So what do you guys think? Will this be good or bad for PC gaming?
I think that this will be really bad for traditional desktop PC gaming, i.e. the typical AAA crossplatform games that are released on Xbox, PS and the PC.
Indie and crowdfunded gaming will hopefully be fine, depending on whatever Microsoft chooses to do with future iterations of Windows.
Windows 8 and the now optional Windows store is certainly only the beginning. My guess is that upcoming Windows releases will all introduce further steps towards a more closed Windows eco system like Apple's rather closed iWhatever eco system.
So there is quite a bit of a risk what MS is going to allow on their platform in the mid/long term and whatever restrictions they might put in place.
Some more thoughts on the "SteamBox" though...
- No matter what anyone may think of Valve, you've got to give major credit to them in that they have definitely always had an extremely good business sense and very well functioning instincts in the past. The SteamBox is no exception in my opinion.
- Valve's major source of income is obviously Steam. Steam is nearly 100% depending on Microsoft Windows and participating publishers. There is a huge risk if Microsoft does... something... that Valve would be pushed out of business "over night" (of course not literally).
- Valve can probably see the writing on the wall, i.e. how Microsoft is trying to become more like Apple by taking more and more control of the Windows platform.
- Ergo: Valve now commences the process of emancipation. They work on becoming independent from Microsoft Windows and DirectX. They begin to explore an own platform before it's all too late. They have decided to explore the realm of living room content delivery without the massive financial burden that a real console launch would entail. They want to be the delivery service, not the creators.
- Valve probably knows from the dev kits of the next Xbox and PS that Microsoft and Sony (in spite of contrary early rumors a while ago) will be holding on to physical drives for the time being. -> The Steambox is Valve's big chance to enter the market with the USP of a streaming entertainment solution. Bring the convenience of Steam to the living room (and to console gamers?).
-> Because that would seem to be the kicker... if Valve actually manages to make this work reasonably well (i.e. better than OnLive & co) then there's a good chance in my opinion that the big publishers and MS/Sony -instead of spending billions on R&D of their own content delivery solutions- will turn to Valve as the delivery service just as most of them did with Steam.
The conspiracy theorist inside me even suspects that the Steambox may simply be Steam for consoles and possibly not a real box even but just a content delivery streaming SoC that can be built into a Xbox just like it can be put into a PS or a Mac or a HTPC (with different firmware to work with the corresponding platform).
Or the TLDR version = Valve's Vision: Become the no. 1 overarching crossplatform digital content delivery service. Rule the [living room] world (hopefully not with an iron fist
).