PC gaming digital distribution platform company Valve has been rumoured to be working on hardware that would bring the Steam platform into the living room for some time, something which has now been confirmed by Valve head Gabe Newell.
Newell, speaking to gaming website Kotaku at the Spike 2012 Video Game Awards, has said that Valve is expecting companies to start releasing gaming PCs targeted at the living room in 2013 and that Valve is also going to be getting into the hardware action.
“I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them. Cause they won’t have to split the world into thinking about ‘why are my friends in the living room, why are my video sources in the living room different from everyone else?’ So in a sense we hopefully are gonna unify those environments.”
Steam’s recently-released Big Picture feature, which allows standard PCs to translate Steam games onto a television screen, and the upcoming Steam Linux version will be instrumental in creating low-cost machines that can compete in the home console space.
“If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that’s what some people are really gonna want for their living room.”
Source: Ars Technica