Steam Box’s Living Room Dreams Threatened By Apple

Valve co-creator Gabe Newell was forthright during a lecture at the University of Texas as he claims that Apple, and not your garden variety consoles, will serve as a direct threat to the company's highly anticipated Steam Box.

As reported by Polygon, Newell believes the folks at Cupertino will compete with Valve to gain a foothold in today's gaming family. "Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway toward entering the living room with their platform," said Newell. "I think 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. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?"

Although Valve is not releasing the Steam Box this year, its goal to serve as a console and as a server has garnered attention in the PC gaming community. The idea of successfully, and seamlessly, integrating several home televisions through the use of Steam Box is one of Valve's primary goals, and such a feat will definitely corner the market. But since Apple is known for cutting other companies' momentum by the knees (as witnessed by this week's unveiling of the 128GB iPad release, four days before the February 9th release of the Microsoft Surface Pro), Newell's comments may be prophetic.