Now I'm getting excited.
Valve damn near owns PC gaming. What was once a Wild West of distribution, downloads, broken links, failed hosting, and physical media is now a valid business model used by millions of gamers across the world. Valve introduced their digital distribution service, Steam, in 2003 and got off to a rocky start. Under the leadership of Gabe "Gaben" Newell, they have turned into the single largest, most reliable, and most trusted digital game distribution in the world.
Rumors of Valve dipping their toes into the console world have been around for years. It seemed a no-brainer: a console that would run entirely off of Steam. And now, finally, that concept is becoming a reality. Dec 2012, Steam introduced "Big Picture Mode", which was a version of Steam that was designed specifically to be used on a television, with an interface crafted around the use of a game controller, instead of a mouse and keyboard.
According to Valve, the Steam Boxes will probably come in multiple versions catered to users' budgets, varying in power. The architecture will most likely be Linux-based, as Gaben apparently hates Windows 8 (like anyone with an ounce of sense). They are going to be manufactured by hardware makers Xi3, but beyond that, Valve has been pretty tight-lipped when it comes to hard facts about the console. Will it stream? Will it have a hard drive? We don't know yet. Valve has dropped a lot of these speculative "maybes", and it's making a lot of the gaming industry salivate.
Perhaps the one damning snippet of information that we've heard about the Steam Box is the reputed price. While obviously nothing has been set in stone (they haven't even released prototypes yet), the rumors have the price points for the various power tiers ranging from $399 to $999. I honestly hope this is not the case; frankly you can buy a decent PC for that range. My rig cost me $475 a year and a half ago, and I can still run almost any current games on their highest setting and get an amazing framerate. And my PC can browse the internet, play movies, play music, and do just about anything I need it to. For the Steam Box to be solely dedicated to gaming, it would have to be considerably cheaper. But again, nothing is set in stone.
And yet, for all of this excitement, the Steam Box is only my second most anticipated upcoming console...
I can't explain why I want this console so frakking badly, but I do. I want it so hard. I want to shovel my money into the devs' pockets. I regret not jumping onto the Kickstarter when I had the money, because the pre-order units will be shipping in the next few weeks.
The Ouya is an Android-based home console focused entirely on indie gaming. It's a powerful little bugger, especially since the entire thing is the size of an apple. The console is completely open source. It will come with its own software, but they not only allow, but welcome hackers to root their unit, or even open it and swap out parts...it won't voice the warranty. All games will be at least partially free; some will be entirely free, some will operate on a free-to-play model, others will just offer a free demo. To quote from the Ouya's Kickstarter, "We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free." The Ouya developers asked for $950K on Kickstarter...they wound up with nearly $8.6 million in funding.
The Ouya has already held their Create Game Jam, where devs were given 10 days to start from scratch and create a game for the console. Already we're beginning to see a wide range of exciting content, ranging from simple puzzlers and twin-stick shooters to the robust action titles with HD graphics. Anything that can currently run on the Android engine can run on the Ouya, and since the platform has already been around for a while, the Ouya is incredibly easy and convenient to program for. I honestly think we're going to see one of the widest varieties of game styles we've ever seen on this console.
One of the biggest selling points for a lot of hackers and pirates will be the Ouya's ability to run emulators for just about any console up to around the 6th Gen. You probably won't be able to get PS2, XBox, or Gamecube games running, but people have already gotten everything up to N64 and the original Playstation running smoothly and seamlessly on the Ouya. Even if you never buy a single Ouya game, you could still have every single NES, SNES, and Genesis games (and so on) on your television, at your leisure. The legality of this may be questionable on the player's part, but Ouya itself is off the hook; there is nothing illegal about running an emulator.
The controller is being touted as "The Stradivarius of Gaming Controllers". They have designed and redesigned tons of times based on user feedback, and feel confident that they have made the perfect controller. While I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, I have to admit that it looks pretty snazzy, and I look forward to gaming with it.
And all for only $99.
There are a few other consoles and options coming out, but these are the biggest names among them. I notice that the vast majority of them are running off of Android, which speaks volumes for the platform's validity in the gaming world.
One of the things I find myself saying very frequently lately is that this is a very exciting time to be a gamer. Our entire world and its age-old structures are evolving, breaking down and being rebuilt in new and incredible ways. The big companies are always going to be there with their big consoles, and they will always have their markets, but now we have all kinds of new and creative options to explore. As a passionate fan of indie gaming, I love the innovation we're seeing. I love that indie gaming no longer has to struggle for space on XBox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network, and is forging its own new path that serves its own needs.
I cannot wait to see what more the future holds for gaming.
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