Steam console news teased by Valve boss Gabe Newell

For years now, Steam has been the go-to digital store for PC gamers. To say that Steam is huge in the realm of PC gaming is probably understating the reach that the platform has, even with the Epic Games trying to claw away market share from Valve and grow its own store. After establishing itself as the leader in digital PC sales, it's now possible that we could see Steam games could come to consoles in some fashion later this year.

While that might be a little hard to believe, Valve boss Gabe Newell has suggested that we'll learn more about Steam in regards to consoles by the end of the year. A clip of Newell answering questions during a New Zealand panel was uploaded to the Half-Life subreddit by Odysseic, and in that video, Newell is asked if Steam games will ever come to consoles.

"You will have a better idea of that by the end of the year," Newell said to an audience that quickly picked up on the implications of what he was saying. Newell didn't give us any other details, so we're being left in the dark when it comes to what he's actually talking about here.

It's hard to imagine Steam having a full-fledged storefront on consoles, simply because Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have their own stores and probably wouldn't allow Valve to set up shop. Still, strange things happen in the video game industry all the time, but aside from that, Newell might not even be talking about a console version of Steam. Maybe he's referencing the impending launch of some Valve games on consoles? Perhaps we could even see Steam offering console keys alongside their PC counterparts?

At this point, no one knows what Newell is talking about, so we'll have to wait and see what kind of announcements Valve makes toward the end of the year. Even without any kind of context, the indication that Valve and Steam might one day have any involvement with consoles is interesting for sure, so we'll let you know when more is revealed.