Gabe Newell wants Linux to be the future of gaming

Gabe Newell, the man behind Valve and the much loved Steam platform, gave a keynote presentation at Linuxcon yesterday, during which he went over how his vision for the future is to bind Linux and gaming together.

However, the most exciting thing about his keynote was towards the end, where  he said that next week information on how Valve intends to bring Linux to the living room and what that hardware will be, will be shared. This could mean the ‘Steambox' is almost ready to be revealed.

That being said, it's still not a confirmation, just a reiteration of what we already know. That is, that Valve has had a team working on hardware for some time now and a lot of people are very excited to see the outcome.

Valve launched Linux support for Steam, bringing it to the forefront of the digital platform, back in February. Since then, 198 games have added Linux compatibility. This trend needs to continue with more triple A games before the Steambox launches, as right now it's mostly Indie titles, but it's a good start. Gabe also mentioned that the Valve team has developed a Linux debugging tool to help relieve some of the issues that come with porting games to the platform.

The refocus on Linux has come about due to the PC becoming more of a closed platform and innovation seeming harder to come by. Combined with a move by consumers to mobile, this has led to a decline in hardware sales. In spite of this however, Valve's revenue hasn't faltered, in-fact shooting up 76 per cent. Gabe hopes the move to an open platform will bring the innovation back to the industry.

While it's not the best quality and there are some pauses the whole keynote can be viewed here:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzn6E2m3otg#t=179′]

KitGuru Says: As long as people's massive steam libraries are available on this upcoming hardware Valve have developed, then I don't see any reason why it won't be a huge success. Are you excited for the upcoming Steambox? Hopefully next week we will finally be let in on what exactly it is.

Sources: Techcrunch pcgamer

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