We might already have heard from Nvidia about its new Shield console and we certainly know that the Ouya is up and running, but Valve has been relatively quiet about its own console offerings. Now though, according to an engineer at the company, we know it'll run Linux and that it'll arrive before the year is out.

This news comes from German website Golem (thanks PCgamesN), which claims to have got the information from Valve engineer Ben Krasnow. Mr Krasnow confirmed that Windows would not be the back bone of the new Steam machine, Linux would be. This will not be a surprise to some, since Gabe Newell has been a vocal opponent of Windows 8 and has talked up the open nature of Linux in the past.

Krasnow also revealed that the Steam Box would be unveiled for the first time at one of this year's gaming expos. There are quite a few it could potentially be, but the two most likely culprits are the Game Developers Conference in March, or at the E3 Expo in June.

Beyond this, we don't know a whole lot about the Steam box at the moment, but it seems likely that it will be a reasonably powerful, but not expensive setup that can run Steam's big picture mode, as well as the majority of the platform's older and less graphically strenuous titles.

KitGuru Says: I'm almost more excited by this than I am any of the other consoles planned for release this year. If only because it'll mean I won't have to cart my PC into the lounge when I want to play on the TV.

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