Steambox - wtf?

So, I get the whole concept of Steambox. seemed like a good idea, but I have always been skeptical about how successful the whole concept is going to be.

And now, at the CES show out in Vegas, they have finally been shown

Except theres a crap ton of them, all at different prices and specs. And this is the problem I think the whole concept has. The idea of this is, surely, to bring PC gaming into the living room. But surely, they have to make PC gaming as a concept easier to understand for this to work. As it is, Joe average will surely walk into a shop to buy a new console, ask what there is, and when told there is the new xbox, new playstation, and 15 different steamboxes all with different specs and price points and ultimately just stick with what he knows and/ or what is simple.

How can all this really appeal to anyone that isnt already a dedicated PC gamer?

Because its a box that will sit under your tv and can be operated with a controller.

The intention isnt the get hardcore pc gamers to buy them - its to get people that want PC gaming in a box that you just play games on and not dick around with windows and pc stuff.

Some of the prices look to be about the price of a boner/pisser. Whilst you could probly build simialr PC for the same or less some folks wont want to - or cant

the Alienware one looks cool.

but I have to agree with Slowdog 15 of them, different specs should of been made simpler for ppl.

Pick one you like at a price you want. Simples.

Im sure they will all run stuff - some better than others of course - but presumably the settings set them selves up based on the hardware.

Course they wont all run everything because steam OS is linux based.. so you would need to install windoze on them to run everything on steam - which is missing the point I think

Fuck me, this is unheard of, but I actually agreed with our yellow friend.

I think we sometimes do the intelligence of how public down - I don't think it's beyond most people to choose and a lot of them are quite similar but different manufacturers to create price competition. People but lots of things with 15 to choose from.... TVs, tablets, laptops etc

Looks like somes hacked Daz almightys account

I can just see people being frightened away due to the different versions.

The steambox concept is good and it could very well tempt more people to give PC gaming a go as long as they are willing to do a bit of research and invest some time in seeing what they getting for their money. It is going to take Valve time but I think the bigger shake up comes when SteamOS is up to speed. At that point I think MS will have something to be concerned about.

I want to know how much you can buy a Steam Controller for and when because I really like the look of it and would love to give one a go.