Microsoft watching what Valve does with Steam Machines, SteamOS, with "great interest"

Phil Harrison, corporate VP of Microsoft Europe, has said the company will be watching what Valve does regarding SteamOS and its Steam Machines with "great interest."

Speaking with Eurogamer at the EG Expo today, Harrison said since the latest Steam Machine announcement was only yesterday, he will wait on forming an opinion until all the facts are released.

"Valve is a very impressive company, and obviously we're going to be watching what they do with great interest," he said. "I'm not going to speculate on what other companies may or may not be doing, [but] from our point of view, clearly, Xbox One is the best incarnation of [living room entertainment], but competition is good.

"I think the death of the video game console was prematurely announced. Clearly there is a lot of excitement around gaming in the living room on the biggest screen in the house, often times connected to a great sound system and creating that real intensely high quality game experience with a very powerful CPU and a very powerful GPU."

Harrison went on to say that he was pleased Microsoft made the changes it did with Xbox One, because it allows consumers to enjoy the console "wherever they live and whatever the access they have to whatever kind of connectivity they have."

Despite this, he believes digital is an "unstoppable force," but for now, Microsoft will provide its consumers with a physical choice until the digital revolution is the only option available and infrastructure can catch up.

Xbox One will be available on November 22 in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and US. Many more markets will follow in 2014.