Valve's Rumored Console, "The Steam Box."

[twonunpackmule]

Speaking in a long interview with Penny Arcade, Valve co-founder and MD Gabe Newell has said that Valve's technological experimentation could extend to making hardware if that became necessary.

"If we have to sell hardware we will," Newell says. "We have no reason to believe we're any good at it; it's more we think that we need to continue to have innovation, and if the only way to get these kind of projects started is by us going and developing and selling the hardware directly then that's what we'll do."

This isn't something that the company is currently involved with, although Newell also talks in detail about the experimental innovations that he's interested in - including wearable computing. "It's definitely not the first thought that crosses our mind; we'd rather hardware people that are good at manufacturing and distributing hardware do that. We think it's important enough that if that's what we end up having to do, then that's what we end up having to do."


Image credit: Penny Arcade Report

Newell feels that the current method of hardware production needs to change as technology moves forward. "We're thinking of trying to figure out how to do the equivalent of the [Team Fortress] incremental approach in software design and try to figure out how would you get something similar to that in the hardware space as well," he says.

"[...] We just need to figure out how we can start giving these to customers and iterating on the design quickly enough without having to go off and buy ten million of them and then find out we did something mildly stupid and then having to throw them all away and start over."

He also expressed a desire to see consoles become more open, now that proprietary technology is less of an issue than it used to be.

"Internally developed proprietary graphics solutions on the consoles, they're all gone - everything in the console space is coming from the PC now, and I think that we really need to see the same thing in terms of just general attitudes about platforms," Newell states. "I would push them very hard to stop thinking of themselves as being a platform for everything that already exists and start betting on the inventiveness and the benefits that you would get by embracing a more open approach to the internet and game delivery and game business models and things like that."

"I think that you either embrace the new approaches or you go away. I mean, Sega and Atari and lots of others - Vectrex, Commodore... you either figure out how to move forward or you get left behind."

Newell also talks at length about Steam, figuring out when to reveal its new projects, unwittingly annoying the fans and the philosphy of pricing. You can check out the full interview right here.

http://games.ign.com/articles/121/1219072p1.html

Needless to say, I'd buy whatever they put out.

---

The rest of the interview goes off into interesting territory.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...nd-whether-w/1

[gamma626]

Valve, shut up and release Half-Life 3 already.

[CorruptedDragon]

Innovation? How about a new engine! They have been using the same engine since 2004. Sure they have added a bit to it, but it still looks old by todays standards. Loved the Portal games but the graphics and animation are just so Source-ey.

[Bane]

And the hardware would be released in 2037 after announcing it at E3 next year. Or they would just hire people from Nintendo, Sony, and MS to make it for them.

*waits for Troy to ban me*

[CorruptedDragon]

And the hardware would be released in 2037 after announcing it at E3 next year. Or they would just hire people from Nintendo, Sony, and MS to make it for them.

*waits for Troy to ban me*

Not only that but the Hardware would also be released in Episodes and modded hardware would also be sold by them.

Error - Game disc requires Valve Spigot System Episode 2 to play. Your system version is Episode 1.

WTF I'm using Valve Counter-System mod 2 though!!!

[twonunpackmule]

And the hardware would be released in 2037 after announcing it at E3 next year. Or they would just hire people from Nintendo, Sony, and MS to make it for them.

*waits for Troy to ban me*

No, you're merely reiterating his points. He doesn't want to make hardware. He's just merely putting out an idle threat/statement...that if they have to, they will. I don't know if I support the open platform of consoles, as I fear it would lead to a stagnant market. Competition is what I feel drives it. Either it hardware or software. So, I don't know exactly where I sit in that camp. But, I wouldn't think Valve are in a rush to enter a market they have little experience in. They aren't hardware guys, and he knows it.

Personally, I see them coming out with a Apple/Google TV like device. Something that's reasonable cheap and replaceable/upgradable in a biyearly fashion. I definitely see it as a modular design.

I do think the hardware will be out close to the end of the century. It'll probably be the launch platform for Episode 3.

[CorruptedDragon]

No, you're merely reiterating his points. He doesn't want to make hardware. He's just merely putting out an idle threat/statement...that if they have to, they will. I don't know if I support the open platform of consoles, as I fear it would lead to a stagnant market. Competition is what I feel drives it. Either it hardware or software. So, I don't know exactly where I sit in that camp. But, I wouldn't think Valve are in a rush to enter a market they have little experience in. They aren't hardware guys, and he knows it. Personally, I see them coming out with a Apple/Google TV like device. Something that's reasonable cheap and replaceable/upgradable in a biyearly fashion.

They are also hardly software guys at this point. They seem to like being a store better than designing games.

[twonunpackmule]

They are also hardly software guys at this point. They seem to like being a store better than designing games.

Because they don't flood the market every six months? Instead, release insanely good product every few years? Yeah, they don't know software. *sarcasm*

Valve contains their elite status because of the fact they don't flood. If Half Life or Valve like, say, Ubisoft or Activision, and releasing product every year, I'd probably not have as much respect or interest in their product. I/They would creatively be tapped out. I would, more or less, see less importance in the worlds they've created because I would have been overexposed.

There's nothing wrong with not flooding the freaking market.

[Bane]

Personally, I see them coming out with a Apple/Google TV like device. Something that's reasonable cheap and replaceable/upgradable in a biyearly fashion.

I could easily see them doing this. I've read that a TV menu for steam is one of their most requested products.

[TheAnalogKid]

Shorter Valve: Hey guys, we can also make cheap Chinese shit....if we wanted.

[twonunpackmule]

Error - Game disc requires Valve Spigot System Episode 2 to play. Your system version is Episode 1.

I doubt there would be game disc at all.

[twonunpackmule]

I could easily see them doing this. I've read that a TV menu for steam is one of their most requested products.

Yeah, the small set top boxes are rather neat. I've been tempted in getting a Google TV box because of the open ended app support. Though, Apple TV has XBMC - Xbox Media Center. Which, is the best media player software I've ever used.

[Onslaught X]

Tôi đặt cược EA làm cho một giao diện điều khiển xuất xứ nguồn đầu tiên, bởi vì nó tốt hơn.

[twonunpackmule]

What was that?

[CorruptedDragon]

Because they don't flood the market every six months? Instead, release insanely good product every few years? Yeah, they don't know software. *sarcasm*

Valve contains their elite status because of the fact they don't flood. If Half Life or Valve like, say, Ubisoft or Activision, and releasing product every year, I'd probably not have as much respect or interest in their product. I/They would creatively be tapped out. I would, more or less, see less importance in the worlds they've created because I would have been overexposed.

There's nothing wrong with not flooding the freaking market.

I'm not saying they should flood every 6 months but every 2 years is reasonable.
Half Life 2 came out in 2004 and Episode 1 came out in 2006. Episode 2 then came out in 2007.

Um....5 years already and no Episode 3 in sight? 5 Years and it will use the same tech that was launched 8 years ago? They have gotten lazy. I know you live Valve and would never say anything against them but come on. They haven't released their own game in 5 years! People were mocking games like Alan Wake because it took 5 years to make.

Yeah, they did Left4Dead and L4D2 and they were able to pump those out one year and then the next. Why not Half Life? 5 years is kind of ridiculous for an episode and not even Half Life 3.