The first "Steam Box" is a thousand bucks!!!

source: http://www.gamesradar.com/piston-steam-box-pre-orders-open-1000/,
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/03/11/valve-backed-xi3-piston-available-for-pre-order

Recently announced at CES was the Piston, the first of the so-called "Steam Box" consoles. It is now available for pre-order off of the developer, Xi3's website. The console is meant to provide the user-friendliness of a regular console with the hardcore specs and upgrades of a top of the line PC. Thinking of getting one? It will cost you a cool $1000 and that's just the base model of 128 GB. The 256 and 512 GB models adds $340 and $720 to the base price respectively.

Xi3 seems to have missed the point of consoles in general. Consoles are meant to be a cheaper way to get video games to the masses. In general, consoles range in price from $200 to $400. With $1000, I could easily get a good gaming PC and it will do more than just what this console is supposed to do. I mean sure, it's meant to bridge the gap between PC and consoles but at the price point it's at you're better off waiting for the next-gen consoles.

As a mainly PC gamer, I'm all for bridging the gap between consoles and PC's. I actually have duplicate games on both my console and PC. This console seemed like a logical step for me: I get to save money on games, which are expensive enough as it is, by not getting duplicates and get the power that my PC has. The price however, will just not cut it. At the rate this is going, the gap between console and PC is just going to get wider. At the very least we can look forward to Valve's official Steam Box and hope they don't go down this road.

-RJ Benavidez