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Valve Crushes Our Console Dreams

Valve Crushes Our Console Dreams

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Earlier this week, the Internet rumor mill uncovered several pieces of evidence that seemed to indicate that Valve was about to dive headfirst into the console market. The console, dubbed “Steam Box” by the masses on the Internet, was said to operate like Google’s Android operating system, or the 3DO. Names like Alienware even started getting tossed around as possible partners in the hardware production, but the folks at Valve were being pretty tight-lipped about the gossip.

Well, the developer has finally broken their silence, and our dreams of a Steam-based console along with them. In an interview with Kotaku, Valve’s marketing director Doug Lombardi indicated that no console was currently in the works.



“We’re prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we’re building boxes to test that on,” says Lombardi, speaking about a new interface that would make connecting a PC to a TV more user-friendly. “The idea is that you can take Steam to any display. What we’re trying to do is say, ‘here’s a box that we’re going to use for testing that’s common for Big Picture mode and get performance at a base level.’”

He added, “We’re always putting boxes together. Going all the way back to the Half-Life 1 days, we built special boxes to test our software render… it’s just part of development. All of that is stuff that we’re working on, but it’s a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware.”

So there you have it, kids. Valve has no plans to dip their toe into the console market, at least not any time soon. I guess the Internet will have to find something new to obsess about, but that shouldn’t take very long.

By Josh Engen

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