With rumours abound that Valve intends to dip its Gabe Newell-sized brilliance into the console market, we look at a few of the rumours that may very well bear fruit.

The Steam Box is expected to be a set-top gaming console that will be compatible with a wide array of USB peripherals and use Valve’s biometrics systems – expected to be hardware that uses special peripherals (or possibly built into the proprietary controller) to analyse player emotion.

It’s also expected to take advantage of Steam’s “Big Picture” mode, a feature touted to be usable on “any TV or computer display” that will allow “gaming opportunities” for Steam partners and customers.

Last year, Valve filed a patent for a modular controller – essentially a device with swappable components that can be reconfigured depending on the game or preference of the user. It’s safe to assume that this is likely to be the device’s proprietary input.

Steam Box Patent illustration

There has been speculation that the Alienware X51 may have been built with the intention of being retroactively upgradable to the Steam Box software.

Sources affiliated with Valve indicate that the Steam Box isn’t intended to only clash with current gaming consoles. Instead, Valve aims to take Apple and its upcoming Apple TV products head-on as well, with Newell saying, “On the platform side, it’s sort of ominous that the world seems to be moving away from open platforms.” He added that “They build a shiny sparkling thing that attracts users and then they control people’s access to those things.”

The Steam Box may very well be unveiled at the Game Developers Conference this coming week, but Valve has also indicated that they may wait until E3 on the 5-7th of June 2012 before announcing the projects they’ve been working on.

Sources: Valve controller patent, The Verge, Valve PR

Alienware X51 dimensions