2013: The year that Valve attacks

[ ](http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/11/valve-steambox-2013-editorial/)

I lost a bet with myself at CES 2013. In [the gaming preview](http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/engadgets-ces-2013-preview-gaming/) we published ahead of this week's big show, I wrote, "As per usual, the games industry and CES are acquaintances at best -- at least from what we've heard thus far. Perhaps this will be the year that bucks the years-long trend, but we're not betting on it." Wrong. _Wrong_. But hey, this is one of those, "glad to be wrong" situations. NVIDIA shocked everyone with its first Tegra 4 device, [Project Shield](http://www.engadget.com/tag/projectshield), which is essentially NVIDIA's first in-house dedicated gaming handheld. Not only does it play Android games, but more importantly, it streams full retail games from your NVIDIA GPU-based PC, all on its high-res 5-inch screen. Heck, it even has [Steam's Big Picture Mode](http://www.engadget.com/tag/bigpicturemode) built right in, allowing you to explore Steam and purchase games, as well as push them directly to your television (employing Shield as your controller).

And then [Valve's internal hardware prototypes](http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/eyes-on-with-valves-steambox-prototypes/) popped up, confirming what we've heard murmurs of for months: the company's head down on creating a PC for your living room. Not exactly _shocking_, but certainly _exciting_; the plans are still nebulous, but Valve's [confirmed we'll see hardware in 2013](http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/steambox-interview-jeff-keyzer/). We even saw some third-parties stepping up with their own versions of Valve's initiative. [Xi3's Piston](http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/hands-on-with-xi3s-piston-modular-pc-at-ces/) is the first such creation revealed, though the company's staying tight-lipped about specs -- we do know that Xi3's working directly with Valve on its tiny, modular PC. It's barely 2013, and already Valve's Steambox initiative is dominating gaming news. Let's call it right here -- this is the year that Valve attacks.

**Gallery: [Eyes-on with Valve's Steam Box prototypes](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/)**

[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/5554323)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/5554324)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/5554326)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/5554328)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/eyes-on-with-valves-steam-box-prototypes/5554329)

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Filed under: [Desktops](http://www.engadget.com/category/desktops/), [Gaming](http://www.engadget.com/category/gaming/), [Software](http://www.engadget.com/category/software/), [HD](http://www.engadget.com/category/hd/), [Sony](http://www.engadget.com/category/sony/), [Microsoft](http://www.engadget.com/category/microsoft/), [Nintendo](http://www.engadget.com/category/nintendo/)

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