Gabe Newell shrugs off Xbox One momentum

Valve managing director Gabe Newell appeared somewhat indifferent to the recent success of Xbox One during his CES presentation on Monday.

Following the announcement by Microsoft that Xbox One sales have reached three million units since the console's November 22 launch, Newell was asked by a CES audience member whether Valve's Steam Machines can manage such a feat over the next twelve months.

"Well, it'd take a while for them to catch up. I mean, we're at 65 million," Newell joked, referring to the recent announcement that Steam's user base has reached that milestone.

The Seattle corporation's new ambition is to expand Steam to the living-room with a new line of console-like devices. A line of thirteen separate Steam Machines, each with different specs and price points, was revealed by valve at CES.

Prices of the systems range from $499 up to the multiple thousands of dollars, and Valve is bundling each one with the idiosyncratic Steam Controller.

The driving ambition is for the Steam PC and Mac platform, which carries more than 2,000 games, to be fully accessible on each Linux-based Steam Machine. Presently, less than 300 Steam games are currently coded for those Linux devices, though the number is expected to naturally increase.

Newell did not directly answer the question and offer an outlook on the sales momentum of Steam Machines.

"Part of why we think that this is the right direction to go in is that we can benefit from everything that people have already done," he added.

"If I buy a game on Steam and am running it on Windows, I can go to one of the Steam Machines and I already have the game. So the benefit as a developer, you benefit as a consumer, having that PC experience extended into the living room."

Posted: Jan 07, 2014 7:23 am
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/444046/gabe-newell-shrugs-off-xbox-one-momentum/