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Comment by Revisor | Hacker News Reader

It will be called Piston.

The demo unit of Piston features one ethernet port, 1/8" audio in/out, SPDIF optical audio, four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports (with one dedicated to keyboard input), four eSATAp ports, two Mini Display Port ports and one DisplayPort/HDMI port.

It will probably cost between $500 and $1000.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/7/3849284/piston-valve-steam-b...

Edit: for those who haven't heard of Xi3 before like me, this promotional video shows what it's about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ox90oXq8c

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I'm the exact person Valve are targeting. I've some cash to spend on games, I have a Wii and Xbox360, I'm techie enough to build a gaming rig, but too lazy to bother. I prefer keyboard + mouse to the Xbox controller. $1,000 == £1,000 by the time it hits rip off UK. This is so far out of my price range for a gaming consol it is crazy. Like I could get 3 or 4 playstations for that. Or an Apple Air. Or 3 PC laptops. I hope it's more like £250 then maybe I'd pick one up, but the way things are looking I'm now thinking of hanging onto the xbox360 and picking up an Ouya. Most interesting Indy games will probably make it onto it anyway.

I'm also confused by the form factor. Presumably, one of the reasons it's so (comparatively) expensive is that it's an extremely small device (so a lot of R&D money has gone into it with lots of custom components). But does that really add much value for a gaming console? If it's going to sit in your living room, would anyone really care if it was, say, twice as big? Or a different shape?

And for all the talk of a modular, upgradable design, it looks like you more or less have to dismantle the entire thing to swap out components. In fact, it looks harder than doing so for a regular PC.

The price point is very interesting. It's way above console prices and will probably slow down adoption. That said, it might not matter to Valve. The console manufacturers _have_ to get a certain scale quickly to be able to establish an ecosystem, so they discount the cost of the hardware. Valve doesn't have to do that, the ecosystem exists i.e. Steam, so they could afford to go a little slower which means that their supply chain will be easier to manage and they'll make money on the hardware.

the form factor comes into play here as well I think. They could even start selling these to netcafes and businesses, and just attach the box to the back of a monitor.

It's above current-gen console prices, but next-gen consoles will probably be around $600.

This article:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/7/3849284/piston-valve-steam-b...

claims that it's based on the $999 X7A, so perhaps still higher than a $600 price point.

It's mostly speculation at this point, though. Very entertaining. What's the basis for your $600 price point, btw? It would be great to see a graph of console prices to try and get close to the expected price.

Just a bit of googling:

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/14297/20130107/xbox-72...

They mention $500-$700 for the Xbox 720 and $650-$800 for the PS3. As you say, it's all speculation at this point.

> It will probably cost between $500 and $1000.

So they won't be able to subsidize the console price as Sony/Microsoft does? Because the price seems a bit on the high end for a gaming console.

Well the PS3 launch price was $600, seems reasonable to me.

They wont get me away from my $1600 gaming rig despite being a huge advocate of steam.

PS3 was $500 for the lower version, $600 was for the bigger HD. It also didn't sell well. PS3 didn't start to pick up in sales until the price started to drop, and at the time of release PS3 was incredibly powerful.

I can't imagine someone dropping $500-$1000 on this, at that point just build your own computer people!

Unless they lock down the hardware, they will not be able to subsidize it. People will install Windows or Ubuntu on it, and use it as a standard PC, if it is cheaper than equivalent PC hardware.

You are right. Other options are to subsidize it with games (i.e. you buy console for the full hardware price and get bunch of games) or lock it down. If they decide to lock it, I would greatly appreciate if they sell it as a Gaming console + home media center (with or XBMC something).

I've always expected it to be at least $500. I mean it's a PC! And you're "only" paying $500 for a "gaming PC". I think that's how you should look at it, Or like a Mac Mini, which is $600.

Also don't forget that the ecosystem might be cheaper. I mean, the consoles might be $300, but you're paying back that subsidy many times over with $60 games. On Steam games are a lot cheaper.

Plus, in case of the Xbox, you have to pay for multiplayer abilities which are free via Steam.

8x USB and 4x eSATA? That's pretty over the top. And why would one USB port be dedicated to keyboard input; I thought we'd left that stuff behind.

"I thought we'd left that stuff behind."

Keyboards, or having a USB port dedicated to one? I suspect I'm going to be using a keyboard for decades to come.

Having a USB port dedicated to a specific device.

i would have been impresses if it had a PS/2 port :)

I hope it has something to do with bypassing the USB's 6-KRO.

Maybe, but that would require a custom keyboard as well. It may have something to do with giving the keyboard inputs a higher priority.

So, 2-5 times the price of a console. I'm not sure that's going to sell to the mass market.

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