I disagree with that sentiment, but even if that was the case, the benefits of an open platform far outweigh what you gain from a closed one, it's not even funny.

But making PC a viable console fixes that issue for the most part. The Steambox won't be just any randomly built PC, Valve will help set a few key specs that will help create a better standard for gaming PC's, and a few years from now the situation won't be much different from consoles.

That's patently untrue. There have always been PC games that can do more than a console allows, and the games on console that push the envelope always suffer from performance issues. There's practically no AAA game this gen that didn't have either framerate issues, teared frames or a combination of both. The more…

The point of consoles is to provide gaming on your living room. Being cheap is something that helps(The PS3 wasn't cheap at launch), and "a set of hardware that developers can get down to the metal with" is just a happy side-effect of companies subsidizing them, making it prohibitively expensive to "refresh" the…

I said it's not unfeasible.

The $1000 price tag "estimate" comes from Xi3 saying the piston will be based on some other model they currently offer. Another thing to note about piston is that it's tiny, and is not the standard for the steambox. So maybe the piston will indeed be $1000. Other steamboxes I would expect to run from $700 up. Also,…

"Only in the past year or two PC has really started to outshine the PS3 and 360."

"Will they likely be in the same price point? Not even remotely."

The premium will be worth it. I think it's just a matter of Valve doing a proper job conveying the benefits over a console that extra money will get you. $1000 is a lot, but it's also not unfeasible for a lot of gamers. There'll also be different tiers of products I'm sure, cheaper builds that can still outperform…

A few of them do. And I'm sure Valve is going to try and court more developers into porting their games to Linux.

There are a few other supporters actually, and I'm sure if Valve manages to get some traction on this, other companies will inevitably jump in as well.

I don't think it's a big deal. The main function of this thing is as a portable device, being able to plug it to a tv is an option for people who want to do just that, who I imagine won't have much trouble with the idea using a long hdmi cable. And they can always make a separate wireless controller for it, so you can…

Or exactly the same if the cable is long enough.

In my case, partly because of Valve's track record, but mostly because they have, in my opinion, the right attitude towards things. They are extremely passionate about gaming, and when they set out to do weird things it's because they genuinely think it'll be great.

"I don't see the point in something that I know practically nothing of"

Well then, I really don't see the problem in people losing access to their steam account if they are banned for doing something patently stupid.

"there is no shortage of reports from folks who thought their ban was bunk, but still lost everything and Valve wouldn't consider unbanning them."

So's your butt.

No.

It's not like the name Patricia gives it away, right?