Valve Launches Teaser Site For What Could Be Steam Box Announcement On Monday
We’ve all been eagerly anticipating the presumed launch of Valve’s Steam Box gaming console since last spring and especially after there was some buzz (and ultimately, misinformation) about the device at CES this year, but now it appears as though Valve is finally going to debut the device on Monday.
The company put up a teaser site that reads, “The Steam universe is expanding in 2014”. Beyond that, all the site says is, “Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads. This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room. Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.”
Sweet mystery
The only clues as to what Steam is up to is an image of a large TV woth three circles beneath it. One of the circles has a dot in the middle; one has a dot on the left side and in brackets; and the third has two circles with a plus sign in the middle, which could indicate that a potential Steam Box will be paired with some other product or service.
One of the bits we’re most interested in is who will be manufacturing the actual console. At CES, we bugged several potential manufacturers who were all mum on what was happening behind the scenes, but one or two admitted that they were in the running, or at least in talks, to get the nod. Looking from the outside in to the Valve booth, which was actually off-limits to press, we could see that there were several consoles hooked up to TVs.
Looking into Valve's CES 2013 booth
Valve wouldn’t say much other than they were meeting with potential partners during the show. For whoever snags the deal, it should be a good get. Valve’s Steam service is hugely popular, and a console would ostensibly sell well, especially if it’s priced to undercut the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Valve went all Microsoft-y on the industry and decided to build its own hardware, too. Or even better, Valve could be offering the Steam Box as more of a platform, thus creating an entire ecosystem of hardware manufacturers building devices around Steam.
All will be revealed on Monday, but for the next 48 hours or so, we all get to wildly speculate as to what Valve will reveal. Any guesses?
The company put up a teaser site that reads, “The Steam universe is expanding in 2014”. Beyond that, all the site says is, “Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads. This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room. Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.”
Sweet mystery
The only clues as to what Steam is up to is an image of a large TV woth three circles beneath it. One of the circles has a dot in the middle; one has a dot on the left side and in brackets; and the third has two circles with a plus sign in the middle, which could indicate that a potential Steam Box will be paired with some other product or service.
One of the bits we’re most interested in is who will be manufacturing the actual console. At CES, we bugged several potential manufacturers who were all mum on what was happening behind the scenes, but one or two admitted that they were in the running, or at least in talks, to get the nod. Looking from the outside in to the Valve booth, which was actually off-limits to press, we could see that there were several consoles hooked up to TVs.
Looking into Valve's CES 2013 booth
Valve wouldn’t say much other than they were meeting with potential partners during the show. For whoever snags the deal, it should be a good get. Valve’s Steam service is hugely popular, and a console would ostensibly sell well, especially if it’s priced to undercut the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Valve went all Microsoft-y on the industry and decided to build its own hardware, too. Or even better, Valve could be offering the Steam Box as more of a platform, thus creating an entire ecosystem of hardware manufacturers building devices around Steam.
All will be revealed on Monday, but for the next 48 hours or so, we all get to wildly speculate as to what Valve will reveal. Any guesses?
