These have been hectic days for Valve and its rumored dedicated gaming hardware: it exists, it doesn’t, it’s coming, it’s not and so on. Numerous rumored reports have been spotted but none confirmed up until this morning, when Valve’s boss Gabe Newell has finally confirmed that a new Valve hardware is indeed in development.
Yesterday a new console, developed by Xi3 and financially backed by Valve was shown at CES, but that wasn’t the rumored Steambox: Gabe Newell confirmed that the now confirmed “Steambox” is codenamed Bigfoot and, like rumored, it’s gonna be powered by Linux. The use of Linux as OS confirms the desire of flexibility: players who wish to install Windows may do so freely.
Bigfoot will include a controller with high precision and low latency, probably coming without any motion controlling, using some new Biometrics technology: Newell said that using the fingers as controllers is definitely more precise than standard motion controlling.
The Steam Box will be able to do anything a regular pc does: the console is also coming with an Internet Browser. Thanks to its capabilities, the console will also allow more than 8 players playing on the same console but on different Tvs around the house.
The Bigfoot hardware is not the only thing in the works: Valve want to enter the mobile market as well, with a second project called Littlefoot, yet to be detailed.
