Valve director Gabe Newell shrugged off the success of Xbox One in his CES2014 presentation yesterday, pointing to Steam’s huge user-base.
Asked by an audience member if he thought Valve’s Steam Machines could match the three million units sold that the Xbox One has managed since its November 2013 launch, Newell responded somewhat nonchalantly.
“Well, it’d take a while for them to catch up. I mean, we’re at 65 million,” he said, referring to the recent news that Steam has reached a milestone of over 65 million users. ”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. 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.”
There are around 300 games now ready to play on Valve’s upcoming Linux systems, with more expected to be converted in the future. Various third party systems were on show at CES2014, all of which will ship with the new Steam controller.
Ultimately Valve are hoping to have the entire Steam library available on these third party systems, supported by the SteamOS and playable with the Steam Controller. Newell seems confident about the bold move.
