So, Half-Life 1/2, Portal 1/2, Left for Dead 1/2, and Team Fortress 1/2 just don't exist?  Valve published all of those.

And Steam sales are legendary.  There are over 40 million steam subscribers/members.  If that's not a mass market, I don't know what is.

As far as their own box, there's a reason they're currently developing new controllers, headsets, and a Linux platform all at the same time :)

if it was sony and/or valve i would probably stick with sony.

but if sony has to back out and i have a choice between nintendo/MS/valve.   ...valve in a landslide.

way to list MS's resume as of 2001. 

I mean publishing games not developed by themselves. Sorry for that.
and for the 40 million members number - I am 3 of those. So the real number should be way less.

Steam does a good job on PC but it would fail in the console space. The average console owner does not care much about steam except for the deals once a year. And don't get me started with casual gamers. They don't even know what Steam / Valve is.

Do you really think that a hardware developer needs to have publishing experience to enter the market?  Sony and Microsoft as far aw I'm aware did not.

While I like the input, the counter-example you've provided was not a very similar one except for it being a joint venture.

well the prior point is probably the more relevant one considering their finances.  With their cutbacks, consolidations, and deemphasis on higher risk investments, I don't see a joint venture  being something they would ever do in the near future. Sony was in a much better money situation when they did the joint venture with Ericson back in 2001 and while it turned out well they were a much better fit for each other then Valve and Sony.  They both exceedingly benfited from it.  I don't see Valve really benefitting as much from this.

I'm not really seeing how you're evidencing this.
Valve wants hardware. Valve doesn't make hardware.

Sony opened up their network, and want to create an online platform.
Gaikai will make PC gaming available on ps3, or ps4, and open the last hurdle into open platform development.

Steam meanwhile is moving into, yep, Linux platforms. PS3's OS is BASED on Linux.

Not to mention, that Playstation is already moving into 500GB drive area. A disc based console does not need 500GB....that's 10 full BluRay games. PS4 will likely see further movement into 1TB drives.
Additionally, Sony is also getting rid of the cell, which was very difficult to program for. They have already confirmed that they are moving back to regular CPUs.

Valve stands to benefit by shrugging off the closed Windows based platforms to a much more open environment where they can make a bigger slice of the profits. They would not have to make additional hardware, and could get an instant demographic of many many millions of ps3 owners.
Sony stands to benefit by allowing any and every developer out there, a way to publish onto ps3. It also serves to grow the Gaikai business, and also to push forward the age of digital distribution. Another benefit, would be to allow the cloud to power the gaming technologies to unheard of levels. With Gaikai and steam, a playstation 4 could be released with only a medium upgrade to hardware (trading out the expensive cell processor as well) to keep costs low, while simultaneously allowing certain demographics to play games that would blow away anything 720 could throw at it.

i don't really get what they want to make,are they crazy enough to launch a console

we'd still need PC's right,a steam box that bypasses MS/APPLE ?

I support the Steam Box :) Everybody should just join forces with steam including Nintendo, MS, and Sony. Never will happen but Microsoft does allow some microsoft games on steam like fable.