Valve no competition for Xbox, says Microsoft Exec

Valve is not considered by Microsoft as a competitor in the console space, the president of the computing giant’s Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick has said.

Valve recently revealed plans to enter the hardware space with its living room PC, commonly known as the Steam Box.

The device will run on a Linux-based operating system and will use Valve’s Steam digital distribution service’s "Big Picture Mode" to bring PC games to TV screens without the need for fiddly spec tweaks.

Valve founder Gabe Newell has said that prototypes for the hardware may be seen in as little as three or four months.

When asked at Microsoft’s TechForum if he saw the Steam Box as serious competition to the Xbox, Mattrick’s answer was a simple "no".

The Verge reports Mattick as saying that Valve is "doing some innovative stuff", but "the scale of products and things that are being brought to market are probably a little bit richer when I look at Sony, Nintendo, Apple, and Google."

Though he doesn’t see Valve as a threat, Mattrick says he has a deep respect for Gabe Newell.

"I love Gabe, I was there for his lifetime achievement award so it’s wonderful to see what they’re creating," he said.

Newell himself has said that Valve’s main competition for the living room won’t come from Microsoft and Sony, but rather from Apple.

His opinion is shared by Nat Brown, an early pioneer of the Xbox concept, who also sees the rumored Apple TV as a big challenger to Microsoft’s share of the console market.