Valve is working on Steam Box game console

Valve CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed that the company wants to release its own game console based on PC hardware. Also, ‘Steam Boxes’ could possibly be built by other companies to compete with Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

Newell made his statements opposite Kotaku. According to the Valve CEO, PCs will be released next year that are specifically designed for use in the living room and for gaming. These ‘Steam Boxes’ would give direct access to Valve’s Steam platform. Such plans from Valve have been rumored for a long time.

Newell expects other companies to develop such systems, but Valve would also have concrete plans to release its own ‘Steam Box’. Although the system would be based on PC hardware, according to Newell it would be a relatively closed platform as opposed to a normal PC. Nevertheless, using PC hardware would give not only Valve, but also other companies, the opportunity to experiment with different hardware combinations.

The first priority for Valve, according to Newell, is to release the Linux version of Steam. This client, along with some Valve games, is currently available as beta software. Although the Valve director does not yet want to reveal which operating system will form the basis of the Steam Box game computers, it is not inconceivable that these will run on Ubuntu.

According to Newell, the new Big Picture mode in Steam has been very well received by users. This interface is intended to serve the PC gamer with an interface optimized for televisions and game controllers. Furthermore, Newell thinks the PC platform offers game developers more opportunities, because the Steam Box would also give them access to home gaming, a market currently dominated by game consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.