Steam Box-Valve may be making a console

[skeliton112]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

thought this was interesting. Sorry if this has been posted alot, I did a quick search for steam box but found nothing.

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

I've been waiting for this for a while.
In fact, it could be a day 1 purchase

 

[Dandark]

This is interesting. I look forward to seeing what Valve can produce.

 

[Erana]

But does "Partners" mean "People who have to please the money people and could force the box in a bad direction"?

Still, this possibility gives me this warm, soothing feeling. I always enjoy games more when I'm playing them on a console; allowing me to enjoy the console experience with the deliciousness of Valve seems like my ideal gaming situation.

Not to mention, if the console is just now in the talkie stages, Half-Life 3 could be a launch title.

 

[luvd1]

Now this makes the intrudution of the alienware X51 more understandable. I watch with baited breath. I need a new pc as it happens, nice timing.

 

[Beryl77]

This is big stuff and highly interesting.
The controller is very modifiable and one of the three people who have filed that patent is Mike Ambinde. He's the psychologist who was hired by Valve and has been working on biofeedback in games.
An example can be seen in this video

Spoiler

And now, leveraged from the Steamforums, has looked a bit more thoroughly at the patents that Valve has made in the last year and he found this

Spoiler

[0101]Continuing next to block 411, the state of game play is modified based on such other user inputs as joystick inputs, game controller inputs, keyboard inputs, audio inputs, mouse inputs, or the like. Processing then flows to block 412, based on a result of the query to obtain a biocharacteristic of a game player, a state of the game play may be modified.

Examples of modifying a game play state includes, but are not limited to modifying a type and/or number of opponents in a game; modifying a pace or tempo of the game; increasing/decreasing a time limit for a game event; modifying a combat, puzzle, or other challenge degree of difficulty; modifying an availability of supplies, power-up items, and or other aspects of items in the game; modifying a volume and/or type of sound, music, and/or other audio feature; modifying a color, or other aspect of the game, including a background feature of the game; modifying lighting, weather effects, and/or other environmental aspects within the game; modify a dialog of various characters within the game including possibly modifying an avatar representing the game player; providing or inhibiting game hints, suggestions, modifying an appearance or function of an application, or the like.

For example, in one embodiment a user interface may be modified based on various biocharacteristics. Similarly, tutorials, instructions, or the like, may also be modified by skipping, slowing down/speeding up a rate of presentation, or the like. It should be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, that other ways of modifying a game state may be employed based on the resulting biocharacteristics from the query. Processing then continues to decision block 416, where a determination is made whether to continue game play, as described above.

Spoiler

[0133]As can be seen from the above game examples, biofeedback measures may be used in a variety of ways to modify a state of a game play. However, the variations are not limited to those described above.

For example, in variation to the above games, the biofeedback measures may be used to control an input to the game. For instance, if a large creature is hunting the game player's character, then the player might be expected to maintain or reduce their stress level to avoid alerting the creature of their positions.

In a similar game, the player might be required to demonstrate sharp physiological arousal to break out of handcuffs or other restraints or break through a locked door to escape a threat.

Spoiler

[0134]In another game scenario, little elf characters that give cookies to the user might only appear when the player is calm, and stay away if the user is not determined to be calm. A player desiring the cookies (or other reward) must achieve a state of calmness to attract the characters.

In still another game scenario, in a forest adventure, it may be sunny with lush, green trees, when the player is determined to be in a particular physiological state of arousal. As the player deviates from that state, the sky might darken, the trees may wither and/or blacken, and/or various colors, music, and/or other sounds may change. Thus, various background aspects within the game may be dynamically modified based on the biofeedback measures of the player.

Here [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2579358] is his original post.

I can't wait to see what Valve will do in the future. Maybe they won't be able to implement all this things in the way they want but it's incredible nonetheless.
Hopefully they'll show us something at GDC next week. They've often presented new Steam features there so it's possible. Of course, this year they're attending E3, so they might show something there.

 

[Nathan Crumpler]

Well, it's not like they have anything else to be working on...

 

[LilithSlave]

According to what sources? How reliable is this article?

I'm a bit too tired to read through the whole article, but I don't see any sources mentioned, just the claim "we have sources".

 

[ohnoitsabear]

According to what sources? How reliable is this article?

I'm a bit too tired to read through the whole article, but I don't see any sources mentioned, just the claim "we have sources".

Anonymous sources don't hurt the credibility of the credibility of the article at all. In fact, it is quite common to not list sources for this type of stuff because the sources could very easily loser their job and/or get sued if people know that they revealed the information.

 

[LilithSlave]

Anonymous sources don't hurt the credibility of the credibility of the article at all. In fact, it is quite common to not list sources for this type of stuff because the sources could very easily loser their job and/or get sued if people know that they revealed the information.

Very true(the part about needing to keep things anonymous). But it's also easier to doubt rumors that don't actually have sources across the bar, even if there's reason one wouldn't be able to mention them. This is why I hate discussing early rumors. It's better to wait until something is reasonably confirmed, to believe it. I would say anonymous sources always hurt the credibility of anything, even if it's necessary, and the anonymous source is true, because anonymous sources cannot be verified. It is common, it's very true that anonymous sources are common. Even from the more reputable sources out there. But that doesn't mean that it's credible or that you should ever put stock in an anonymous source. Being common doesn't justify believing in it.

Also, I don't know anything about this "verge" place, and how reliable it is.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Very true(the part about needing to keep things anonymous). But it's also easier to doubt rumors that don't actually have sources across the bar, even if there's reason one wouldn't be able to mention them. This is why I hate discussing early rumors. It's better to wait until something is reasonably confirmed, to believe it. I would say anonymous sources always hurt the credibility of anything, even if it's necessary, and the anonymous source is true, because anonymous sources cannot be verified. It is common, it's very true that anonymous sources are common. Even from the more reputable sources out there. But that doesn't mean that it's credible or that you should ever put stock in an anonymous source. Being common doesn't justify believing in it.

Also, I don't know anything about this "verge" place, and how reliable it is.

I can agree with this. I wasn't trying to say that this whole article was necessarily credible, or that this article should be believed (although I may have come off like that), just that anonymous sources are not a reason to dismiss it outright.

I do believe that this whole Steam Box thing is VERY unlikely, and I have yet to be given a reason to think otherwise. However, if multiple credible websites come out with their own rumors from their own sources (and not just basing it off of the original rumor), then I may start believing it. But for now, I am not convinced.