Valve founder Gabe Newell in an interview with Penny-Arcade, said that creating their own hardware platforms was not out of the question in the future. Although Newell admits he would prefer to use someone else’s hardware and that he has no reason to believe that his company would due any good at developing their own console, he believes it may be necessary if they don’t see enough innovation in the industry.
“…[W]e 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.” Newell explained.
Valve’s Steam software is already one of the most popular digital distribution services in the world. Could the house that Gabe built become a competitor to Sony and Microsoft in the future? Newell has been famously critical of both consoles over the past few years. If the scion of PC gaming end up fed up with his console peers, it looks like we might see the SteamStation 360 on the horizon.
