Xi3 Teams Up with Scuf Gaming for Piston Controllers
Scuf Gaming is providing the gamepads for Piston.
Although the Piston machine won't ship with a gamepad, Xi3 has teamed up with Scuf Gaming to design controllers optimized for the upcoming $999 PC-based "console" shipping next month. The announcement follows previous sightings of a prototype Piston gamepad that resembled Scuf Gaming's "Hybrid" controller for the Xbox 360. Seriously, the Piston is looking more like a Steam Machine with each announcement!
"We're experts in building the world's smallest and most powerful gaming systems, and when it came time to develop controllers customized for Piston, there was never any question about where we should look," said Jason A. Sullivan, Founder, President and CEO of Xi3 Corporation. "In their short history, Scuf Gaming has developed a very well-deserved reputation as one of the elite controller designers/manufacturers on the planet, and we're very pleased to be working with them."
Additional details regarding the controller plans weren't given, but if Xi3 follows the same "Hybrid" path, PC gamers may be looking at paying a starting price of $87.95. Scuf Gaming currently sells a number of "Hybrid" controllers, ranging from the "FPS" model to the colorfully vibrant "eSniping" version. These are actually customizable, and even provide "paddle" options underneath that can be mapped to the ABXY buttons.
"Innovative design coupled with customizability—these are two of the core principles applied at Scuf Gaming, qualities that are also very apparent with Xi3 and its Piston Console," said Duncan Ironmonger, CEO and Co-founder of Scuf Gaming. "The Piston Console has built incredible excitement in a very short time frame, and we're very excited to team up with Xi3 on this co-development effort."
The Scuf Gaming "Hybrid" controller is actually shown on the Piston website, or at least a similar version, sporting a black and white color scheme with the Piston label printed in white towards the bottom. The actual Piston Mini PC features a grapefruit-sized, matte black aluminum chassis with chrome trim, measuring 4 inches square. Packed inside is a processor card with a reported quad-core AMD R464L "Trinity" 35 watt APU with a base speed of 2.3 GHz and turbo up to 3.2 GHz. The chip's Radeon 7600G GPU cores are clocked at 496 MHz and turbo up to 685 MHz. The AMD R464L APU is similar to the A10-4600M APU, which is two generations old and supports dual channel system memory.
The Piston will also have 8 GB of RAM, an installed 128 GB SSD, a second SSD connector and two SD card slots. Xi3 will also ship the device with 256 GB and 512 GB capacity options. There's speculation that the mini PC gaming rig will ship with SteamOS, Valve's Linux-based operating system supported by Nvidia.
Xi3's Piston "Steam Machine" is slated to ship on November 29. To pre-purchase the device, head here.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Shankovich Sorry, I just really can't see how these piston consoles are going to succeed in the long run. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but $1000 really? That's too much to pay for the specs even though they're so conveniently small. For $1000 you could easily make a PC that could run Battlefield 4 on high-ultra settings in a small form factor case. It won't be hand sized of course, but I mean come on. The piston is going to cater to a very niche market in my opinion, but I guess that's why we love Steam; they try to give something to everyone.Reply -
xroe Reply11689257 said:Arent there $500 pc based consoles that have like 10X the game base ??
Yes but the optimization is sometimes lacking as is the porting of certain titles. Also its more competition, that's never a bad thing. -
myromance123 What's going to happen to the Xi3 Piston if Valve release models of their own steam machine that are lower priced, with higher quality grade components in them?Reply
If the prototype specs from Valve are anything to go by, then Xi3 might be in for some real trouble in the near future. -
chimera201 "Seriously, the Piston is looking more like a Steam Machine with each announcement!"Reply
If Xi3's piston was a Steam Machine, wouldn't they be having the Steam Controller and not some other controller? -
gsxrme Is this another KickStarter project console? I'm really confused on the $999 price tag and the completely junk system specs.Reply -
ubercake This is funny... When you go to the link at the end of the article look at the Displays x3 and get a preview of the 16-bit shooter you'll be playing on this system.Reply
Seriously... What game houses are producing AAA titles for a linux OS variant?
I honestly welcome competition in any market, but seriously!? -
joe gamer With the Xi3 you are paying for the small formfactor rather than the processing/gaming power, "hurr hurr 1k for weaksauce hardware, faelbaux!"...yeah, it is a poor value spec-wise BUT it fits in the palm of your hand. It's a niche product for people who haven't got the space for a larger machine, it's not meant for you or me. My Antec 1200 is what, 100x larger lol.Reply