Sony has spoken out on the potential competition from the newly announced SteamOS, saying it cannot be ignored.
Valve held a trio of announcements last week outlining its plan to bring Steam games to the living room, revealing the TV-focused SteamOS, Steam machines and a new Steam controller.
With Steam entering the living room arena, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo could be presented with a credible threat in Valve.
Sony UK boss Fergal Gara has admitted that Valve is one to be watched in the console space.
“We can’t afford to ignore it. Steam is arguably the pre-eminent digital download service for gaming. So we’ll watch it”, said Gara to Eurogamer.
“In this market you’ve always got to expect some broadside disruptive technologies to come along and it seems like a potentially good example of that. I haven’t had a chance to study it in much detail. What I would say is, I don’t think anything about it is significantly rattling our confidence at this point in time and what we’re doing as PlayStation. We have to keep an eye on Valve and many other competitors.”
Of course, Sony’s immediate threat is Microsoft and with both the Xbox One and PS4 launching in the same month in the UK, it should be quite the battle.
“This format war, if you want to call it that, is a marathon, not a sprint. We’re coming out of the blocks in a strong position, but we’re conscious that is nowhere close to job done and we have to continually improve the position, proving what PS4 represents.”
The Xbox One and PS4 offer vaguely similar specs but will compete with launch titles, gameplay, UI and those vastly different prices.
“You’ve got to start good and keep on your toes. PS4 is a platform that can and will evolve. It will be great on day one but it will be far better in year two and year three as expectations rise and ideas are generated and these new tools are executed.”
The PS4 release date for the UK has been set as November 29 with a price tag of £329. The Xbox One will become available on November 22 for £429 in the UK.
Next, read our Xbox One vs PS4 comparison.
