Hey, you guys remember when everybody made those hilarious rumours about Valve releasing it's own console? Well, they weren't kidding. Gabe Newell has confirmed the release of "Steam Box" will be sometime in 2013.

Supposedly, the device will essentially be a Steam-based PC for the TV, running with Big Picture support. If you haven't been watching Steam recently, you'll have missed a significant amount of updates to Valve's Source games, allowing controller support to work with Big Picture, a new UI designed especially for running on your own TV.

Newell commented that the Steam Box will be a controlled hardware environment, indicating that there will be no support for 3rd party console modifications, similar to the Xbox, Wii and PS3, despite the fact this being called a "PC". Either way, Newell claimed that this will compete with the big-name consoles, so it's definitely going to be one to watch over the coming weeks.

In other Valve-related news, Newell also stated that his team is working hard to get Steam Linux out of beta. Seeing one of the best gaming platforms available on all 3 of the big OSs is a major milestone for a company that started out with a little game on the GoldSrc engine.

Sources:

http://kotaku.com/5966860/gabe-newell-living-room-pcs-will-compete-with-next+gen-consoles

http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/Valve-confirms-Steam-Box-coming-in-2013_11776.html

http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/327253/valves-steam-box-real-lets-not-get-carried-away