Sep 21, 2013

Valve Hints at Steam Box

Valve is teasing new hardware-related announcements coming next week. As reported by Ars Technica, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell spoke at LinuxCon in New Orleans today, saying, “It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming. It's sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope."



He continued by teasing, “Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room.”

This is hardly a surprise from Newell, who has championed Linux in the past by bringing Steam to Linux and repeatedly touting the strength of an open source future.

Earlier this year, Newell discussed how Linux can reinvent gaming, noting that Linux helps Valve “make sure we have the freedom to innovate and pursue the opportunities all of us see,” and saying that “Linux is kind of a get out of jail free pass for our industry if we need it.” He added that “our company wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the openness of PC. Steam wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the openness of the internet. Our industry will be best in the long run if there’s an open platform for innovation and competition.”

Valve first confirmed hardware development last year and later put up a post seeking beta testers with a hardware beta due soon afterwards. In March, Newell said Valve was readying a prototype, but little is known about Valve’s actual hardware.

We’ve reached out to Valve for more information about its Steam Box plans and will update this story with any comment we receive.

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