Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has stated the Steambox’s main competition is not Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo, but Apple from taking the living room. 

In a lecture given to the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, Newell says,

“The biggest challenge, I don’t think is from the consoles. I think the biggest challenge is that Apple moves on the living room before the PC industry sort of gets its act together,” he said.

“The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform. I think that there’s a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging – I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily.”

Newell claimed that Valve has to “make enough progress in the PC space to establish” itself, and “figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room”.

Newel also thinks that other companies will be releasing their own living room gaming devices within the next year.

“There are going to be a huge set of products that say, ‘If you want something that’s incredibly cheap, at a price point well below anything that consoles will be able to reach, you’re going to take advantage of the PC that’s running somewhere in your house,” he said.

“It’s like one of those things where afterwards it will seem like it was very simple, when beforehand, everyone sort of denied that it was possible.”

Valve plans to be at the forefront of this technology and is “happy” to be leading, because Valve’s competitors will be quick to follow.

“But they’ll have those characteristics. They’ll say, ‘Well, I could buy a console, which assumes I’ll re-buy all my content, have a completely different video system, and, oh, I have a completely different group of friends, apparently,’” he said.

“‘Or I can just extend everything I love about the PC and the internet into the living room.’”

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