Are Valve Moving Into The Console Market?

Once again, the rumour mills of the great Internet have been working hard again. This time, it's rumours of a console produced by Valve, the creators of games such as Portal and Team Fortress. Unlike most other rumours though, this one's got a fair bit of weight to it. For starters, Valve have actually taken out a patent, which describes the device as having multiple controller types. The first socket, interestingly enough, is for a "track ball", which could answer the whole mouse/analog stick debate that divides the gamer community into PC fans and console fans.

The patent was taken out by Valve employees Mike Ambinder, Steven Bond and Scott Dalton, and based on the submission date, has been in production for a few years.

Further evidence comes from the loose lips of Greg Coomer, who has possibly been posting images of the console via Twitter. His first tweet read: "Built this tiny PC. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, Zotac Z-68 mobo w/ onnboard Nvidia mobile gfx. Runs Portal 2 FAST."

But, typical of loose lipped people, this wasn't the only thing he leaked. More news soon arrived, as seen below.

Click Here To Go To The Link Shown

Of course, neither of these things prove nothing. Many a company has taken out a patent, never to use it, just to insure that no one else steals it and it turns out to be a roaring success, and Greg Coomer's invention could simply be a device he made for fun. There are people like that, you know.

But what if Valve were to move into the market? It could certainly prove bad for PC gaming, with the chances are that they will stop making games for anything that isn't their own. Steam would likely move to it. But would it sell? With a giant fan base, the obvious answer is yes. And if it were to look like a companion cube...

They could make it out of wood, and build in a three day self-destruct sequence,
and it would still sell by the millions.