Valve president Gabe Newell has hinted at the idea of PC-only Steam games coming to consoles, and said we should know more “by the end of this year.”
In a talk at Sancta Maria College in Auckland, New Zealand this week, Newell was asked by a student if Steam would be porting games to consoles, to which the legendary developer hesistated, before saying, “You will have a better idea of that by the end of this year.”
The exact meaning of that is a matter of speculation right now. Some have taken Newell’s comment to mean we could see Steam itself, as a storefront, brought to consoles. Others have taken it to mean that Valve’s own games, currently available only on Steam, will be ported to consoles. With each console currently only featuring its own closed store, the former seems unlikely – but we’ve seen Xbox in particular striving to see its services on other consoles, so it’s not outside the realms of possibility.
Valve has of course launched its own games on console before, most notably with the likes of Portal and The Orange Box. With Valve now actively working on its own games in a way it hasn’t for some years, it may be that we’ll see the company return to the console space. As you might expect, Newell’s comments have led to many hoping that VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx will be released for PSVR, or its upcoming next-gen follow-up.
As for why Newell was giving a group of New Zealand schoolchildren this news, the Valve co-founder has been living in the country since March 2020, and has clearly been enjoying himself so much that he’s done everything from give unexpected interviews to putting on a free festival to say thank you to the country.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected]