Valve's Gabe Newell drops some not-so-subtle hints about their plans for the big screen

When Gabe Newell talks, he almost always has something interesting to say. It was no different for the Valve co-founder this weekend at the Spike's VGA Awards. How does a Steam "console" for your living room sound?

In speaking with Kotaku's Jason Schreier:

"Newell said Valve's current goal was to figure out how to make PCs work better in the living room. He said the reaction to Steam's TV-friendly Big Picture interface has been "stronger than expected," and that their next step is to get Steam Linux out of beta and to get Big Picture on that operating system, which would give Valve more flexibility when developing their own hardware."

Big Picture of course is Valve's first step towards getting the steam platform ready for the big screen. It seems hardware might be next, competing with next-gen consoles from the big boys:

"He also expects companies to start selling PC packages for living rooms next year—setups that could consist of computers designed to be hooked up to your TV and run Steam right out of the gate. And yes, Newell said, they'd compete with next-gen consoles from companies like Microsoft and Sony."

While the notion of a PC-based console in your living room paints a picture of things like upgradeable graphics cards, Newell cautioned that their hardware will be "a very controlled environment" and "if you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC."

Perhaps we might also see the new-fangled controller that Valve secured a patent to last year?

I for one welcome whatever our new Valve overlords have planned. Head over to Kotaku for the full read!

Bill "Lethality" Leonard

Source: Kotaku