The Steam Box's Biggest Threat Is Apple Says Gabe Newell

Valve's Steam Box aims to bring its vast library of PC games to the living room. So with that focus in mind, you'd think its biggest competitor would be consoles, like the Xbox 360 or the PS3 (along with the Xbox 720 and the PS4), right? Wrong.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, in a lecture given at a class at the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs, states that it's Apple who they view as the biggest threat, according to Polygon:

"The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform… I think that there's a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?"

Newell also states that PC vendors attempting to make that leap must leverage the powerful hardware that many already home, in their bedrooms or home offices, and find a way to make it accessible in their living room. To take advantage of the machine they already have, instead of going out to buy a dedicated game machine.

Which is all well and good, but it also makes Newell's Apple comment all the more perplexing. He might be referring to the long rumored Apple TV, which would indeed be a new piece of hardware. But when compared to traditional consoles, Apple is the clear loser since they don't have the vast infrastructure when it comes to video games, at least the kind that have long been present in the living room.

For Apple TV to succeed, it will mostly rely upon its brand strength, which has never been more powerful. One that could easily overtake the PC world if they're not careful: