The prototype has been built to give manufacturers a reference design to work towards for their retail versions which are expected to debut at CES in January.

Steam Machines are the customizable video game consoles that are designed to bring the power of PCs to the living room. The machines have separate zones for CPU, power supply and the video card, so Valve designed the case so the parts can breathe individually. The CPU blows air out the top, the power supply out the side, and the graphics card exhaust out back.

“Really we just wanna have confidence that all the customers on Steam are having enough options, and that the price/performance spectrum is as fleshed out as Steam customers want it to be. And right now, the indications that we have from the lineup that we’re gonna be talking about at CES, is that they are gonna have enough choice. So we’re gonna continue to treat this as a test platform and see how that goes.” Says Greg Coomer.

Those machines will be revealed at next January’s CES, as well as partners and more information and hopefully the pricing.

So  circle January on your calendar.

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Rather than a single, one spec box like a Xbox One or PS4, Valve is working with multiple partners to launch a variety of Steam gaming machines for the market next year. All will run Linux-based SteamOS.

“Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers,” the company writes. Unfortunately, Valve doesn’t say which manufacturers it’s working with, or what the Steam Box will look like.

The aim is to bring the popular Steam gaming service into the living room, allowing users to play PC games on your big screen TV with a game controller instead of a keyboard.

Different manufacturers are expected to build different kinds of boxes with numerous levels of power and prices. Details on the systems specs aren’t clear at present, but 300 prototypes will be sent to Steam users who sign up for a limited beta program by October 25th.

The machine is expected that unlike other game consoles – these Steam machines will be “upgradeable and re-build friendly” just like PC’s. It’s said that the company will erect three tiers which are “Good,” “Better,” and “Best.” Good would be a cheap (around $100) box that streams content from another computer in your home with more muscle, while Better (around $300) will be more powerful yet cheaper than the last tier, which will be the Best, with no restrictions.

There’s another announcement coming at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on Friday, September 27th. My guess would be a game controller.

Of course, we’ll be showing it to you fellow t[H]‘ers here, as soon as it is unveiled.

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The patents shows us that this tech won’t just be an output for games but much more than that. Maybe even a shot at augmented or even virtual reality. As you can see, the device implements game material – swords, game information, nicknames etc. –  into real life. Illustrations show a pair of glasses that include sensors to locate users, track gestures, and read the environment of a player and Microsoft describes a multiplayer system that lets players invite others via a head-mounted display device.

Aye, we all know that not all patents applied for or received gets incorporated into a product but I’ve got a feeling that we may see this product in the near future.

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Its stance on game publishing.

The independent developers will be allowed to self-publish their titles and studios will be allowed to set their own release dates and pricing for their titles on the Xbox One (80?)

A new certification process will (like iTunes) will have games approved in a 14-day period.

“Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox Live. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox Live. We’ll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.” Microsoft’s Marc Whitten, courtesy of Engadget.

Kotaku says that devkit functionality won’t be ready at launch but available sometime later.

It’s good to see MS continues to listen to gamers and correct their course.

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Here it is…

Here we can see some advanced customization options and sports to play; golf, tennis and hunting. The game will reportedly be structured just like the previous installments… A series of mega-heists with missions and side-quests interspersed between them. Players’ decisions about tactics will effect the game’s outcome.

Yeah, and about that mysterious Grand Theft Auto Online… Watch t[H] for news as it happens.

GTA 5 will be the 15th game in the fantastically successful franchise, and Rockstar have promised that it will also be the biggest one, with a game world larger than GTA 4, Red Dead Redemption and GTA: San Andreas combined.

What do you think?

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Good news gamers, we will no longer need a connection to the internet to play offline games, no requirement to connect to Microsoft servers every 24 hours. And we can trade, swap, buy and sell them as we please. Also, there won’t be any regional restrictions.

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.

So the titanic – and expected – backlash worked. This shows that at least gamers still hold the power to shape the way products are developed.

It was the right thing to do. Previous policies would have been the end of console gaming for Microsoft.

Good move MS, you will benefit from this.

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It’s been rumored that Fallout 4 was shown behind closed door event at E3.

The game is planned for all platforms to be released in 2015.

Let me catch my breath and we’ll go on…

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The new Xbox 360 is available starting today. It is said to be more sleeker, silent, and quiet. The new design takes inspiration from the Xbox One.

The next-gen war is on and my favorite gadgets are getting upgraded.

Now that a healthy amount of time has passed after both reveals, we can lay what we know about these two consoles on the table and discuss who won the second round of the next generation console wars.

There are two products and two giant companies pitch these products to you, fellow tH’ers. They want you to buy their stuff if you can buy only one and if you can buy more than one, they want theirs in the pack.

Let’s start by stating the obvious, we know what X1 looks like while PS4 – thanks to Sony’s thunder stealing tactics – is still a mystery. And what is X1? Well, it’s a black box. It looks a little too big but it’s also sharp, simple and beautiful.

This is a chess game. Sony believes Microsoft started the previous console generation by revealing Xbox 360 first, so this time around, they went on first but with a twist, they did not reveal everything, leaving the actual machine to be unveiled later, after Microsoft makes its move. And what about Microsoft? They did the same. They showed the console and how smart that thing is but there were too few games, gameplay videos or technology demos. Those will come at E3.

Both consoles use an eight-core AMD processor but Sony’s new console delivers 1.84 TFLOPS while X1’s throughput is 1.23 TFLOPS. PS4 also has the upper hand in system memory with 8GB of 5500 MHz GDDR5. So in terms of raw gaming power PS4 seems to be ahead of X1. But remember same thing was said for PS3 and Sony failed to make use of those Cell shaders in the previous battle from which, Microsoft emerged as the winner.

Here, we need to say that Sony and Microsoft have different aims in mind. Sony, wants to deliver a solely gaming experience while Microsoft’s goal is to dominate the living room. There’s a curious change of style here, remember the last generation, Sony brought blu-ray to our homes, making PS3 a device of innovation with almost no exclusive games, while Xbox 360 was strictly a gamer’s machine.

Now X1 offers lots of sports and TV channels that will be meaningless unless you live in USA but the device will also bring a better and more capable Kinect, voice recognition, snapmode, Skype…

And last but not least, a juggernaut of a TV show, Halo.

Smart TV’s finally have a market with Google and Apple locked in battle. And here X1 looks smarter than PS4. How many gamers will prefer a solely-gaming platform when another can offer similar games and smart TV?

PS4 upgraded their not-so good controller taking cue from Xbox 360’s flawlessly designed one and fleshing out theirs. Good move. MS focused on what’s inside of the controller, leaving the case design almost untouched. Microsoft says there are 40 improvements inside, including trigger rumbles. We’ll decide if they work, when we actually play something.

I’m a little skeptic about the PS4 share enthusiasm, obviously there are a lot of people out there who would put a gun to your head to show their funniest moments in games but are there enough of them for that button to matter? PS4 will introduce play-as-you-download ability which will be cool and useful and X1 will play games as they install and will include an auto-resume feature. Sony will focus on its service, rather than the device and try to keep its handheld afloat while MS will make use of all the mobile devices through Smart Glass.

Microsoft made two small but vital moves by informing the industry that X1 will be able to play 4K games and may offload computations to cloud, freeing up power on the device itself in the future.

“Always on” craze is gone but Xbox One will require a connection to work flawlessly and Kinect will be always listening. But does it really matter in today’s world? Where we have smartphones on us all the time, with a generation that check-ins on Foursquare and Facebook, a generation that still use the terrible gatekeeper software that is iTunes. So will one more eye or ear matter much? I prefer no eyes and ears in my home but I may allow them to peek this time around.

Since not many will be able to own one of each, it will mainly be about what the user requires in his preferred console. Microsoft is creating a strong nexus for home entertainment and Sony will be delivering better looking exclusives. It would do justice to say that Microsoft is spearheading the innovation this time, even without the IllumiRoom wonder. And if IllumiRoom is revealed as a part of the X1 strategy on E3, the battle will suddenly become very hard for Sony.

Now everyone is ready for the second round, which will go down on E3. What we know is that Sony will show the machine and Microsoft will reveal the exclusives. Oh and you bet there will be many surprises.

In any case, having these amazing options and technologies at our disposal, makes me think that life is good for a gamer. Wouldn’t you agree?

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Here we are, watching the Microsoft grand unveiling and discussing the new Xbox.

Ooops we just saw Spielberg…

The name is Xbox One…

Kinect looks sharp as hell.

Switching between channels, music and games via voice control. And it’s fast.

Introduced Snap Mode.

Intelligent TV and Skype.

Marc Whitten is on stage.

5 billion transistors and 8 Gigs of RAM.

USB 3.

Redesigned controller. Although the 360 controller was by far the best ever designed.

New Xbox Live.

EA Sports Ignite now…

The new controller has over 40 design innovations.

Phil Spencer is talking.

New SmartGlass Experience ‘fully integrated’ with the Xbox One.

Forza Motorsport 5 is the first official exclusive for Xbox One.

“This is a commitment unlike any previous generation”

Quantum Break from Remedy.

15 new exclusives in the first year, 8 of them will be never before seen franchises.

The word, Halo was uttered.

Spielberg is talking about Halo.

Halo Premium TV Show will be coming to Xbox One. Killer move.

Xbox One launching later this year.

Call of Duty: Ghosts launch on Xbox One first.

Incredible level of detail and new tech graphics from CoD: G

To be continued on E3…

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