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Valve will make its own gaming PC, Half-Life creator says

Valve head Gabe Newell has laid bare his company's plans to release a PC for the lounge next year.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Half-Life creator Valve will make its own gaming PC that will compete with next-gen consoles from the likes of Sony and Microsoft.

Gaming legend Gabe Newell talked about the company's plans in an interview with Kotaku at the Video Game Awards. While we heard previously that Valve was thinking of releasing an open-source set of console specs for others to play around with (like the Android of gaming), now it seems the company is set on doing it all itself, with a console and software ready to go out of the box. Sony and Microsoft, be worried.

The PC will be designed for the living room, according to Newell. He expects a surge in living room PCs next year, and Valve will be at the forefront.

It's likely to be an Apple-style affair, by the sound of it. Newell said the PC would offer a carefully managed ecosystem that was unlike any other. "Our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he said. "The nice thing about a PC is a lot of different people can try out different solutions. Customers can find the ones that work for them," he added.

Newell didn't say Valve would make its own operating system, but did mention that Steam's Big Picture would feature. Big Picture optimises the resolution of games for HD TVs instead of PC monitors. So Valve most definitely has its sights set on your lounge.

He also said Valve was working on its next-generation engine, which should work with next-generation consoles. "Hopefully that's gonna give us some interesting opportunities on the game side," he said.

I'll say. A gaming PC for the lounge that works with your next-gen consoles? Sign me up. What would you like to see from a Valve gaming PC? And how much would you be prepared to pay? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.