Rumor: Valve Working on a Steam Gaming Console?
22.05.12
It could be said that a gaming console is basically just a PC in a box: A box you can't open or modify without voiding your warranty, and one that runs a proprietary operating system that you can't really alter or install additional software on.
And it seems that Valve the company behind Steam, the digital distribution service for gamers on PCs is taking this concept literally. The Verge's Joshua Topolsky threw down a report last night that indicates Valve is allegedly working on a set-top console that would compete directly against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
The Core i7-based "Steam Box," an unofficial name, would run an Nvidia-based GPU and would allegedly allow gamers to install rival gaming services on the box as well but there's no indication so far that living room gamers would be given free rein to do whatever they please with the PC-in-a-living-room. Rumors suggest that Alienware's X51 was designed based on an early load-out of Valve's system: Doesn't help much that the X51 practically looks like a console, too.
Source: PC Magazine