Gabe Newell says Valve will release its own 'tightly controlled' console for the living room

[Jefke]

Valve has stayed mostly quiet about its plans to enter the hardware business, but in an interview with Kotaku at last night's Video Game Awards, Gabe Newell confirmed the company's plans to sell its own living room PC that could compete with next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The biggest revelation is that Valve seems set to release its own complete hardware and software solution. When we first reported that the company was working on a "Steam Box" back in March, it appeared that Valve was working on prototype that would establish a baseline for hardware manufacturers, but it wasn't clear if the company would sell its own product or simply release the designs to others. Newell's comments to Kotaku provide a much clearer picture of what's happening; Newell says that he expects companies to start selling PCs designed for the living room next year which Kotaku says could have Steam preloaded and that Valve will create its own distinct package.

Surprise: Valve will create its own carefully managed PC ecosystem

 

Newell suggests that the company will create its own carefully managed PC ecosystem that's distinct from the one offered by other hardware partners. A possibility that our own Sean Hollister exposed after looking at the company's comments and actions in recent years, including its aversion to Windows 8, its recent embrace of Linux, and its existing push into the living room with Big Picture Mode. Newell tells Kotaku that "our hardware will be a very controlled environment," and that some people will want a "turnkey" solution for their living room.

 

As a digital distribution platform, Steam is wildly successful, with more than five million concurrent users on any given day and over 50 million users in total (by comparison, Xbox Live has more than 40 million users). But Valve doesn't reap any income from the sale of hardware that runs its platform or the software it hosts, and the company doesn't control Windows, which is the most popular platform among computers running Steam.

Newell stopped short of saying that the company was building a Linux-based Steam OS, but he reportedly says that the next step for the company's living room operation is to enable Big Picture on Steam for Linux. From there, the timeline is still pretty murky we only know that Newell expects some hardware to show up sometime next year but Valve's intent to compete in the living room in a big way is no longer a secret.

 

 

Well, that won't be for me.

 

Tight controlled pc => DA f***

It's a console in disguise...

 

Source: http://www.theverge....-room-steam-box

Link to kotaku: http://kotaku.com/59...dium=Socialflow

Edited December 8, 2012 by DrJoske

[parrot]

I dunno about the "tightly controlled" thing, but I see the appeal for some people. I am very appreciative of their push to Linux however. I finally got my invite tot he beta a few days ago...

 

and now I've re-installed my OS 7 times by my count. Apparently beta is

 

now running Xubuntu, and I don't think I'll be installing Steam just yet. I've spent my entire damn weekend reinstalling shit lol

[Jefke]

I dunno about the "tightly controlled" thing, but I see the appeal for some people. I am very appreciative of their push to Linux however. I finally got my invite tot he beta a few days ago...

 

and now I've re-installed my OS 7 times by my count. Apparently beta is

 

now running Xubuntu, and I don't think I'll be installing Steam just yet. I've spent my entire damn weekend reinstalling shit lol

 

Yeah, I got into steam for linux beta without applying

[parrot]

 

How's that working out for you?

[Jefke]

 

How's that working out for you?

 

Haven't used it yet

I know I got invited to beta (think in second round, not the first 1000), had mail about it, but since laptop cleanup I no longer have an ubuntu distro running.

 

Valve tend to invite me for all the stuff for some reason: cs:go, dota2, big screen, source video maker, steam for linux beta. => Only applied for cs:go and dota2

Probably will install an ubuntu distro somewhere next week to test it ^^