Microsoft Watching Valve's Steam Machine Plans With 'Great Interest'

Phil Harrison offers up some thoughts on this week's announcements by Valve.

With Valve finally beginning to detail the way it plans to physically bring Steam to the living room, Microsoft has said it is watching the situation with "great interest."
In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison was asked about this week's announcements by Valve, which have so far revealed a Linux-based operating system called SteamOS and prototype hardware designed for that OS. With the news still being so fresh -- and one announcement still to come -- Harrison wouldn't talk much about it, though he did say, "The announcement was only made last night so I'm still studying all the facts Valve has released. But Valve is a very impressive company, and obviously we're going to be watching what they do with great interest."
Earlier in the interview, Harrison discussed the perception that video game consoles are doomed. Obviously, working for a company that is weeks away from launching a new console, he doesn't share this opinion, and he pointed to figures about how each subsequent console generation has been bigger than the one before it. With Valve now talking about what, in a way, amounts to a video game console, Harrison sees even more reason to believe consoles have a strong future.
"I think the death of the video game console was prematurely announced," he said. "Clearly there is a lot of excitement around gaming in the living room on the biggest screen in the house, often times connected to a great sound system and creating that real intensely high quality game experience with a very powerful CPU and a very powerful GPU. Our point of view, clearly, is that Xbox One is the best incarnation of that, but competition is good!"

Harrison also addressed the similarities between these newly announced Steam Machines and the original vision Microsoft outlined for Xbox One -- which is to say, a game-playing box that connects to your television and has a decidedly digital-oriented focus. When asked if the reaction to Xbox One would have been different if it had been presented without a disc drive, Harrison echoed what Microsoft has been saying in recent months, which is that it's good to present gamers with a choice.
"We've given players a choice, and we think that choice is really important," he said. "We've given players a choice to purchase and enjoy games on the format that is most convenient to them. If you purchase games on disc there are certain advantages and benefits that gamers are used to and comfortable with, based on previous generations, and we will continue that on Xbox One. If you purchase games digitally, there are a bunch of additional benefits that come with that, particularly around your content showing up wherever you are, rather than being linked to that particular console or that particular disc. We think that choice is great.
"I'm glad we made those changes because it allows the most people possible to enjoy our console wherever they live and whatever the access they have to whatever kind of connectivity they have. That is the right approach."
Steam Machines will be arriving for sale in 2014, with a limited beta set to launch later this year. Xbox One launches on November 22 in North America and parts of Europe.