Valve co-founder Gabe Newell dropped a bomb at the annual British Academy of Television Arts (BAFTA) Game Awards, when he mentioned that a number of Steam Box Console prototypes are expected to ship out to testers in 3-4 months.
He remained tight-lipped when grilled about a new Half-Life title. (Bummer!) But testers get ready!
“We’ll be giving out some prototypes to customers to gauge their reactions, I guess, in the next three to four months.
Among other concerns like; noise and heat issues, combined with gauging an effective timetable for manufacturing, Newell told the BBC that Valve is currently trying to decide on the controller, and how to incorporate sensors to measure body states.
“If you think of a game like Left For Dead – which was trying to put you into a sort of horror movie – if you don’t change the experience of what the player is actually feeling then it stops being a horror game, so you need to actually be able to directly measure how aroused the player is – what their heart rate is, things like that – in order to offer them a new experience each time they play. – Gabe Newell via BBC interview
Gabe Newell ended up becoming a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his outstanding contribution to video games.
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Valve’s Steam Box prototype is backed by modular component maker Xi3 – also rumored to be working with Infinity Ward.
