Valve Deny Steam Box Rumours, Talk Up Big Picture

Following rumours circulated by The Verge, Valve has told Kotaku that they are experimenting with biometrics and connecting PCs to TVs. However: "All of that is stuff that we're working on, but it's a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware." Marketing VP Doug Lombardi said: "We're prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we're building boxes to test that on." Lombardi denied that the boxes were prototype of a home console, and instead suggested it was simply a part of the current Steam development process, allowing them to make it easier for us to play PC games on our TV. It's not a denial that Valve would ever head in that direction, and they've reiterated that they might ship hardware eventually, but the purported "Steam Box" (okay, Steam Engine, if you like) looks like hot air for now.