Rumours were starting to circulate that Valve we're planning on making an entry into the console market, with a unit dubbed the ‘Steam Box'. It seems that these rumours are a little wide of the mark; according to Valve marketing manager Doug Lombardi, the company is "a long way off" shipping any hardware.
Speaking to Kotaku, Lombardi explained Valve's position. "We're prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we're building boxes to test that on."
"We're also doing a bunch of different experiments with biometric feedback and stuff like that, which we've talked about a fair amount. All of that is stuff that we're working on, but it's a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware."
The rumours about a potential ‘Steam Box' have been doing the rounds this week, after website The Verge reported that Valve were working with third party hardware manufacturers on a console. Whilst Lombardi didn't go as far as to rule out the possibility completely, it seems unlikely that we can expect any hardware from Valve any time soon.