There have been a few Steam Box reveals this week: firstly, Xi3 announced a partnership with Valve to create a tiny modular PC codenamed Piston, which will make a first appearance at CES 2013.
Next, a Valve official told Polygon that there would be meeting with developers to show off other custom hardware prototypes too.. described as “low-cost, high-performance designs for the living room”.
Gabe Newell then gave an interview to The Verge, in which he talked about the Steam box, as well as biometrics and the future of gaming.
So, while Valve will be working with various partners to produce a range of systems, Valve will be creating something much more tightly controlled themselves too, running on Linux. Valve also aims to allow consumers to install whatever they like on the machine, even Windows, and allow access to Netflix and the like; the intention is for the box to be connected throughout the house. There are even plans for mobile, with a box codenamed ‘Littlefoot’; the Steam Box is ‘Bigfoot’.