The Piston may not technically be one of Valve’s new Steam Machines, but the modular computer hardware will run Linux and support Steam (including its Big Picture Mode, an interface optimized for television displays). Today, the company behind the hardware, Xi3, announced that the Piston will be available on Black Friday, Nov. 29. It’ll cost $999.
“The Piston console is just Xi3’s first step in what we believe will be a transformative technology revolution for the living room,” said Jason A. Sullivan, Xi3’s founder, president, and CEO, in a press release announcing the Piston’s launch date. “The Piston is smaller, lighter, and will last longer, provide more gaming options, and be more powerful than any other gaming console on the planet. The reason I feel confident in saying this is because we started with a clean slate, unlike competing manufacturers.”
Xi3 designed the Piston specifically for gaming, with 8GB RAM, 128GB of solid-state drive storage, and a quad-core x86-based 64-bit 3.2 GHz AMD Trinity processor. Xi3 also announced today that the Piston will launch with unspecified games.
Interestingly, the Nov. 29 release date comes shortly after the Nov. 15 PlayStation 4 and Nov. 22 Xbox One launches. The Piston’s $999 price is noticeably higher than the $399 PS4 and the $499 Xbox One. The Piston hopes to set itself apart from its competition with its modular design.