Valve chief confirms Steam-centric console-killing PC
'We will do it,' pledges Newell
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Expect to see a Steam-brand console-style living room PC in 2013, Gabe Newell, the head of Valve, has revealed.
There have been hints the company is working on such a box. The debut earlier this year of a TV-centric UI for the Steam client, called Big Picture, which came out of beta last week, is perhaps the most important one of them.
But now we have Newell’s own confirmation. Various vendors are going to be pushing compact living room PCs during 2013, he suggested, some with Stream pre-loaded. But here’s the clincher: Valve is going to join the fray.
"We'll do it but we also think other people will as well," Newell told Kotaku. "Our hardware will be a very controlled environment. If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general-purpose PC.
"The nice thing about a PC is a lot of different people can try out different solutions, and customers can find the ones that work best for them."
Valve’s Steam PC - SteamBox? SteamStation? Steam U? - may not be imminent, however. Newell implied Valve is working to get the Linux version of the game download store and library manager fully up and running first.
That will undoubtedly suggest to some - as has been mooted in the past - that the Steam machine will run Linux rather than Windows. Newell’s not keen on Windows 8 for gaming, and that’s a strong reason to look elsewhere for an OS, quite apart from the additional cost of the Microsoft product.
And Linux certainly gives Valve the scope it clearly wants to define and control the user experience. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Come on Valve, ...
Too right,
all it will take is a couple of the big games software houses to jump ship from DirectX and start coding OpenGL natively and I can finally be rid of Windows.
Re: Come on Valve, work on linux, then work on half life 2ep. 3 and . . .
@EvilGrav, you are being downvoted by me for patronisingly and pompously blaming the user, who spent a lot of time and effort trying to get Windows 8 working, instead of blaming Windows 8 itself.
P.S. We have come to a time where Linux is easier to install than Windows. Linux Mint installs in 20 minutes flat, with about 1 reboot, and whoosh, everything works. The Linux kernel is incredible now.
Come on Valve, work on linux, then work on half life 2ep. 3 and then do you set top box / console.
Can't wait. Having struggled to get windows 8 to work all weekend on anything graphic related I can see newell's point, I gave up and rolled back to a fully working windows 7.
Steam on linux means I can finally get rid of windows from my house. For me the metro wasn't the issue, that was pants and confusing and hopeless and no use whatsoever. But when windows 8 can't detect or run your gfx card after 3 full reinstalls (which invalidated the upgrade licence), 49 updates and a blue screen of death. Yet nvidia says it is running fine and steam kinda works, there really is no hope for it running games.
All you MS fanbois can open up now on how it is great and new and 'woot' for joy. I am happy for you, but I also don't care anymore.
Beer to hope the day windows 8 is declared vista 2 comes soon and a beer to celebrate steam consoles...
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