UK retail eyes up Steam Box and Nvidia Shield

UK retailers have told MCV that they are keen to stock Valve’s Steam-box and Nvidia’s Shield.

A Steam-box style product named Piston and Nvidia’s new console Shield was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, putting pressure on Microsoft and Sony who have yet to lift the lid on their new products.

"A key part of our strategy is delivering for the gamers of the UK, something that we have demonstrated through many of the initiatives in 2012: amazing launch nights, introducing lock-ins, retailing Steam Wallet currency, introducing in-store PC downloads, bringing in new product ranges like the Google Nexus tablet and much more," GAME’s category director Charlotte Knight told MCV

"What’s clear is that 2013 is going to be a very exciting year for the industry. Not only is there an incredible release schedule, we’re also hoping for news on the new Microsoft and Sony consoles, there are a number of interesting Kickstarter projects on the horizon and now we have some exciting news from CES. Whatever developments take place, GAME will be working with our supplier partners to deliver excellence and value for the UK’s gaming community."

Tesco games boss Nick Cooke added: It looks like it’s going to be an interesting E3.

The gaming market has evolved slowly across the traditional platforms and very quickly on PC, phones and tablets and into the cloud; at Tesco we’re looking at all these new consoles as ways for us to deliver a wider gaming offer for our customers. To have more options available to inject some much needed interest, hype and sales back into our industry is a great benefit.”

Publishers are excited by the new hardware, too. Sega’s digital VP John Clark said: We’re always interested to see how technology evolves to enable high end, core gaming content delivery to the consumer.

Both Valve and Nvidia are involved with initiatives which we will watch closely. 2013 is an exciting year, Sega is proud to be multi-format publisher and to support new developments.”

Both devices have no disc drive and let users play PC titles on their TVs. This means gamers will no longer have to choose between buying a game on their consoles or on their PCs.

This is potentially disruptive to the console business,” said Tim Edwards, creative director at PC games website PCGamesN.

These boxes are a new product category for retailers, a new design, and a whole new way of looking at PC content.”