In an interview with gaming magazine Kotaku Valve’s Gabe Newell has revealed that you’ll be able to buy a living room friendly Steam-powered PC package next year. There have been rumours about some kind of gaming hardware release from Valve for several months, now things look set to materialise. Also recently Valve has constructed and made available a kiosk/console style TV-friendly interface to interact with Steam – the Big Picture Mode.
Big Picture Mode
Kotaku cornered Newell at the Video Game Awards on Friday night where the Valve head honcho revealed that the newly launched Big Picture Mode has been proving “stronger than expected”. Also the next step in Valve’s plans is to get Steam Linux out of beta testing so that the company can pair it with its own hardware to sell into the living room space. The Steam powered living room set-top box/PC should run Steam “right out of the gate” and hook up to your big living room TV, competing directly with the incumbent and next generation home consoles.
“I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them,” Newell told Kotaku. “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.”
Talking about the hardware Newell said, “Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment. 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.” He added that “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.” Custom building options are something that many HEXUS readers will appreciate.
Newell said he expects other companies to release Steam PC packages for living room gaming alongside Valve's own effort. It will be interesting to see the designs and specifications for the machines when they arrive next year. Of course it’s not just about the PC designs, a games console controller design is incredibly important and I wonder what innovations Valve could show us in this aspect. Earlier in the year Valve said with regard to input devices, in a job vacancy advertisement, that “We’re not talking about me-too mice and gamepads here – help us invent whole new gaming experiences”.
