Hardware maker Xi3 is pushing back against Valve's attempts to distance itself from Xi3's $1,000 Piston PC-in-a-console, setting off a debate about what, precisely, is meant by the heavily bandied-about term "Steam Box."
When Xi3 first unveiled the Piston (then simply called a "modular computer chassis") at CES in January, the company trumpeted a monetary investment from Valve and highlighted how the system was designed to play Steam games on high-definition TVs and large monitors using Steam's Big Picture mode. But soon after Xi3 started taking preorders for the Piston over the weekend, Valve put out a statement saying that it "began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs."
Xi3 came out with its own statement today reaffirming its relationship with Valve, saying that the Piston was a product Valve specifically asked the company to build. While the statement seems to acknowledge that Valve is not currently directly involved with Piston development, Xi3 clarified that "just because Valve may not 'currently' have any 'involvement with any product of ours doesn't mean that such involvement won't exist in the future."
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via http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/xi3-pushes-back-at-valve-calls-piston-more-than-just-a-steam-box/
