As some of you guys might have heard by now, Valve plans to invade the living room of gamers with their Steam Box, a console-like device that will be able to play Steam games. In fact Gabe Newell of Valve recently said that in a few months, he expects that they will be handing out several prototype units to customers for feedback and testing. While that sounds like a great idea, will Valve’s Steam Box be able to compete with the likes of Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft who are more established as far as consoles are concerned?
Speaking at Microsoft’s TechForum, president of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick was asked if he thought that Valve’s Steam Box could pose a threat to the Xbox franchise. Rather than step lightly around the situation, Mattrick replied with a rather blunt “no”, but at the same time he did admit that Valve is “doing some innovative stuff”. His response isn’t too surprising but considering that the Steam Box will run games available on the Steam platform which is currently used by many players, Valve will already have an established player base, with the main difference being that these players will be accessing their games from a different source.
At the same time we suppose we will have to wait and see what Microsoft’s plans are for their next-gen console which is rumored for an April launch, and if it will prove to be impressive enough to keep Microsoft in the game and ahead of the competition.