At the last day of E3 a mystery team announced a rather unusual take on the so-called Steam Machines-- the SteamBoy Machine, a SteamOS-powered PC crammed inside a Playstation Vita-style handheld format.
Judging from images and a snippet of video, the SteamBoy Machine looks a bit like the prototype Steam Controller, if with the addition of a display. It features two touchpads, 8 face buttons, 4 triggers and 2 additional buttons on the back.
"SteamBoy is the first device that allows to play Steam games on the go," the announcement press release says. "You will keep playing your favorite games at the bus, the office, the school or the doctor's waiting room."
Officially no further details are available, but the SteamBoy Machine team tells gaming site The Escapist the device will feature a quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 32GB built-in storage and a 5-inch touchscreen.
"SteamBoy won't be as powerful as other announced Steam Machines in the same way [the] Nintendo 3DS or PS Vita performance is not comparable to Wii U or PlayStation 4," the company says. "However, it will be possible to play the majority of current games in Steam."
Will the SteamBoy Machine actually reach customers, or will it simply fizzle out into mere vapourware? We might learn more once we reach closer to the (very) tentative 2015 release window.
Go SteamBoy Aims to be the Handheld Steam Machine (The Escapist)