Valve boss Gabe Newell has announced this week that the company will be launching a console built for the living room next year.
Newell says the company's main focus now is how to make PCs work better in the living room on the big screen. The first step was releasing their "Big Picture" UI earlier this year.
PC packages that are designed to run on a TV will be launched next year, by Valve and by other manufacturers, with each being able to run Steam flawlessly out of the gate.
Newell says the PCs will compete with the Xbox 8 and the PS4.
"I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them," Newell noted to 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. We'll do it but we also think other people will as well."
The Valve head did note that their console would not be as open as the average computer: "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. 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."
PC packages that are designed to run on a TV will be launched next year, by Valve and by other manufacturers, with each being able to run Steam flawlessly out of the gate.
Newell says the PCs will compete with the Xbox 8 and the PS4.
"I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them," Newell noted to 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. We'll do it but we also think other people will as well."
The Valve head did note that their console would not be as open as the average computer: "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. 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."
