The Steam Box is coming and it's aim is to set traditional PC gaming on its head. The Steam Box platform was created by Valve Corporation and first talked about in early 2013. Third party vendors will produce Steam Boxes in according to three specifications: Good, Better and Best. The "good" boxes won't be an alternative to the next-generation game consoles from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. Instead, a "good" configuration will be able to play older titles or smartphone/tablet-esque games just like Ouya. The "better" configurations will indeed be better, faster and stronger than the Wii U, Xbox One and PS4. The "best" configurations will play games at resloutions far higher than 1080p and offer the greatest visual fidelity.

It's important to note that Steam Boxes aren't running Windows 8.1. Valve chose to build its operating system around the Linux 3.1 kernel. Linux is known, admired and implemented by many tech companies (see: Apple Inc. and Sun Microsystems to name a few) for its stability, quickness and ease of use. Since the Steam Box will be mainly focused on gaming, at least in its early days, it won't have to worry about allocating valuable system resources elsewhere. In plain english this means that many slowdowns associated with Windows 8.1 based gameplay will be eliminated.

So who's making the Steam Box and where could you get one? They are not for sale yet. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a bunch of Steam Boxes were announed. Alienware (owned by Dell), Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, CyberPC and other manufacturers were on tap to showcase their vision of the Steam Box. Every box on hand kicked the existing consoles butts due to their desktop class graphics cards, large amounts of memory and Intel Core i5/i7 CPU's.

Valve is hard at work making sure that every current game on Steam, of which there are over 3,000, are compatible with the Steam Box. That is a huge amount of titles and really blows away the PS4 and Xbox One's fledging game libraries. Console exclusives like Forza and God of War aren't on Steam, but the reverse is also true. Great strategy games like Sid Meier's Civilization 5 and countless first person shooters, sports simulators and indie games are.

According to The Verge, the only piece of gear Valve will produce and sell itself is the Steam Controller. If you're familiar with both PC and console gaming, you will hear the term "Master Race" thrown around a lot. This isn't gamers being racist; they are referring to are computer mice and keyboards. A keyboard and mouse gives you superior control compared to something like the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4. Combining two high-resolution trackpads with gamepad ergonomics the Steam Controller enables gamers to compete against each other with pinpoint precision. The controller also has bumpers like you'd find on more traditional controllers. 

Are you going to shell out some cash to purchase a Steam Box? Let us know the the comments section below.