Valve no longer has ties with the Piston, Xi3's modular computer unofficially dubbed a "Steam Box", according to Eurogamer.
"Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs," Valve's vice president of marketing Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer.
During CES 2013, Valve announced that it was working with hardware manufacturers to create living room-friendly gaming PCs. Xi3 was one of those manufacturers. The company revealed at the consumer technology trade show that Valve had invested in the Piston.
Valve confirmed in January this year that it is working on its own Linux-based Steam Box. Over the weekend, the company said it expects to issue Steam Box prototypes within the next three to four months.
Xi3 released a new trailer for the Piston, challenging gamers with: What better way do they have to keep up with technological demands of an evolving games market? The video displays a 3D-rendered cross section of the Piston showcasing the "patented modular motherboard design," which allows for easy upgrades so it "adapts to the latest games today and tomorrow."
The Piston's user interface was shown off during the company's interactive presentation at SXSW. Pre-orders opened for the Piston over the weekend with a $100 discount off the $999.99 price for those who do pre-order.
The device features a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD for the basic version. A 256 SSD upgrade is available for $340 with pre-order or $400 post pre-order and a 512 SSD upgrade is $750 with a pre-order or $850 post pre-order.
