12 Companies Making STEAM Boxes!

It was early last year that we first started hearing rumblings of a Steam Box, a console/PC hybrid that lets you play PC games on any display, with a controller that should allow most titles to be played on them. It's trying to meld the convenience of a home console with the function of a PC - no mean feat.

However it seems like enough companies are involved now that at least one of them will be what we're after. There's now 12 of them and Engadget has broken down the list for us.

Of course there's Valve, which is making its own Steam Box, with multiple versions of different sizes, performance levels and price tags, but there's a lot more than that. iBuyPower has a version in the works, so does Digital Storm, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, CyberPowerPC, Origin PC, Gigabyte, Materiel.net, Webhallen, Alternate, Next, Zotac and Scan Computers.

There's an interesting mix there, as we have traditional gaming PC makers like Alienware and Falcon Northwest joining the mix, right alongside component retailers like Scan Computers and hardware manufacturers like Gigabyte and Zotac.

We'll get a look at all of the systems being put together by all companies at this year's CES, which begins tomorrow.

If you were going to buy a Steam Box based purely on the company's name, which one would you pick?