Valve had been teasing new announcements this week, and the first dropped yesterday: SteamOS, a Valve-developed, Linux-based operating system designed for the TV and the living room. Does it come across as Valve moving away from Steam as we know it, or is this just another pillar for PC gaming to stand tall on?

SteamOS

My first and most obvious reaction was that this reminded me of Google announcing Chrome OS to go with their popular web browser. (Ok, maybe that wasn’t my first reaction – it was more like, “I want this,” but I’m being trying to be analytical here). If I look at it as a Chrome/Chrome OS kind of move, I think that this is a limited risk decision that won’t hurt Valve but could potentially help it so long as it is developed concurrently alongside the current version most PC gamers use daily instead of in lieu of it.

The biggest hurdle will be convincing people who don’t already have a media center PC on their televisions to get and set one up. If only there was a simple solution, like one box that people could just buy and attach to their TVs. A Steam box.

Ok, yes, I know Valve has already all but announced their intention to build a Steam Box, but it’s neither official yet nor do we know what hardware it will contain. With two more announcements due this week, though, it may not be long before we all find out.