet and the flames got started... not sure Piston guys should be all too cocky as their stuff is really quite badly priced and I can't see them making the big bucks with it.

But it does raise questions as to what they know about Steam Box.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't think anyone would have paid attention to the Piston if it weren't for all of the speculation about Valve's involvement. This guy sounds like a bit of a prat who can't decide if he wants to piss on Gabe's cereal or peel his grapes.

 

[JenSeven]

Can someone please explain to me why I would want to buy this thing?
I can currently hook up my home PC to the TV with an HDMI cable and play Steam games on my TV.
And my home PC is a LOT more powerful than that box, has a much bigger Hard disk, and I can easily upgrade the hardware.

So can anyone give me a reason why I would buy that thing?

 

[EvilRoy]

I can't blame him for his words. Once valve said "we didn't really have anything to do with it" people just came back with "but its pretty much going to be the same thing right?" So of course the dude is going to want to distance his product from theirs. The last thing a new consol needs is brand confusion with another product that doesn't even exist yet.

 

[Fayathon]

I've used Win8 long enough to install Ubuntu over it, and honestly I won't buy anything that natively runs Win8 unless I intend on running a different OS, so this guy is not making a good case for his overpriced little box to me. That said I do custom builds so consoles in and of themselves are becoming a whole lot less attractive to me anyways.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Can someone please explain to me why I would want to buy this thing?
I can currently hook up my home PC to the TV with an HDMI cable and play Steam games on my TV.
And my home PC is a LOT more powerful than that box, has a much bigger Hard disk, and I can easily upgrade the hardware.

So can anyone give me a reason why I would buy that thing?

Its size and its apparent power consumption.

Yeah, there is absolutely on reason for you or anyone else to even think about getting one.

 

[gigastar]

Can someone please explain to me why I would want to buy this thing?
I can currently hook up my home PC to the TV with an HDMI cable and play Steam games on my TV.
And my home PC is a LOT more powerful than that box, has a much bigger Hard disk, and I can easily upgrade the hardware.

So can anyone give me a reason why I would buy that thing?

It comes to mind that after the specs for this Piston were revealed, TotalBiscuit reccomended people to just buy a PS4 instead.

Thats how bad the Pistons specs are for its price.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Get me some popcorn I have a feeling this train is only just starting to wreck.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The Piston will fail cos of the price, its way to expensive for what it is and for what it does. If it was the same price or cheaper then it would find a market as a second console. But at $1000, i have no idea who would buy this.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

No source link? Where's the full statement?

 

[J Tyran]

I already have this [http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/miniitxcases/vm70001w2z.html] besides my TV with my own self build. It cost a fraction of the piston box, its connected by a wired network to NAS for content and if I cared to I could play games at XBox quality (720p and 30FPS etc) on it. Why would anyone buy his box? Its easy to build something like that and if you pour some £$£ into the build you could probably get higher end PC performance from it.

If someone could finally build really reliable extra long HDMI cables or wireless HDMI for a decent price I would connect my main gaming machine to my home theater.

 

[Symbio Joe]

So the main difference is the Piston is an object its retailer wants ridiculous amounts of money for, while Steam's Steam Box is an object with which ridiculous amounts of money will be made.

 

[Fursnake]

The pistons are getting all hot and bothered, open the valve open the valve! Let off some steam!

 

[JenSeven]

So the main difference is the Piston is an object its retailer wants ridiculous amounts of money for, while Steam's Steam Box is an object with which ridiculous amounts of money will be made.

And strangely enough, both will do exactly the same thing an ordinary PC with an HDMI out will also do.

 

[Prosis]

The pistons are getting all hot and bothered, open the valve open the valve! Let off some steam!

This thread has been won.




Back on topic: Ok, so it can do more than a SteamBox. That's great!

...So, what else can it do? $1000 will get you a PC capable of playing most PC games, plus all the useability/function of a PC. If they wants it to be more than just a SteamBox, they'll have to show how it is better than a PC of the same price.