Steam Box Prototypes Possibly Shipping Out in "Three to Four Months"

[Shawn Zipay]

In an interview with the BBC, Valve's Gabe Newell says that the studio is actively preparing working models of its Steam Box. In fact, he says that they hope to begin shipping out prototypes to consumes in about three to four months.

"We're working with partners trying to nail down exactly how fast we can make it,” Newell said. “We'll be giving out some prototypes to customers to get their reactions, I guess, in the next three to four months. Your average gamer has a good idea of what it’d be like. It sort of has the openness and flexibility of PC, yet done in a way that makes it make sense in the living room. There are noise issues and heat issues and being able to [deal with] that while still offering a powerful enough gaming experience is the challenge in building it."

Right now, Valve is still finalizing the design of the controller for the Steam Box and is still exploring the possibility of including biometric sensors.

"If you think of a game like Left For Dead - which was trying to put you into a sort of horror movie - if you don't change the experience of what the player is actually feeling then it stops being a horror game," Mr Newell explained.

"So you need to actually be able to directly measure how aroused the player is - what their heart rate is, things like that - in order to offer them a new experience each time they play."

Right now, the price is still up in the air for Valve's Steam Box. While it doesn't contain some of the bonus home entertainment support like Netflix, it also isn't able to subsidize the cost of the console like others can.

[K-16]

Xbox 720 with Kinect, PS4 with Eyetoy, and now Steambox with intent of measuring player behaviour in real-time?... Oh man, back in 1994 people were creeped out enough to consider this as sci-fi. Now we apparently express interest in having cameras watching us play, and the possibility of using biometric sensors to literally push us close to a heart attack. I never would've guessed Edward Packard could show we would have consoles with cameras pointed at us within three decades? I'm still creeped out though, so does this mean I support Ninten... No that has a camera too... And my phone has a front-facing ca... Oh God... I think I'm going to freak out now.