Speaker 1: Get in test with technology with text stuff from dot com. Heyl, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm
Speaker 1: Lauren and Lauren, you pulled an interesting quote that I'm
Speaker 1: going to read out at the top of this episode
Speaker 1: before we really get into the topic. This is a
Speaker 1: quote from a fellow named Greg Komer who said, there's
Speaker 1: a strong desire from our customers that we've heard for
Speaker 1: a long time. They love all those game titles, but
Speaker 1: they also like their families, and whenever they had to
Speaker 1: go into the living room, they've had to abandon everything
Speaker 1: they loved about the games in the other room of
Speaker 1: the house. So here's a problem, right, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you erode serious video gamer, particularly if you're a serious
Speaker 1: PC gamer and you love those games, but you also
Speaker 1: want to you know, not strange yourself from your family.
Speaker 1: Occasionally you have to move away from the gaming computer.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to stay end up from your from
Speaker 1: your game chair, leave all of your you know, cans
Speaker 1: of mellow yellow behind. Yeah, and your your your Frito's
Speaker 1: and Derrito's and other salty snacks. Okay, we are officially
Speaker 1: talking down to the statement of the population. This is
Speaker 1: me actually talking about myself. I don't mean to suggest
Speaker 1: that there is a stereotype. I'm just saying that if
Speaker 1: there is, I fit it at any rate. Now, what
Speaker 1: if you could solve this problem? What if you were
Speaker 1: able to bring the joy of the video games, of
Speaker 1: PC games, specifically into the realm of the living room
Speaker 1: with the rest of your family. That, in fact, is
Speaker 1: the promise that we hope the steam box will deliver upon,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what they're hoping. But that is
Speaker 1: certainly what they're hoping. So we're talking about steam boxes, y'all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is Valve's entire crazy idea, or maybe
Speaker 1: not so crazy idea. We will find out soon because
Speaker 1: the first ones are debuting this year. Will definitely talk
Speaker 1: about some of the perceived pros and perceived cons. But
Speaker 1: before we get into all of that, it probably would
Speaker 1: help us to give a quick rundown on what Valve is,
Speaker 1: who they are, why are they a big deal, and
Speaker 1: why they're trying to produce this living room console for
Speaker 1: PC gamers. Yeah, so let's let's first of all, obviously
Speaker 1: this is gonna be another video game episode, so everyone
Speaker 1: who hates video games stick with it, because This is
Speaker 1: actually kind of interesting from an industry point of view, right,
Speaker 1: this is talking about trying to create a new market.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Valve. For those of you who
Speaker 1: are not into computer games, you may not know that
Speaker 1: much about Valve. You might have played a few of
Speaker 1: their titles because some of the titles have been ported
Speaker 1: two consoles, things like Left or Dead and you know,
Speaker 1: even the Half Life games. Obviously kind of portal, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a little game called Portals Still Alive. Uh So in
Speaker 1: nine six, that's when Gabe Newell and uh and and
Speaker 1: Mike Harrington both had left the company they had worked
Speaker 1: for for several years, Microsoft. Both of them had made
Speaker 1: boot Cous of Cash. They were very successful at Microsoft. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: uh And so they left Microsoft and they launched a
Speaker 1: gaming company called Valve l l c. That was right
Speaker 1: there in Bellevue, Washington, just a few miles away from
Speaker 1: the headquarters of Microsoft. And their first title they started
Speaker 1: to develop was Half Life. They collaborated with another former
Speaker 1: Microsoft employee named Michael Abrash who was working at ID Software,
Speaker 1: and so he helped Harrington the Newell get a license
Speaker 1: for a little thing called the Quake Engine to act
Speaker 1: as the physics engine for Half Life kind of the
Speaker 1: backbone exactly. So that gave them a big leg up, right,
Speaker 1: you know, they had this licensing agreement so they didn't
Speaker 1: have to build their own physics engine from the ground
Speaker 1: up for this. Half Life would launch two years later,
Speaker 1: and in fact the publisher was Sierra Online because Valve
Speaker 1: was not a publisher at this point. They were a developer.
Speaker 1: And so the game, um, you probably have heard of it,
Speaker 1: Half Life turned out to be a huge hit. They
Speaker 1: also in acquired a company called TF Software p t Y,
Speaker 1: which was a company that had developed a mod for
Speaker 1: the Quake engine called Team Fortress. This would come in
Speaker 1: handy later on. Team Fortress also another big title that
Speaker 1: a lot of gamers are are fond of. I've watched gameplay.
Speaker 1: That game moves faster than I can think, so I've
Speaker 1: never actually sat down for it. So another thing that
Speaker 1: made Valve really important really early on. You know the title. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the title resonates with the gamer community. But beyond that,
Speaker 1: Valve actually opens up a software developer kit for free
Speaker 1: that people can download, which would allow them to create
Speaker 1: their own mods of Half Life. So they're they're trying
Speaker 1: to create a community of players that are not just
Speaker 1: players but creators. And that was that was really innovative
Speaker 1: for the time. Not that many video game companies were
Speaker 1: willing to do that with their code, and especially not big,
Speaker 1: big titles. Right. You could see it in things like Doom,
Speaker 1: Like there were Doom mods out there, and there were
Speaker 1: some mods that were completely unauthorized mods that came out.
Speaker 1: But this was a company saying, you know, please, we
Speaker 1: want to see what you're gonna do. Ye make stuff
Speaker 1: and uh and people did. In fact, you started to
Speaker 1: see some pretty incredible ones, including one that would become
Speaker 1: an insanely popular game in its own right, counter Strike.
Speaker 1: Um So. In two thousand, Harrington left Valve, so Newell
Speaker 1: was left behind to be kind of the head and
Speaker 1: ahead of the company and as well as you know,
Speaker 1: very public facing figure. Right. He's somewhat controversial. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: likes he likes saying things a lot, and and and
Speaker 1: frequently they're very energizing, wonderful things, and sometimes they're very
Speaker 1: inflammatory there. They can be a little brassy, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not he's not necessarily one of those who speaks
Speaker 1: in a corporate uh speak. You know, he's very plain spoken.
Speaker 1: Two thousand two at the Game Developer Conference that's g
Speaker 1: d cum big big event for video games, Valve unveiled Steam,
Speaker 1: which obviously is going to be very important in this
Speaker 1: in this episode to talk about steam boxes. The Steam
Speaker 1: it was really as an online digital platform. It was
Speaker 1: meant as a digital distribution platform originally mostly for things
Speaker 1: like putting out game patches and updates. Right, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a full store to begin with. These days it's a
Speaker 1: it's a store. But then it was really just to
Speaker 1: have a smoother interface for forgetting those important little bits
Speaker 1: of update to games that people were playing. Right, So
Speaker 1: if a game goes out and there is something to
Speaker 1: address either a vulnerability or a glitch, it made it
Speaker 1: easier for players to get that. Well, hypothetically, it didn't
Speaker 1: actually work that way for several years where there were
Speaker 1: there were a lot of problems upon launch um there
Speaker 1: was a rip server overload most of the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that. That meant that the entire service was
Speaker 1: somewhat unsteady. It could crash at a moment's notice. But
Speaker 1: and they furthermore were including a bunch of DRM and
Speaker 1: an online authentication kind of things just coming up the system. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and the Valves. Valves history with DRM is one
Speaker 1: of those things that a lot of players have cited
Speaker 1: as a negative about the company. Now that's really something
Speaker 1: in the industry as a whole. It's you know, industry
Speaker 1: trying to make sure that people are not exploiting the system.
Speaker 1: But you know, depending upon how you implement that, it
Speaker 1: can be restrictive, like beyond what it was intended to do.
Speaker 1: There are ways where this system can restrict a person
Speaker 1: who has a legitimate copy of the game from playing
Speaker 1: that game. We'll talk about that a little bit as well.
Speaker 1: So it also was a system that allowed for multiplayer
Speaker 1: modes on several games. You know, that was another purpose
Speaker 1: of the Steam plat right it could It could again
Speaker 1: hypothetic connect users for for those multiplayer matches in those
Speaker 1: early days. It was certainly more hypothetical than than realistic.
Speaker 1: In two thousand three, Valve l l C. Becomes Valve Corporation,
Speaker 1: which in my notes I wrote, no longer would its
Speaker 1: liability be limited. Thundercrash. That's a thundercrash noise um or
Speaker 1: maybe a kitten. I don't know either one. I'm bad.
Speaker 1: I'm bad at sound effects, y'all. But in two thousand
Speaker 1: three was also the year that that Steam officially launched,
Speaker 1: because it was just an unveiled the previous launched right
Speaker 1: and in two thousand four, Valve made an announcement that
Speaker 1: was met with some criticism. I think that this is
Speaker 1: more the thundercrash moment. Actually, yeah, this is when Valves
Speaker 1: said that all future games from from that company would
Speaker 1: require Steam to play. So even if it were a
Speaker 1: single player, offline game that you bought on a disc,
Speaker 1: you would have to have Steam as an authentication tool
Speaker 1: to be able to play, which of course means that
Speaker 1: if Steam is not completely reliable, then you could have
Speaker 1: a game on your computer that is single player, there's
Speaker 1: no online element to it at all, need to get
Speaker 1: online that you cannot play because the service itself is down.
Speaker 1: And a lot of gamers said that doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1: So this was one of the things that was kind
Speaker 1: of a little um controversial. I mean, ultimately, the Steam
Speaker 1: service got better. Uh. It took some time for it
Speaker 1: to get up to speed, but once it did, and
Speaker 1: once it got better, uh and started to add more
Speaker 1: value to games, And that was when gamers started to
Speaker 1: kind of come round. Sure, but but that wouldn't happen
Speaker 1: for another couple of years. Back in these early days
Speaker 1: at half Life two also launched that year, and um
Speaker 1: it took players in some instances hours or even days
Speaker 1: to just get online to authenticate because of the server overload.
Speaker 1: Yeah now, but half Life two would end up giving
Speaker 1: us things like Gary's mod, which ind up being huge
Speaker 1: in Mashinima circles. People were using Gary's mod to create
Speaker 1: uh little Mashinima movies. Mashinima. For those who do not remember,
Speaker 1: I text stuff to an episode ages ago about Mashinima.
Speaker 1: It's essentially a machine animation. It's using uh, computer generated
Speaker 1: characters that are pre generated by something like a video
Speaker 1: game as sort of digital puppets, and you use those
Speaker 1: to tell your stories. And then there are a lot
Speaker 1: of different examples out there. The one I always cite
Speaker 1: because it was what introduced me to Mashinima is Red
Speaker 1: versus Blue from Rooster Teeth. But there are lots of
Speaker 1: different examples, and in fact, Gary's mod ended up being
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, kind of a renaissance for
Speaker 1: that are really a launching point for a lot of
Speaker 1: people to create these, uh, these creative projects. Two thousand five,
Speaker 1: Valve ended up making agreements with third party publishers to
Speaker 1: allow non Valve games in the Steam Store. And this
Speaker 1: is really where things are starting to pick up for Steam,
Speaker 1: because it's becoming a viable marketplace, not just not just
Speaker 1: a thing where you could get patches and fit the
Speaker 1: systems up, or just a thing that allows you to
Speaker 1: play your game. Because of the d r M. Now
Speaker 1: you have a store where you can go and buy
Speaker 1: games and have and download the game, and you never
Speaker 1: end up getting a physical copy at all, exactly, you
Speaker 1: just you just buy it on. In fact, most gamers
Speaker 1: I think these days, as long as they have a
Speaker 1: decent Internet connection, this is how they buy games. Now.
Speaker 1: You know, they're buying them online, downloading them, and usually
Speaker 1: you have some sort of cloud element. This is certainly
Speaker 1: true with Steam. But you have a cloud element where
Speaker 1: you can buy a game, install it on your computer,
Speaker 1: play it, and then if you ever were to need
Speaker 1: that space, you could delete it from your hard drive
Speaker 1: and then maybe later down the road, you think, along
Speaker 1: with your saves. Yeah, because because it's all cloud based, right,
Speaker 1: because if it weren't cloud based then you'd really be stuck.
Speaker 1: But that was another thing that Steam did that again
Speaker 1: added value to the service and to the game themselves.
Speaker 1: And I think partially because they started becoming accountable to
Speaker 1: third party publishers, they really got their act together. I
Speaker 1: think that that was the tipping point of them going like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess that we need to have more servers and
Speaker 1: uhstability for our services, make it stable. And yeah, they
Speaker 1: also added in achievements, which for some people is the
Speaker 1: only reason to play games. Uh. And then also that
Speaker 1: was a little bit of commentary. Well, I mean, I like,
Speaker 1: I like achievements. I like the feeling I get when
Speaker 1: I unlock an achievement, but I don't like feeling. There's
Speaker 1: some players who treat it so like it's such an
Speaker 1: important part of the game that it almost feels like
Speaker 1: they're concentrating on getting the achievements and not experiencing the game.
Speaker 1: And then I feel like I get talked down to
Speaker 1: if I don't get all the achievements. Well, don't don't
Speaker 1: don't hit on their version of gameplay, let live and
Speaker 1: let live. I don't hate on the fact that they're wrong.
Speaker 1: I just point out that they're wrong anyway. So they
Speaker 1: also introduced chat clients, things like that. So there are
Speaker 1: a lot of different elements to stee besides just the store. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna jump ahead to So between two thousand five
Speaker 1: and twenty ten, a lot of stuff developed, But twenty
Speaker 1: ten was when Steam got a makeover. Uh. The user
Speaker 1: interface was retooled, so it made it more attractive and
Speaker 1: easier to use. They also released versions for Mac and Lennox. Yeah,
Speaker 1: big deal there, because before that it was PC only,
Speaker 1: Windows based PC only. You know, PC we use as
Speaker 1: just shorthand for Windows machine, but obviously personal computer could
Speaker 1: mean anything. Um. The store also began to carry stuff
Speaker 1: besides games, like user generated content, so again expanding the
Speaker 1: offering of Steam itself. And in eleven, that's when a
Speaker 1: bad story happened. Yeah, there was a big hack hack attack, yeah,
Speaker 1: right on Steam. I mean it was and it was huge.
Speaker 1: I remember when this happened. I mean I wasn't a
Speaker 1: Steam user at the time because and we'll get into
Speaker 1: this when we talk about the Steam boxes themselves. I
Speaker 1: was one of those gamers who had migrated away from
Speaker 1: PCs and towards consoles, and we'll talk about kind of
Speaker 1: the reasoning behind that, which is one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why Valve is behind the steam box thing in the
Speaker 1: first place. Anyway, I was aware of this, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't affected by it directly. So hackers ended up defacing
Speaker 1: the forums over at Valve. But then beyond that, the
Speaker 1: Valve employees discovered that the hackers had access some databases,
Speaker 1: which meant they potentially got their hands on things like
Speaker 1: credit card information and personal identification. So that raised a
Speaker 1: big scare, and months after it happened, Newell went public saying, uh,
Speaker 1: we still haven't found any evidence that they actually took
Speaker 1: any recent personal information. However, they probably access to database
Speaker 1: which gave them access to all transactions that took place
Speaker 1: between two thousand four and two thousand eight. This is
Speaker 1: in early twelve when he made this announcement, so again
Speaker 1: these were transactions that were four years old, so you know,
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, I'm sure the credit card
Speaker 1: information was no longer accurate. But still when you have
Speaker 1: that personal identification the trouble there is identity theft. Not
Speaker 1: just someone's used your credit card, which is minor in
Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things, but someone has access to
Speaker 1: your personal identification, which means they can do a lot
Speaker 1: more harm. So that was definitely a black mark against Steam.
Speaker 1: So but then in two thousand twelve, UM, that's when
Speaker 1: we start really getting towards the steam box movement. That's
Speaker 1: when Valve announced that they were going to have Big
Speaker 1: Picture Mode in Steam, which means that you would be
Speaker 1: able to enable this and that would optimize whatever game
Speaker 1: you were playing, whatever Steam based game you were playing
Speaker 1: for a television display, not a computer display. So if
Speaker 1: you were to hook up your computer to a TV
Speaker 1: and put big Picture mode on, it would actually optimize
Speaker 1: that to show on your big television. So this was
Speaker 1: the first step towards the steam box movement, and in fact,
Speaker 1: some people started calling any sort of PC that you
Speaker 1: would hook up to your computer and use this a
Speaker 1: steam box, right, And previously people had found kind of
Speaker 1: kind of jakie workarounds to making this happen. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't optimized. It wasn't optimized, and and you know,
Speaker 1: this was still a little bit, a little bit clunky.
Speaker 1: You know, you still had to have a PC keyboard
Speaker 1: and mouse rigged up in your living room. You can
Speaker 1: play some games with a controller, but it's it was
Speaker 1: a relatively maybe somewhere between fifty games, but that's still
Speaker 1: left a lot of games out, oh sure. And even
Speaker 1: if something was controller compatible, you usually have to set
Speaker 1: them up with the mouse and keep right right. So
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't something that your average player who
Speaker 1: is not a PC player like, like you know, we
Speaker 1: we think of gamers in different buckets, often like different populations,
Speaker 1: and to some extent that's true. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: some gamers who identify themselves as console gamers, and it's
Speaker 1: not that they looked down on PC gamers some of them.
Speaker 1: Some of them do. But but it's just that, you know,
Speaker 1: they're the consoles are more attractive to them than a PC.
Speaker 1: Either the PC is too intimidating, or they don't like
Speaker 1: the idea of a system that they need to upgrade
Speaker 1: fairly regularly in order to keep pace with the games
Speaker 1: that come out. There are a lot of different reasons. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you have the the PC gamers who kind of they
Speaker 1: may some of them look down on console gamers because
Speaker 1: they like to be able to run stuff that is
Speaker 1: constantly pushing the envelope of what is possible graphically and
Speaker 1: and sound and all other aspects of gaming. And they
Speaker 1: might be a little bit more um technologically inclined in
Speaker 1: terms of being really excited about those specific bits of
Speaker 1: hardware and building the best machine right. And also, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the whole Twitch based argument of the fact
Speaker 1: that you know, keyboard and mouse gives you precise control
Speaker 1: compared to a game pad. So there's a lot of different,
Speaker 1: you know, things between these different populations. But one thing
Speaker 1: that PC gamers do envy about console gamers is that
Speaker 1: it's really easy the play console game on a big
Speaker 1: screen television. Not that it's impossible to play a PC
Speaker 1: game on a big screen television, it's just not generally speaking,
Speaker 1: optimized or as easy, you know, because it wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't built with that purpose in mind. And that's where
Speaker 1: Steam starts going huh yeah, And and that's that's where
Speaker 1: they you know, it was really exciting that they were
Speaker 1: getting into this space, and they wanted to let everyone
Speaker 1: know that they were really excited about it, even even
Speaker 1: in these relatively early days of they were teasing the
Speaker 1: concept of steam boxes pretty hard. Yeah, So there was
Speaker 1: a lot of speculation when Big Picture Mode came out,
Speaker 1: it is Valve making some hardware. Are they going to
Speaker 1: get into the console game by building what is essentially
Speaker 1: a computer but has all the benefits of a console,
Speaker 1: and that it's simple to set up, you know, even
Speaker 1: if you are intimidated by building your own computer, this
Speaker 1: is something. This is a different avenue you can go
Speaker 1: to that will give you access to all the benefits
Speaker 1: of the Steam library, but without the the hardship of
Speaker 1: either planning out or building a gaming PC. But that
Speaker 1: was before we actually knew any details about steam Box.
Speaker 1: So we got a lot more to say about steam boxes,
Speaker 1: you know now that we're actually getting into the topic.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, let's take a quick break
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Al Right, back to steam boxes.
Speaker 1: So we've teased it, but it wasn't until last year,
Speaker 1: that's spoiler alert now, but the last year and that
Speaker 1: we finally start to hear more details about a an actual,
Speaker 1: honest to goodness steam Box, and that was mostly through
Speaker 1: valves announcement that they were creating a Steam OS. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Steam operating system, so that this is beyond the
Speaker 1: platform that's online where you can you know, shop for
Speaker 1: games and and uh have your DRM authenticated. This is
Speaker 1: actually an operating system that sits on top of another
Speaker 1: operating system, Linux, So Linux is an open source operating system,
Speaker 1: meaning that people are free to get at that source
Speaker 1: code and alter it and make their own versions of Linux.
Speaker 1: These are called distributions or distros um and so SteamOS
Speaker 1: is sort of a flavor of Linux, or at least
Speaker 1: it's built on top of an Ubuntu based Linux operating system. Now,
Speaker 1: this is interesting. It definitely hearkens back to their days
Speaker 1: of half life and opening up the Software Developer Kit,
Speaker 1: saying that they like the ability of people if they
Speaker 1: want to get down and dirty and modify stuff, then
Speaker 1: this is kind of in line with that. Sure, and
Speaker 1: they also were making sure that that by using Linux,
Speaker 1: they could offer SteamOS as a free download. Yes, because
Speaker 1: you didn't have to worry about paying a licensing fee
Speaker 1: like you would if you were buying something that was
Speaker 1: Windows based or mac Os based. Uh. There are some limitations.
Speaker 1: Will get into those in a little bit, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was it's an interesting approach. They also announced that
Speaker 1: that both the Steam MOS and the desktop platform would
Speaker 1: be gaining some features right streaming, uh family sharing, which
Speaker 1: which means that it's it's like a digital borrowing system
Speaker 1: that will let up to ten Steam accounts pull from
Speaker 1: the same library um, just not simultaneously, Like you can't
Speaker 1: have more than one account working on the same game
Speaker 1: at the same time. This is this is a big
Speaker 1: deal for you know, families or you know, maybe groups
Speaker 1: of friends or whatever, where you've got you know a
Speaker 1: bunch of people who are interacting often Like I just
Speaker 1: think of like your typical family where you might have
Speaker 1: a couple of you know, a couple of kids you've
Speaker 1: got maybe maybe the adults like to play too. If
Speaker 1: you're going with an old system where it's one account
Speaker 1: per console, then that really can limit, you know, what
Speaker 1: each person can do, especially if you are interested in
Speaker 1: things like achievements. Right, So, Lauren, if you and I
Speaker 1: share an account on Xbox, like if we're sharing a
Speaker 1: tech Stuff account, which by the way, does not exist,
Speaker 1: so don't go looking for it, or if it does exist,
Speaker 1: it's not us um. And if we were sharing that account,
Speaker 1: and then you went in and played a game, and
Speaker 1: then later on I'm like, oh, I want to play
Speaker 1: that game too, And I keep wondering why I'm not
Speaker 1: good at this game because I haven't unlocked any achievements,
Speaker 1: And then I go and check and I see, oh,
Speaker 1: it's because Lauren unlocked all the achievements when she went
Speaker 1: on that marathon gaming spree three days ago. That's, you know,
Speaker 1: not a very satisfying experience. So this digital borrowing or
Speaker 1: sharing program allows multiple people to have that kind of
Speaker 1: experience on their own. And yet because it doesn't allow
Speaker 1: simultaneous play, it also doesn't you know, end up making
Speaker 1: game developers feel like they're they're being taken to advantage. Um.
Speaker 1: And then in addition to those things also some some
Speaker 1: parental restriction abilities and more media playback kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: which is really important these days. I mean, you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of consoles when when you're doing something in
Speaker 1: in that living room space, you're expected to have media capacity,
Speaker 1: especially with the president that's been set. I mean, the
Speaker 1: fact that you can access all sorts of different streaming
Speaker 1: options on various souls, I mean, everything has at least
Speaker 1: a few options. That was really important. So, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the basis. The steam Os was really what
Speaker 1: got people talking about the fact that there was gonna
Speaker 1: be a steam Box. Now, at that time, there still
Speaker 1: was no official word on whether or not Valve was
Speaker 1: going to make one sell for if it was going
Speaker 1: to be a third party thing. Valve did end up
Speaker 1: making three hundred steam boxes. The prototypes that they were
Speaker 1: releasing as a or I guess are kind of currently
Speaker 1: releasing as a beta. Yeah, and those three hundred, as
Speaker 1: far as we know, that's all there ever will be.
Speaker 1: Valve has not said that they are ever going to
Speaker 1: make more. They might, but they have not, at least
Speaker 1: as the recording of this podcast, they have not said
Speaker 1: that they're ever going to make anymore. So those three
Speaker 1: hundred that's it. Yeah, Um, but then they they are
Speaker 1: of course, Um, I mean, since they're not making their
Speaker 1: own hardware, that means that they are opening that license
Speaker 1: up to any number of hardware partners. Yeah, and steam
Speaker 1: os because it's free to download. Technically, you can build
Speaker 1: your own you can build your own steam Box. You
Speaker 1: don't have to go out and buy a branded steam
Speaker 1: Box computer. So but here's here's kind of the reasoning
Speaker 1: behind it. So we talked about how console players. One
Speaker 1: of the things that they benefit from is the fact
Speaker 1: that it's really easy to set up and play a console.
Speaker 1: Right the consoles are made with a certain set of specifications.
Speaker 1: They plug directly into your entertainment center. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: really simple it's plug and play. You just go out,
Speaker 1: you buy a box. You you open the box, and
Speaker 1: it's all the stuff that you need right off the bat.
Speaker 1: You don't need to fox with wires and worry about
Speaker 1: you know, oh, is this bit compatible with that bit?
Speaker 1: And is it the best bit that I can possibly buy?
Speaker 1: It's just nope, that's it. That's what you get, right.
Speaker 1: And then if you buy a game for that system,
Speaker 1: it'll work on that system. Yeah, there are a course
Speaker 1: exceptions when some manufacturing flaw happens, but you know, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: you buy a game for a system, it'll work on
Speaker 1: that system. So that comes in a premium. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: does well. It also it depends too, because there's another
Speaker 1: benefit that these companies have in that Microsoft, Sony, and
Speaker 1: Nintendo they all are not just in the hardware business.
Speaker 1: They're also in the game business, right, So that means
Speaker 1: that these games, these companies can mark down those consoles
Speaker 1: so that they can sell them for less money than
Speaker 1: they can essentially sell them at a loss, but they
Speaker 1: can make up that loss in game sales because they're
Speaker 1: also in the business of producing games. Now, this puts
Speaker 1: them in an advantage over steam box manufacturers, which for
Speaker 1: the most part, they're just making the hardware. So a
Speaker 1: steam box manufacturer cannot mark down the steam box without
Speaker 1: just taking the hit because there's nowhere else for them
Speaker 1: to make money. So yeah, that that's one of the
Speaker 1: big challenges for steam box manufacturers as being able to
Speaker 1: price their products so that they are making a profit.
Speaker 1: But you know that means that these are in general
Speaker 1: probably gonna be a little more expensive than or average
Speaker 1: video game console is because they can't they can't discount
Speaker 1: it and then make it up in the video games
Speaker 1: themselves because they're not in the video game business. Right. Sure,
Speaker 1: although you know, I would argue that steam boxes have
Speaker 1: a have advantage is a species here because you know,
Speaker 1: top of the line for hardware changes what like hourly um,
Speaker 1: and even with with modern consoles, for more updates and
Speaker 1: storage upgrades and and that undercut of prices that they
Speaker 1: can that they can accomplish just by being vertical. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the big three we and uh, you know, Nintendo,
Speaker 1: Xbox and PlayStation. I'll have to design something that is
Speaker 1: going to last for years, for the five plus years,
Speaker 1: meaning that that even games like five or six years
Speaker 1: down the road, they're still going to be capped by
Speaker 1: whatever whatever hardware right you had on the original console,
Speaker 1: right right, Whereas steam Box, at least in theory, you
Speaker 1: could have a machine that could be upgradeable. Now some
Speaker 1: of the manufacturers have built it into or at least
Speaker 1: we assume that's being built in because they've unveiled them
Speaker 1: at CS two thousand fourteen. But these are things that
Speaker 1: are going to become available throughout two thousand fourteen, like
Speaker 1: and beyond. I mean, I'm sure that you know. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of my my other concept here, that is,
Speaker 1: as a species, your steam boxes are going to be
Speaker 1: able to evolve, whereas the Xbox one is what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if it's a box that is allowed that allows
Speaker 1: the user to upgrade it, that makes perfect sense, right, Well,
Speaker 1: not not even not even upgrades I'm talking about, but
Speaker 1: but just you know, the fact that a company can
Speaker 1: come out with a new steam Box and capture a
Speaker 1: new segment of the of the audience that it perhaps
Speaker 1: had not captured before the danger of that, though, I
Speaker 1: would argue, is that you might confuse the conser like
Speaker 1: that all depends on who the steam boxes is aimed at. Right.
Speaker 1: If the steam boxes aimed at at console players who
Speaker 1: so far have not really gotten into PC games. Then
Speaker 1: you run the risk of confusing the market because you
Speaker 1: have so many different choices with different capability. Whereas you know,
Speaker 1: the old console game one size fits all. I mean,
Speaker 1: you might have different models that have different hard drive
Speaker 1: space size, and some people might not be tolerant. I
Speaker 1: I totally see your point of getting in there and
Speaker 1: figuring out which box to purchase. And because the discussion
Speaker 1: we're having right now is actually making me think a
Speaker 1: lot about smartphones. So for example, an iPhone user and
Speaker 1: an Android user have different experiences and that iPhones come
Speaker 1: out once a year usually I assume so far that's
Speaker 1: going to be the case, because it's not like the
Speaker 1: iPad where occasionally three of them come out in a year.
Speaker 1: But iPhones come out once a year. So even if
Speaker 1: you are upgrading every year and you're paying extra money
Speaker 1: so that you can do it, um, it's once a year.
Speaker 1: Whereas Android, if you buy an Android smartphone, the next week,
Speaker 1: you could have a newer phone come out that blows
Speaker 1: the one you just bought out of the water. So
Speaker 1: but you also, I mean, you know, for using the
Speaker 1: two of us as an example, I have a very
Speaker 1: I don't care that much about about customizing my smartphone experience,
Speaker 1: So an iPhone is just fun. Like, I'm fine with
Speaker 1: keeping one for three or four years because that's that's
Speaker 1: all I need. I don't really anything fancier, whereas I,
Speaker 1: you know, you took a much more personalized approach about
Speaker 1: it and found have found ones that you're excited about
Speaker 1: from very specific brands, right. I just think that as
Speaker 1: a gamer, that makes it really tricky because because you're
Speaker 1: you know, as a gamer, I want to have personally,
Speaker 1: I want to have a system that's going to run
Speaker 1: the best games at the best the best settings for
Speaker 1: as long as I possibly can. And in this approach,
Speaker 1: that's tricky because even if you are buying a top
Speaker 1: of the line steam Box for by the way, a
Speaker 1: huge premium, you could end up building a computer much
Speaker 1: less expensive than some of the high high end steam Box.
Speaker 1: I mean, the top of the line is like six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. That's a really expensive computer. Um, if you know,
Speaker 1: you could go out and buy the most expensive one,
Speaker 1: but you do so knowing that because of this rapid development,
Speaker 1: it's going to be outdated before too terribly long. So
Speaker 1: it's tough to justify that kind of investment for a
Speaker 1: certain population, right. I mean, I'm sure there's some people
Speaker 1: out there who six thousand dollars. They're like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be paying another six thousand dollars in six months.
Speaker 1: But hey, I have a gold Jet, So what do
Speaker 1: I care that? That's that? I think for the vast
Speaker 1: population that's not true. It's but see, here's the other
Speaker 1: thing is that if this is actually aimed at PC gamers,
Speaker 1: the steam boxes, then then you have other questions, right, like, Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm a PC gamer. I've got a tower, you know,
Speaker 1: at home where it's my PC rig. It maybe I
Speaker 1: don't want to bring that rig into the living room.
Speaker 1: And that's what's preventing me. Because technically I could just
Speaker 1: download SteamOS, I could use big picture mode. I could
Speaker 1: just port that entire machine over into the living room
Speaker 1: and hook it up and everything be cool. Maybe it
Speaker 1: wouldn't look so nice because it's an enormous tower. Maybe
Speaker 1: then I would want a steam Box because I could
Speaker 1: use that as a secondary gaming device hooked up to
Speaker 1: the television. It would also address one of the other
Speaker 1: problems of Steambox that I'll get into in a second. Um,
Speaker 1: that would, I guess makes sense, except that if I'm
Speaker 1: if I'm a PC gamer and I've got a long
Speaker 1: history of either building a gaming rig or knowing exactly
Speaker 1: what I want, I'm not sure that I would go
Speaker 1: out and buy a h a Steambox, a branded Steambox,
Speaker 1: rather than build my own. So in other words, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure who the steam box is for, is what
Speaker 1: I'm getting at, Because if it's for the console gamer,
Speaker 1: it's really confusing to have so many flavors. If it's
Speaker 1: for the PC gamer, a lot of them already have
Speaker 1: built their own gaming rigs, so I don't know that
Speaker 1: they'd be tempted, right, I see what you're saying, And
Speaker 1: I think that what they're hoping to do here is
Speaker 1: utilize all the best parts of both console and PC gaming.
Speaker 1: There therefore, uh, you know, marketing this to everybody, and
Speaker 1: and what they're hoping and again this might be, this
Speaker 1: might be a pretty high hope, is that they're going
Speaker 1: to avoid all of the downfalls of each Also, and
Speaker 1: I'm not you know, I'm I'm not positive how well
Speaker 1: that's gonna work out, But you know, they've they've got
Speaker 1: some good things going for them. They've they've potentially they're
Speaker 1: potentially connecting a huge list of established gamers. You know,
Speaker 1: they've got like sixty five million active gamers on Steam
Speaker 1: circa from from as of November. In fact, they've even
Speaker 1: poked fun at other companies saying, Oh, it's so nice
Speaker 1: that you've got ten million. I remember when we hit
Speaker 1: ten million. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're certainly not above a
Speaker 1: wee bit of snart snark there, um, but but they're
Speaker 1: you know, they're potentially connecting this this list of established
Speaker 1: gamers with a new console market. And as we've all
Speaker 1: seen with stuff like this, it can be really hard
Speaker 1: for new hardware to gain adopters unless it has an
Speaker 1: exciting game library at launch, right right right, simple example,
Speaker 1: I have yet to buy an Xbox One because I'm
Speaker 1: still waiting for the game that I really want to
Speaker 1: play absolutely um. And conversely, it can be really hard
Speaker 1: to convince developers to create games for new hardware unless
Speaker 1: they're assured a large player base. Um. Steam already has
Speaker 1: at least three hundred games available that run on Linux,
Speaker 1: which is a small portion of their overall game library,
Speaker 1: which is like three thousands, still a huge library to
Speaker 1: start for launch. If you think of a typical game
Speaker 1: company launching a console, you're talking about launch titles that
Speaker 1: usually you're maybe a couple dozen maybe, so three is
Speaker 1: pretty impressive. H and their their blockbuster games are basically
Speaker 1: the Valve games, but they do have a lot of
Speaker 1: of really popular indies involved in that. Yeah, I think, um,
Speaker 1: Don't Starve, perhaps as I remember hearing about Don't Starve.
Speaker 1: I haven't played that one, but uh, I know that. Um.
Speaker 1: I think Gone Home was on Steam and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely Gone Home by the way, I just downloaded the
Speaker 1: other day. I Yet, I won't spoil it for you.
Speaker 1: I've heard great things about Phenomenal. I think it's more
Speaker 1: of an interactive story than the game maybe, but it's
Speaker 1: a great story, which sounds good because I I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people that genuinely enjoyed, not only missed, but
Speaker 1: also riven. It's really well done, very highly recommended. Cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: another good point that I think the Steam steam boxes Steam.
Speaker 1: But I keep wanting to say boxing. That's what I
Speaker 1: always I end up saying calling it that too. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna call it that's the plural steam boxing. There
Speaker 1: we go. We are we are making decisions here tex
Speaker 1: stuff today. Um, you know they can. One of the
Speaker 1: things about Valve is that they can really undercut the
Speaker 1: big three consoles game prices. Yes, because Steam is isn't
Speaker 1: beholden to brick and mortar stores the way that they are. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's an advantage for brick and mortar stores
Speaker 1: to keep game disc prices above a certain minimum and
Speaker 1: steams sales. If you guys have never been on Steam sales,
Speaker 1: they are the best things ever on the entire I mean,
Speaker 1: you can get incredible games for a dollar, couple dollars. Well,
Speaker 1: and see, here's the thing is that they count on
Speaker 1: the fact that people will indulge in impulse buys during
Speaker 1: those sales. I know people who have bought games that
Speaker 1: they had never intended to buy, but they were so
Speaker 1: cheap that it was one of those things that I
Speaker 1: have to act on it now because it's a sale,
Speaker 1: So eventually it's gonna the price is gonna go back up,
Speaker 1: and even though I may never play this game, it's
Speaker 1: never gonna be this price again, so I'm gonna buy it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an incredible play on psychology. Also, it
Speaker 1: means that people get access to games that they might
Speaker 1: not ever have played otherwise, and they broughten their gaming horizons. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: you know. And so furthermore, I think that Valve is
Speaker 1: really hoping that with with steam Os, games will be
Speaker 1: able to get more out of the hardware than your
Speaker 1: average gaming PC since the system can be more streamlined,
Speaker 1: um thus help and keep box prices down a little bit.
Speaker 1: Although certainly everything that you were saying earlier, Jonathan about
Speaker 1: about the fact that the manufacturers don't have a direct
Speaker 1: stake in the video games makes it a lot harder
Speaker 1: to absolute. And plus, you know, here's another thing. You know,
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I don't know who these steam boxes
Speaker 1: are for or steam Boxing are for. Uh, that's really
Speaker 1: not valves problem either. You know, they're they're just making
Speaker 1: the platform. They're not making the hardware, so they're not
Speaker 1: running any risk. Really, they're just creating yet another way
Speaker 1: for their games to become available and playable in the
Speaker 1: living room space. I mean, so hypothetically, if anybody adopts this,
Speaker 1: it's time well spent. And even if even if all
Speaker 1: the manufacturers who are building branded steam boxing, even if
Speaker 1: those never take off, if if players, if gamers go
Speaker 1: out and they build their own living room PCs running
Speaker 1: Steam os. That's still a win for Valve. So in
Speaker 1: a way, it's a brilliant strategy because there's very little
Speaker 1: risk and huge reward. Sure. So okay, so what are
Speaker 1: some of these other problems that we're looking at for
Speaker 1: wide adoptions? Okay, so Lauren, I'm in my I'm in
Speaker 1: my living room and I want to play me some games,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to be doing that w A
Speaker 1: s D and mouse click scheme for controlling? What do
Speaker 1: I do? You use a controller? Yeah, but we're talking
Speaker 1: PC games, you know? Do they make controllers that work
Speaker 1: with PCs? Actually, Valve makes their own controller that works
Speaker 1: with this PC. That is the only hardware I think,
Speaker 1: mostly OTAs um that they are actually producing in house.
Speaker 1: And there are some excellent galleries of their prototypes up online. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know that they changed it recently, recently as of
Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast, that there was a they
Speaker 1: kind of it underwent a makeover where I think they
Speaker 1: even added some more buttons and removed some other stuff.
Speaker 1: There's so many buttons, um, it's they settled on this
Speaker 1: two track pad design, using track pads instead of stem
Speaker 1: six sure, UM, and the track pads include haptic and
Speaker 1: audio feedback so that you can feel and hear what
Speaker 1: they're doing. UM, which sounds pretty cool to me. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, but that's but that's the kind of
Speaker 1: that's the kind of sentence that makes me excited about
Speaker 1: see and I saw it at CES, but their line
Speaker 1: to actually use it with so long that I didn't
Speaker 1: have a chance to play with it, and I really
Speaker 1: wanted to because I was like, I want to. I
Speaker 1: understand that it takes a little getting used to the
Speaker 1: track pad, but once you do, it's natural. It's not
Speaker 1: like something where after five or six game sessions you're
Speaker 1: still thinking like this is terrible. Apparently, like within half
Speaker 1: an hour you're thinking, oh, this is this makes perfect sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's different, but it works. I've heard that it
Speaker 1: is a very design specific experience that that right takes
Speaker 1: you a little bit of getting used to. But UM
Speaker 1: also in order to solve some of the problems of
Speaker 1: pouring a keyboard into a controller, since there are many
Speaker 1: more buttons on a keyboard than you could possibly ever
Speaker 1: fit on even an extreme only fancy controller, you know,
Speaker 1: they do have a bunch of buttons. But they also
Speaker 1: have a a little a little customizable display screen so
Speaker 1: that you can program virtual buttons in there. And and
Speaker 1: players can even create I mean, like like with anything,
Speaker 1: players can create for any given game button configuration. Right,
Speaker 1: they can map buttons to specific functions, but then they
Speaker 1: can share them online and um and and it'll have
Speaker 1: a little ranking for the most popular one, so that
Speaker 1: if you don't want to spend that half an hour
Speaker 1: or forty five minutes at the beginning of your game
Speaker 1: experience setting up a customer control, you can download a
Speaker 1: few popular ones and see what works for you. So, gamers,
Speaker 1: here's my advice for you. First, become the best at
Speaker 1: any given video games. Second, create a fake controller configuration
Speaker 1: that you claim is what gives you that amazing ability.
Speaker 1: Put that online. Anyone who downloads it will be worse
Speaker 1: than you are because you're using the real configuration that
Speaker 1: you keep just for your own purposes. Also, having a
Speaker 1: friends to up vote that crappy thing. Yes, yeah, you may.
Speaker 1: It may require you to actually make lots of friends,
Speaker 1: which maybe if you're the kind of person who is
Speaker 1: doing this sort of underhanded gaming scheme, you're not the
Speaker 1: kind of person who has a lot of Maybe if
Speaker 1: you're a host on a popular podcast and you have
Speaker 1: this plan, your listeners will totally back you up on
Speaker 1: it and you will dominate in at least one video game.
Speaker 1: Come on, people, give me this one thing. It's all
Speaker 1: I'm asking. I've heard you let out peels of megalomaniachel
Speaker 1: laughter before, and actually that was the most like Bond
Speaker 1: villain that I've ever heard. You sound a little blow
Speaker 1: filled occasionally. Oh uh, this is not cat hair on me,
Speaker 1: it's actually dog hair. But otherwise I'm very very close
Speaker 1: to my specter friends. Uh So, yeah, that that that's
Speaker 1: controller was certainly a challenge. How do you make a
Speaker 1: controller that will work with the computer based games but
Speaker 1: within the context of a living room. And you know,
Speaker 1: I have that twitch capacity that people talk about for
Speaker 1: for preferring the mouse and keyboard decision exactly. So you know,
Speaker 1: I haven't used it yet, so I don't know personally
Speaker 1: what it's like, but the reports I've seen have said
Speaker 1: that it's really you know, once you get the hang
Speaker 1: of it, once you get over that learning curve, it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty natural. So, uh, now we're going on to
Speaker 1: some other some other challenges the the big one that
Speaker 1: I think is this one's getting a little technical, folks,
Speaker 1: but uh so, a lot of PC games, a lot
Speaker 1: of games rather are being made specifically for Windows based
Speaker 1: PCs because that tends to be the operating system that
Speaker 1: most gamers are using. So if you're a game developer
Speaker 1: and you want the largest potential audience, you're obviously going
Speaker 1: to develop games for that platform, and then if you
Speaker 1: have the capacity and time, you'll develop it for other
Speaker 1: platforms as well. Right, but if if you know, if
Speaker 1: you're looking out there and of your intended audience is
Speaker 1: using one platform, that's what you developed for. Well, there's
Speaker 1: this collection of application programming interfaces that are all collected
Speaker 1: under a label of direct X, which is from Microsoft.
Speaker 1: So this is lots of different stuff that is involved
Speaker 1: in video games and other multi media applications, but in
Speaker 1: particular Direct three D would be a good example. So
Speaker 1: you're talking about like rendering engines, things like that that
Speaker 1: video game developers use, and that means that in order
Speaker 1: for you to play those video games, you have to
Speaker 1: run an operating system that's that's uh compatible. So here's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's a Microsoft product. So take a wild
Speaker 1: guess at what operating system is compatible with it? That
Speaker 1: would be Windows. So if you are running a game
Speaker 1: that has UH that relies on direct X and you
Speaker 1: want to run it on Lenox, you can't. Lennox has
Speaker 1: its own open source approach called open l which is
Speaker 1: its own rendering engine. So that would if it's a
Speaker 1: game that's been developed for Linux, then you're fine. Right.
Speaker 1: If it's any Linux based game that will run on
Speaker 1: a steam Box, just fine. But if it's a Windows
Speaker 1: based direct X game, it won't. So how do you
Speaker 1: get around that? Because, like you were saying, Lauren, three
Speaker 1: hundred titles are so on Steam are Linux compatible right now,
Speaker 1: and the other uh two thousand, seven hundred plus games
Speaker 1: are not. So how do you how do you get
Speaker 1: around that problem? Well, the way that they're suggesting that
Speaker 1: this works, and this is why I think it makes
Speaker 1: sense that this is what makes me feel like they're
Speaker 1: marketing it toward a PC gaming population already, is that
Speaker 1: they you could stream the content from one computer that
Speaker 1: is Windows based or even Mac based, if you're a
Speaker 1: max Steam player, and there are max Steam players out
Speaker 1: there too, But if you're Windows based, you'll be running
Speaker 1: the game on your Windows based computer and streaming it
Speaker 1: to the steam box that's in your living room. So
Speaker 1: it's a a multi step process. You're you're kind of
Speaker 1: running not really an emulator, but you know, you're putting
Speaker 1: all the commands through the steam box, but that's sending
Speaker 1: it to your main computer which is running the actual game.
Speaker 1: It's not the most elegantive solutions because it requires you
Speaker 1: to have at least two computers. You have a box
Speaker 1: in the PC, and that's also going to be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a bottleneck i'd imagine with with your
Speaker 1: network system. Yeah, if you're if you are not, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're running an old version of the wireless uh,
Speaker 1: the wireless standards will first of all, just go and
Speaker 1: get a new router because they're not that expensive and
Speaker 1: it will really help you out. But if there are
Speaker 1: a lot of demands on that router system, then that
Speaker 1: could be a problem. If you don't have a good connection,
Speaker 1: like if either hardwired or wireless in your home, that
Speaker 1: could be a problem. It can be spotty or go
Speaker 1: in and out, even even if you've got really good
Speaker 1: equipment in there. And it's also expensive because it means
Speaker 1: that you have to have two computers capable of doing
Speaker 1: this stuff. So you have to have one that's capable
Speaker 1: of running the game, one that's capable of being hooked
Speaker 1: up to your your living room. Which is why again
Speaker 1: that I think that a lot of players are going
Speaker 1: to take it upon themselves to build their own devices.
Speaker 1: Now you could if you built your own device, you
Speaker 1: could in theory dual boot, so you could run Linux
Speaker 1: operating system and Windows on the same computer because you
Speaker 1: create essentially a virtual partition. But that also would mean
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't be necessarily running steam os, but you
Speaker 1: can maybe run big picture modes, So in other words,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different workarounds. It's also why
Speaker 1: I really feel ultimately that a lot of gamers are
Speaker 1: going to go would build your own people who don't
Speaker 1: want to really take that time. Obviously, the steam boxes
Speaker 1: the easier approach, but you still need that secondary computer
Speaker 1: if you want to take advantage of all those Windows
Speaker 1: based games. Sure, I think that what Valve is banking
Speaker 1: on here is that big developers are going to see
Speaker 1: potential in steam boxes and um and have the resources
Speaker 1: to do ports of all of their popular ships that
Speaker 1: they're going to want to do ports well. And also
Speaker 1: they're they're creating a new market to this way. So
Speaker 1: if they create a market that's incredibly attractive to gamers,
Speaker 1: then the developers are going to follow suit. They're going
Speaker 1: to start developing games specifically for the Linux platform, not
Speaker 1: necessarily for Windows. So in the long run, this could
Speaker 1: be a power play that hurts Microsoft because if they
Speaker 1: shift the balance over to Linux based systems and game
Speaker 1: developers say, well, now our audience is here, we don't
Speaker 1: need to worry about Windows so much, that could in
Speaker 1: the long term hurt you know, PC manufacturers, Oh definitely.
Speaker 1: Valve has also talked about being less worried about about
Speaker 1: Microsoft and Sony as they are about Apple. Um, they've
Speaker 1: they've talked about, you know, the potential of Apple to
Speaker 1: come out with a with an Apple TV update that's
Speaker 1: going to bring the app store to the living room,
Speaker 1: and you know, citing the fact that the iPad has
Speaker 1: had such a huge upset on PC sales and that
Speaker 1: you know, if if Apple chose to, they could absolutely
Speaker 1: do the same thing in this home entertainment gaming market,
Speaker 1: right And you know, as tech stuff has predicted for
Speaker 1: I think five consecutive years that Apple TV is on
Speaker 1: the way, I think did we actually make that. We
Speaker 1: didn't do it this year, sorry, which which may mean
Speaker 1: this is the year to see it. But yeah, this
Speaker 1: was the first year I think in a while where
Speaker 1: we have not predicted that Apple will come out with
Speaker 1: a TV. You know, it's certainly a space that they
Speaker 1: have to be watching because there's so many different players
Speaker 1: in that in that area and no one has dominated
Speaker 1: it yet. I mean, you could argue that the consoles
Speaker 1: have definitely you know, they disrupted it quite a bit too,
Speaker 1: because you know, why would you need a smart TV
Speaker 1: If the console that you're already using is really smart,
Speaker 1: then makes your dumb TV work just like a smart TV. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Speaker 1: I mean, it may be that I'm just too shortsighted
Speaker 1: and that's the problem. Maybe I just don't see it.
Speaker 1: But like I said, I think valve strategy ultimately is
Speaker 1: brilliant because very low risk on themselves, huge central reward.
Speaker 1: It's the manufacturers that I worry about, although, I mean,
Speaker 1: like like alien Ware is signed up to to make
Speaker 1: steave boxing. So yeah, and if if if alien Ware
Speaker 1: ends up having a couple of models of its computers
Speaker 1: not do so well. Ultimately, isn't going to sweat that one.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's going to be an a long has
Speaker 1: definitely got a name for itself in the gaming space anyway.
Speaker 1: But but I think that that the you know, such
Speaker 1: a large company and and forward facing, popular, long running
Speaker 1: company like that, if if they are willing to throw
Speaker 1: in with this, then it's it's got an at least
Speaker 1: some potential. Yeah, So we'll we'll wait and see how
Speaker 1: it turns out. I mean, I don't know that I'll
Speaker 1: run out and buy a steam Box immediately, but I
Speaker 1: might actually start looking into building a living room PC
Speaker 1: because there are a lot of games that come out
Speaker 1: for the PC that I have not played I would
Speaker 1: love to play on my my television. And also, uh,
Speaker 1: there are games that come out for the consoles, and
Speaker 1: I am fully aware that the versions that come out
Speaker 1: for the PCs often have Yeah, they're better, they have
Speaker 1: better graphics, they have better sometimes better gameplay, sometimes they
Speaker 1: have additional content. So I mean, I'm fully aware of that.
Speaker 1: I'm also lazy. So we'll see, maybe that I'm just
Speaker 1: sticking with console, maybe that I'm sticking with the last
Speaker 1: generation of consoles. We'll we'll have to wait. But anyway,
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of
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