I quit playing PC games about a decade ago, after maintaining computers to play them for ten years prior. I didn’t quit because of the software, but because the format’s hardware was simply too problematic to justify the expense. Powerful PCs are expensive. They take up a lot of space. And, perhaps worst of all, they quickly become obsolete. But now, a company named Xi3 is aiming to merge the realms of PCs and consoles with a new compact, modular PC known as the Piston. And it's being backed by Valve, which appears to make the Piston a part of the publisher’s wide-ranging “Steambox” initiative.
As someone who has a budget to maintain, a small apartment in a big city, and plenty of expenses to manage, nothing about modern PC gaming makes sense. The hardware barrier to enjoy great games like Starcraft II or Guild Wars II is simply too great. And a lack of standards, of coordination, makes that barrier even more of a challenge. With no centralized hardware manufacturer (like consoles), who determines the ideal benchmark for an ideal experience?
Yet all that might be changing now. Valve is standing up, saying it wants to set those standards. And it's looking to established innovators like Xi3 to help make that happen.
Xi3 has been around for a while. The company started producing its X series of computers over a year ago, and a new Kickstarter round has recently allowed it to pursue a new line of computers aimed at ‘power’ users. But what matters beyond all that is that this particular PC manufacturer simply sees the existing industry as being broken. And through some radical new approaches, it’s breaking the rules one by one.
Gone are the days of giant towers, or computers that, in many respects, must be replaced wholesale every few years. Xi3’s computers are smaller and lighter than any existing game console (you can actually bolt them to the back of a monitor or TV!), and what’s more incredible is that they are fully customizable after purchase, able to have any components easily replaced over time. And, in the name of reducing e-waste, the company will even allow those older parts to be ‘sold’ back for credit.
All of these ideas seem so practical that it’s a miracle they haven’t been cumulatively done before - particularly for gamers. Yet they haven’t, not like this, and Xi3 is attracting a great deal of rightly-deserved attention, including from software and digital distribution giant, Valve.
That Valve and Xi3 are working together has been the stuff of much discussion and reporting lately. The two companies are working together on something they’re calling the ‘Piston’, which is effectively a derivation on the aforementioned ‘power user’ line of computers, named the X7A series. This project aims to be perfect for gamers, and perfect for Steam and its ‘Big Picture’ mode, which seamlessly allows a computer to display content onto a HD television set.
True to Valve’s nature, there’s much we don’t know. We don’t know firm price or hardware details. We don’t know a release date. All we know is what these two companies dare to do. A cynical person might doubt their ability to do this. Yet these are the companies that have changed digital game distribution and PC fabrication. They’ve earned at least a little room to breathe, to toil away on making PC gaming more accessible and more stable.
Xi3’s accomplishments were well-deserved long before Valve knocked on its door. Flexibilit, affordability and creativity have long been needed in the PC industry, particularly for gamers (like me) who want to check out DOTA 2 but lack the reasonable means to do it. But with Valve assuming even more of a leadership with its "Steambox" idea, that endeavor grows exponentially. And, of course, it's looking to Xi3 to bring its practical approach to PC design to gaming computers. As someone who has long wished he had a computer ready for the next big exclusive game - or at least for the games that simply beg for PC controls or graphics (Far Cry 3!) - Xi3 and Valve’s alliance couldn’t be more welcome.
Let’s just hope ‘Piston’ arrives soon. I have a lot of PC gaming to catch up on.
For more on CES, check out IGN's full CES 2013 hub. It's full of shiny things.
Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!
Source : ign[dot]com
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