Piston Xi3 "Steam Box" on sale for $1000 and up
Third-party console challenger to sell for a high price
The Valve-backed Xi3 Piston console will retail for $1000 and up, with a likely release date of this Christmas.
The Xi3 Piston was unveiled at CES earlier this year as the first "Steam Box" hardware from a third-party - ostensibly a PC running Linux, but one designed to run Valve's Steam Big Picture Mode on a television for a seamless, console-like experience.
Valve is working on its own Steam Box, though that hardware is still a several months away from user-testing.
When the Piston hardware was unveiled at CES, Digital Foundry expressed doubts over its ability to find a place in the market: "It represents the 'consolification' of a platform which is traditionally associated with massive performance gains over the dedicated games machines, but is looking decidedly sub-par compared to the hardware that is to come. Instead unique appeal lies into its ultra-tiny form factor."
To read Rob Fahey's recent editorial about the Steam Box concept, follow the link.