Valve Software is planning to release a PC package aimed towards living-room gaming. Though stopping short of a console, Gabe Newell confirmed the company's plans to release the previously-rumored "Steam Box" by next year, and follows the "stronger than expected" reaction to Steam's Big Picture mode by gamers.
Speaking in a red-carpet interview at the Video Game Awards to Kotaku, Newell said that the next step towards releasing their own hardware is to work on Steam Linux to get it out of beta, which in turn would give Valve the chance to work on suitable hardware for the platform.
He also suggested that computer manufacturers will start selling PC packages built for living rooms in the next year, which would compete with next-generation game consoles directly. "I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them," said Newell, though pointing out that the company's own hardware offering would be a "very controlled environment." While turnkey solutions for the living room exist, he believed that people could use a more general purpose PC if they wanted more flexibility.
Valve won the award for "Best Game of the Decade" for Half-Life 2 at the ceremony.
