But that's precisely what Valve are hoping! Forget for a sec that it's Linux and just think of it like a new console. The challenge is going to be the same as any new console: trying to convince publishers to make games f0r it. Microsoft managed it. Valve is hoping that Steam has the clout to do the same.

Now the fact it is a Linux PC makes it much easier to port games to then if it were an entirely new OS. It also means there is a (small) back catalogue which might give them a leg up and help prove the concept to publishers.

I don;t know if they'll succeed but it's not a stupid idea.

I'm already doing that with my PC, without any streaming.

Like Arkose mentioned, there'd have to be something special in the Steam box why I'd want to get it instead of a generic PC. Does it offer more performance per buck (ie. a similarly specced PC will be far more expensive), or other perks? I presume it doesn't come with preloaded Windows, so if I want to play Windows games too, I presume I would have to buy Windows for it separately for big bucks? (OEM Windows that comes preloaded is considerably cheaper, I think.)

Have you read this post? Just because *you* don't have a use case for it does not mean that nobody else won't either.

Seems to me like you're not able to see the forest because you're standing too close to a tree.

Backwards compatibility ftw, I would buy one :)

You were aware that there are already PCs in other form factors other than just big towers, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_form_factor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_form_factor

It just depends how much modularity and expandability you want for your system. SteamBox doesn't change that. If before SteamBox you have only bought the biggest desktop tower PCs you can find, that has been only your choice.

You mean those playing online with their friend over the Internet ?

I never said that peoples never used split screen or weren't interested in it when they have friends visiting them, just that nowadays it is much less important and much less a selling factors than in the old days where it was the only way to play multi-players games.

Oh right, it can stream also.. But my internet is meh, no fiber where I live yet.. Just maybe around 300€ and a wide range of my games work, and a quite better setting than I already have and I just might get one.

The streaming is local only so it doesn't use bandwidth for that.

No, I meant those that go to their friends' house and have fun. You know people still do that...

You are aware that not everybody builds their own rigs, right? And even if there are pre-made systems, they are still marketed as boring "personal computers" not "steam machines".

I won't buy one, I'll make my own. You won't buy one... plenty of people might.