The Next-Gen Question: Valve's Steam Box Will Run Linux, Launch Amid a Legion of Similar Hardware

It's no secret that the current console generation has grown a bit long in the tooth, and in the absence of new consoles from the likes of Sony and Microsoft, independent companies have leapt into the fray to make their mark in sight of consumers' eager eyes. While most spectators expect Valve to lead the revolution, Polygon's recent interview with company CEO Gabe Newell betrays a more open ended reality: the 'Steam Box' is more tool than console, a function rather than a product of its parts.

Herding Cats

"We think that there are plusses and minuses to open systems that could make things a little messier, it's much more like herding cats," says Newell. "So we try to take the pieces where we're going to add the best value and then encourage other people to do it. [I]t tends to mean that a lot of people get involved. We're not imposing a lot of restrictions on people on how they're getting involved."

One such cat is the Xi3 corporation, which announced its Xi3 Piston modular PC this week at CES 2013. Some have taken to calling the Piston a Steam Box by the virtue of Valve's known investment in the project, but Newell suggests that it will merely be one of the choices available to gamers. Xi3's foray into modular computing will run $999 for a quad-core 64-bit x86-based processor, a cap of 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and can fit as much as a terabyte of SSD data.  

As for Valve's own proprietary hardware, Gabe tells Polygon: "We'll come out with our own and we'll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That'll be a Linux box, [and] if you want to install Windows you can...This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination."

An Open Source Philosophy

Valve's trademark support of open source platforms speaks to a larger philosophy that entrusts users and the company's business partners with the freedom to generate and choose their own content, as evidenced by Steam Greenlight.

Newell admits, "We tend to think of Steam as tools for content developers and tools for producers."

While the advent of the next Xbox and Playstation consoles are just around the corner, the deluge of portable Android gaming devices, and promise of multiple Steam Boxes, several wildcards threaten to unthread the fabric of traditional gaming. But who's to say that's a bad thing?