UPDATED 11:25 EDT / MARCH 06 2013

An Open Valve Releasing Steam…Box – Breaking Analysis

 

Over the past year or so, there’s been a lot of discussion revolving around the folks over at Valve.

Valve, the PC gaming developer, publisher, and distributor is already a giant in the world of gaming, but their newest venture may be their biggest move yet.  They intend on releasing their own console.

Now it appears that they’ve gone beyond mere intention, as they are planning to release prototypes of their console as early as June.  The big question is, will they be able to contend with the market’s current top-dogs?

Clearly, there will be some startup issues for Valve’s fearless leader, Gabe Newell, to tackle.  As SiliconANGLE founding editor Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins commented, “Anybody that follows Kickstarter…knows that people who get into the hardware business for the first time 100% of the time experience difficulties.”  He added, commenting about Valve’s transition from software to hardware, “Doing hardware and doing software are two completely different animals.”

To add to the concerns over the Steam Box’s hardware, Newell was quoted as saying “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.”  To add to this issue, Valve has yet to even finalize their controller – an issue that had many users of the original Xbox controller groaning about for years.

Still, Hopkins was quick to avoid dismissing the upcoming console, commenting, “I would never count out any third party player,” and that was probably a good assessment, considering Valve’s history in the gaming community.

Steam, Valve’s flagship PC software distribution platform, has over 50 million registered accounts, so there’s no shortage of users who are already pleased with Valve’s products.

Furthermore, when you take into account the success of the games that Valve already owns and distributes to other consoles, it’s easy to see why they would want to make their own console.

Still, it’s very early in the life of the Steam Box, and until users can get their hands on one come Summertime, all we can do is wait and see what Valve has in store.

You can be sure we will continue to follow this story, so if you want to keep up with this and other developing news in the gaming industry, don’t forget to watch us live and online on the Morning NewsDesk Show with Kristin Feledy.

 photo credit: AshTR via photopin cc
 photo credit: Threeboy via photopin cc

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