Over the last week, rumors have been running rampant that Valve Software is secretly working on and planning to soon announce its first foray into the console game with a platform known as the Steam Box. Unfortunately for any who hoped these rumors had merit, Valve Marketing Director Doug Lombardi stated early today at GDC that the company will not be moving in that direction anytime soon.
Lombardi clarified that Valve is currently working on a new interface that will make Steam easily useable for those who wish to use the online gaming service on a PC that is connected to their TV, among other projects, and that making a console was not on its to do list.
“All of that is stuff that we’re working on, but it’s a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware,” he stated.
This doesn’t mean that it will never happen. When asked by Kotaku if a Valve console could be possible at some point in the future despite no current plans for one, Lombardi entertained its likelihood.
“I think that’s accurate,” he responded.
Rumors of a Valve console got hot last week when The Verge reported that the company had placed patents for configurable controllers and that the studio could have been looking into creating hardware in the way that Google had with the Android. It also cited specs similar to a PC built by a Valve employee late last year as evidence (shown above), but Lombardi revealed that it was merely a special box that the studio has made several times over the years to test its software.
“We’re always putting boxes together,” he said. “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.”
[Kotaku]
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