Valve’s Gabe Newell is of the opinion that PC companies will release living room friendly packages next year which will ultimately compete with next-gen consoles.

Speaking with Kotaku at the VGAs last night, Newell said Valve is looking into ways in which PCs can work better in the living room now that Steam’s Big Picture mode interest has been “stronger than expected.”

Newell said PC packages for the living room could be systems designed to plug into users’ television sets which could ultimately run Steam out of the box.

“I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them,” he said. “Cause 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?’ So in a sense we hopefully are gonna unify those environments.

“[Valve will ] do it but we also think other people will as well. Certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment. 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.”

Newell said Valve is currently working on its next-gen engine, which will provide the firm with “interesting opportunities” for both PC and next-gen consoles.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/08/valves-gabe-newell-expects-living-room-pcs-to-compete-with-next-gen-consoles/

Sounds like some steam boxes could be comming next year. I wonder if they will be running linux and boot straight into Steam big picture 

I already have a pc in my living room as a media player, granted it is a small netbook, but does the job haha.

So combning gaming and media functions (not restricted) I will be happy with that. Otherwise ill just stick with a windows machine with steam on it.

Not going to happen because most people don't want to work with there systems and want something that just works out of the box in which they play with people they know around them.

Ok I guess he talking console more than pc which doesn't make sense but ok!

I hope this comes true. That steam "PC" for all the multplats and the U for Nintendo games and I would be set. I hope I can use the Pro Controller with the Steambox.

It sounds from what he is saying a controlled PC in which comes with everything you mention but if it's still using the idea of use any general PC then it will still have lead to the same problems unless they have standard PC . My last message was me being sarcastic saying unless its a console it will still be pointless as it will only appeal to PC users.

 Just because you give me give all the stuff doesn't change the fact of a needed standard PC for this thing to work.

This t.v and controllers aren't going to appeal to the mass market if there isn't a standard PC. 

You can already do everything he is doing. Play on tv with PC and steam. Them making a thing with controllers and other isn't going to change anything. Will steam being pre-installed help? Maybe a little but it's going to be confusing without a standard PC because they don't anything about it.

When a person buys a Sony system or mircosoft they know all there games are going to work and what to do if they don't with PC your left to yourself which is confusing to a casual. It all seems pointless for a mass market stand point.

I hope it turns out well. I don't see it necessarily replacing consoles though.

So, what does this mean, exactly? PC games have varying system requirements; Is the Steam Box gonna have all graphical settings pre-configured to achieve optimum performance? If so, what exactly is optimum performance? I'm guessing these systems won't be upgradable, so if I were to purchase Valve's steambox in 2013, would I be able to properly run games in 2017? If not, what's the point of buying one over a console?

if steam will grow as fast as the last years which means more and more people take note about steam i can really see it competing with the big three and giving them a hard time.

seriously, if i look at the online number of steam i have the feeling it's growing every week. maybe i'm wrong but i don't really believe i just dream that and valve doesn't really advertise for steam, if gabe would start to advertise for it with the money he has (which is a lot) and would invest little bit more to start developing more own exclusive games it would grow even faster and next gen console will start with 0 users.

and maybe they may even include a modded version of Windows.