Well, it's official: Valve is entering the hardware market with its Steam Box (internally codenamed Bigfoot) a powerful, low-cost, small form factor console equivalent for your TV that boots into Steam Big Picture mode. The recent attention Valve has been giving Linux now makes sense, as the Steam Box will run Linux natively but allow users to install Windows, if they wish, without much fuss.
However, there won't just be one Steam Box. Though there will be one official Valve product, the developer has partnered with, and is funding, a number of hardware manufacturers to create similar small form factor solutions for Steam Big Picture mode. One of these is Xi3's project (pictured), codenamed -Piston" (geddit? Steam Piston? Yes, you get it, good on you), based upon the manufacturer's previous model, the X7A.
What this means is Valve isn't entering the console market and competing with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, so much as it's saying "Here's how we think a console should function" and leaving the hardware development with various degrees of openness. What unifies them is ultimately Steam itself. And with Valve pursuing high-precision, low-latency controllers with biometric functions over the lagginess of motion control, it's finally be time for existing console manufacturers to sit up, and listen. Their hold over players with such closed platforms is about to come to an end.
