Summary to understand what is the next generation stationary game machine "Steam Box"

A popular game platform for core game enthusiasts (gamers) "Steam"Has delivered games on the Internet until now, but finally only steam game machine"Steam BoxWe announced and we decided to enter the stationary game machine market.

We play with the Steam Machine, Valve's game console of the future | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/4/5063760/we-try-the-steam-machine-valves-video-game-console-of-the-future

This is the hard body of "Steam Box". The size is 12 inches (about 30.5 cm) wide × 2.9 inches tall (about 7.4 cm).




Steam Box has a unique controller with two touch pads.




Actually, how to play games with Steam Box is from this movie.

Steam Controller Demonstration - YouTube


Steam Box is an American game development company that operates steam "Valve Corporation (Valve)"Was developed by. Valve company is finally starting to enter the consumer game machine market by Steam Box. It is an idea to appeal the steam platform's appeal not only to the steam user of 65 million people worldwide, but also to the lightest layer.

◆ Hardware
The structure of the hardware of Steam Box is not a part specially designed but a combination of commercially available PC parts and there is nothing to mention. However, although the aluminum cabinet which can mount a huge graphic board is somewhat larger than the stationary game machine such as the Xbox 360, thanks to the use of general-purpose parts, development with an extremely short time was realized Thing.


This is a picture of the interior of Steam Box taken from the back. Nvidia made "GeForce GTX Titan"The huge full-size graphic board (GPU) can also be loaded with a layout.


◆ Controller
The most distinctive feature of Steam Box is the dedicated controller "Steam Controller". Until now, Steam has created games on the assumption of a mouse or keyboard as a game input device that requires more precise operation. However, Valve believes that it is necessary to develop new controllers that can withstand use in home game machines and eventually in future virtual game machines and has reached a unique style Steam Controller with two touchpads .

This is a prototype of Steam Controller.


The development team was aware of the good operability of the trackball which was fading out in the world of PC games and aimed to reproduce the feeling like a trackball. From the earliest stage, I was convinced that the touchpad device was the best for realizing the command input that changed to the 104 keys of the keyboard.

As a result of incorporating the demands of these development teams, the finally completed Steam Controller adopts two touch pads shaped like a mortar-shaped indentation, also equipped with a gyrosensor,Solenoid actuatorIt is realizing feedback of feeling by loading it.



By the way, prototypes of many controllers were created at the development stage.


Also, the prototype was a wired type with a USB cable and four buttons were arranged in the center, but the commercial version of Steam Controller will be a wireless controller and will have a touch screen in the center as well. In addition, Steam Controller is considered for use with other game machines, and it is scheduled to be released as a single unit.


Steam Box will be released in mid 2014, and smaller sizeOEMSales of models are also planned. In addition, Valve is planning to release the API for game developers soon, and various game titles are expected to be released. "PS4"Or"Xbox One"With the advent of Steam Box that is likely to be a powerful rival of the next generation game machine a hegemonic fight seems to heat up more and more.