If you have a high end PC, then you would clearly not be part of the target audience. They don't need you to switch, as you are already their consumer. This would obviously be targeted at console gamers that want to jump to a better platform. It could still benefit you in the long run. When your computer kicks the…

I disagree. I think they have a good shot at making something like this work. I think the lure of a platform that is easier and cheaper to develop for, that doesn't restrict how you interact with your customers is big enough to gain the support of key third party devs that could definitely help a good chunk of console…

If this thing succeeds in the console market, that's a HUGE increase of total potential customers for indie devs. Like you wouldn't imagine.

Fo' shizzle.

Nah bro, this is Valve yo. They be cool and shit.

According to the rumor, this console would also support other digital distribution platforms like origin, so there's no reason for EA to jump ship. Coupled with not having to deal with licensing fees, and the focus being digital(i.e. no used market), I think any third party company is going to have to be nuts not to…

You are also severely underplaying Valve's achievements in the past six years, while giving too much credit to the big three. Sony, MS and Nintendo are all threading on very thin ice at the moment, each in their own way, and you'd have to be quite blind to not see that.

The rumour states that the goal of making this console available is to have a completely open platform, free of licensing fees and free of the many other restrictions that have plagued consoles for many years. That is why I want it to succeed, and that is what I think the console market needs to evolve.

Because they feel the console market needs a more open platform, basically.

Ugh. For all those people hung up on semantics and technicalities, you might as well get it right: A videogame console is simply an electronic device whose primary function is that of playing videogames on a tv. It doesn't matter if it supports PC games, if the components are those typically found on a pc, if it…

The term console may be a bit vague, but I'm pretty certain that it doesn't imply a closed system with licensing fees. Just because that has been the case for previous consoles doesn't mean you can't have a console without those two disadvantages. Similarly, pc games are still just games. A pc doesn't become a console…

Actually extremely unlikely given recent interviews with Gabe. He doesn't like closed platforms, and Apple is all about closed platforms. And yes, he specifically names Apple. I think this is more of a response to that rumor, they do not want Apple to dominate that market so they'll try to beat them to the punch.

"I MAED A C0NSOL3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1"

No. This is an actual tiny computer that is beefy enough to run games much, much better than current consoles do. Onlive is a service where you do not need a beefy computer to play games at all, because the games are rendered far away from you in large server farms, you just need a device that can receive and display…

Because the bloated market insists on being closed and expensive to develop for, and Valve wants to change that.

I think it makes sense. They want the console market to open up, and the big 3 have steadily refused to open up their platforms and show no indication of loosening up anytime soon. Gabe has been very vocal about it, and has gone on record saying that if they have to enter the hardware side of business to promote such…

It's supposed to be a prototype built with, yes, consumer available components. The rumor isn't that Valve is going to manufacture a console, the rumor is that they will presumably partner with other companies to create a spec standard that will then be marketed as a console.

Consoles are indeed remarkably-low spec PC's, but they are also heavily enclosed systems. The point of this is having an open platform on the console space. That's where this fits, and that's where it can help the market evolve.

The thing is, we are at a point where hardware upgrades are no longer a necessity as they used to be. Even Carmack has said this a lot of times recently, we have so much power and space available that it really is a non-issue. I think the reason why a Valve console is not only a great idea, but a necessary measure is…

I disagree. I think having Steam in there and the entire steam catalog, coupled with the amazing steam sales making most of the 3rd party console games available for cheaper while performing better than on a console, plus several amazing pc exclusives, f2p games, mmo's, etc, and an online system that kicks xbox live's…