Steam Box is coming, we just don’t know when
Valve and Xi3 announced they’re working together to bring a PC to the living room that will feature Steam, Linux, Big Picture Mode and the possibility to play with a controller. Yes, it’s in fact a PC disguised as a console. However, although Valve is working together with Xi3 on this, this mini-PC isn’t the real Steam Box Valve’s been rumoured to be working on.
Valve founder Gabe Newell officially announced Bigfoot and Littlefoot at CES, Valve’s internally developed steam box. It’s coming, we just don’t know when yet and Valve made it clear they won’t officially announce anything in 2013. So might still be a year or two off, just enough time for a new generation of consoles from the big three (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) to settle in.
Newell told The Verge the following:
“We’ll come out with our own [Steam Box] and we’ll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That’ll be a Linux box,”
“If you want to install Windows you can. We’re not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination.”
In case you’re wondering what all the fuzz with Xi3′s Steam/Linux-powered mini-PC is about then, Valve made it clear they plan on having multiple Steam box devices from multiple manufacturors. So Xi3′s Piston that was shown yesterday can be one many to follow.
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