Steam

Valve's highly anticipated Steam Box game console will be ready for testing in a few months time.

Speaking to the BBC in an interview published recently, Valve CEO Gabe Newell said that the console should be ready for testing "in the next three to four months," adding that his company will pass out the device to customers to try out.

"There are noise issues and heat issues and being able to [deal with] that while still offering a powerful enough gaming experience is the challenge in building it," Newell told BBC, adding that Valve still hasn't been able to finalize the device's controller design.

Word of Valve working on a game console surfaced last year. The device, which will leverage Valve's digital Steam platform and bring PC games to the living room, will connect to televisions and attempt to compete with current consoles. Valve hasn't said exactly when the console will launch and in the interview with BBC, declined to say how much it would cost.

Although the Steam Box will directly challenge the Xbox and PlayStation, in a talk before the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs, Newell said that the console market's greatest threat -- and perhaps his own company's -- is Apple.

"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," Newell told the class. "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?"