CES 2013: Valve still developing its own Steam Box

At CES 2013, Xi3 and Valve unveiled the Piston, a name being used for a "development stage product" that is designed for gamers to enjoy Steam games anywhere. News of the Piston dominated headlines as it was thought to be Valve's long-rumored Steam Box console which, yet again, is described as being a home gaming console based on Valve's PC game service. However, in a recent interview with The Verge, Valve boss Gabe Newell revealed the company still has plans for "its own" Steam Box.

"We’ll come out with our own and we’ll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That’ll be a Linux box, [and] if you want to install Windows you can," Newell said. "We’re not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination. We also think that a controller that has higher precision and lower latency is another interesting thing to have."

Newell talked about the company's "Good, Better, or Best" approach to the Steam Box, which is a simplified way of saying we could see tiers of hardware ranging from low-cost streaming solutions to "whatever those guys want to manufacture."

"It's been surprisingly difficult when we say to people, 'Don't put an optical media drive in there,' and they put an optical media drive in there and you're like, 'That makes it hotter, that makes it more expensive, and it makes the box bigger.' Go ahead," he said.

Valve's current position is: "let's build a thing that's quiet and focuses on high performance and quiet and appropriate form factors."

You can read more about Newell's take on the Steam Box and other neat gadgets that could revolutionize the industry at The Verge.