The long-awaited Valve Steam Box could finally show its face Monday.
The announcement's potential can be gleaned from an eerie page on the Steam website, one visitors arrive via a URL housing the word "living room."
Bandied along the top is a proclamation: The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014.
Carry further down and a small, incandescent ticker is steadily beating. Do the math and you realize it expires on Monday, Sept. 23.
"Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads," a message reads.
"This year we've been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living room. Soon, we'll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam."
OK, Ben Gates...
You need sleuthing skills to make it in this business, so let's break down what we know so far.
On Sept. 16, Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell teased that we're in for "more information" next week on hardware ways and means to bring Linux gaming into the living room.
Clearly the countdown is a clue, so no points there, but we also have some mysterious symbology that could mean any number of things. As SlashGear pointed out, the progression of images in the three circles above the ticker could represent two gamers connecting thanks to whatever Valve has in store.
The circles and plus signs may be a hint at design, too - or it might all be complete nonsense.
Are we really in for a Steam Box reveal? It's certainly possible. There's also the potential for Valve to introduce a process or some other way for users to contribute to the design of its Steam Box, as alluded to in the last part of the countdown page's message
The product of our collaboration may arrive in 2014, making sense of the "universe is expanding" part.
Whatever it is, you can be sure TechRadar will have all the latest 66 hours and counting from now.
- Heard of this thing call the PS4? Read our hands on review of it right here.
