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A Steam-centric PC designed to live under consumers’ TVs will likely be launched in 2013, according to Valve boss Gabe Newell.
Speaking to Kotaku, Newell revealed that the reaction to its recently released TV-friendly Big Picture mode for Steam has been stronger than he expected.
As a result, plans to flesh out the Linux version of Steam have been accelerated in order to give the company greater flexibility with its new hardware.
"We’ll do it but we also think other people will as well," Newell said of plans to launch such a system. "I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that the PC is a better environment for them because 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?’.
He also admitted that this new market will likely be quite diverse, with many options open to the consumer.
"Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he admitted. "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."
