Remember the Piston? It was a modular PC that was meant to run Steam in Big Picture mode on a TV. Well, even though the Piston is a box, that runs Steam, it’s not the fabled Steam-Box. No, Valve’s own in-house mini-pc is still under development, but a prototype should be ready within the next four months.
Gabe Newell let this information drop before yesterday’s BAFTA awards where he was being honored with an Academy Fellowship. He went on to say that most of the preliminary work on the console is already complete. However, there are still a few bugs to work out. “There are noise issues and heat issues and being able to [deal with] that while still offering a powerful enough gaming experience is the challenge in building it.”
Newell went on to talk about possibilities for the new controller that Valve is developing. We have already heard rumors that Valve was considering integrating biometric feedback into their controllers. It would be able to measure the player’s heart rate and tailor gaming experiences (especially horror experiences) directly to their current state of emotions.
Finally, Newell once again confirmed that he could not talk about Half Life 2: Episode 3, or Half-Life 3. No surprises there, but at least he is consistent.
Source: Eurogamer