A Steam-powered console could be a game changer. (Darius Hue/Creative Commons

The co-founder of Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell, is notorious for his disdain with video game consoles. Nevertheless, if the software magnate is to be believed, Valve will be announcing its entrance into the hardware business sometime next week.

Speaking at Linuxcon in New Orleans, Newell gave a "grim" prognosis for a PC industry that has seen "steady, year-over-year unit declines in sales." The gloomy forecast was matched by unbridled enthusiasm for Linux, which Newell believes will usher in a new era of gaming.

Valve, the software developer behind the bestselling Half-Life franchise, has overseen a resurgence in the PC gaming community with its own software distribution platform, Steam. 

The digital service now boasts over 50 million active player accounts.

Newell's appearance at Linuxcon was not a coincidence; Valve support for Linux has intensified since the software company released a version of Steam for the open source OS last February.

Newell is an outspoken proponent of open source development and told attendees that Linux is "the future of gaming."

"None of the proprietary closed platforms are going to be able to provide that grand unification between mobile, the living room and the desktop," Newell added.

Newell seemingly acknowledged the existence of the oft-rumored Steam Box to the crowd of Linux enthusiasts, when the Valve bigwig stated the company's next step would be to "release some of the work we've done on the hardware side."

Rumors about a Valve-developed video game console, dubbed the Steam Box, have been circulating for almost two years.

Valve announced "Big Picture Mode" for Steam users almost a year ago. The software mode enables a streamlined and controller-friendly interface for gamers outputting PC games to HDTV displays. For analysts, the software update was largely seen as Valve's first step into consumer living rooms.

SEE ALSO: Big Picture Mode for Steam Shows Big Potential

Newell told The Verge back in January that any Valve-developed hardware would come with Linux pre-installed, but both GDC and E3 passed without any company announcements.

If Newell's comments are true, industry suspense around the so-called Steam Box will finally come to a conclusion sometime next week.

"Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room," said Newell, "and potentially pointing further down the road to how we can get it even more unified in mobile."

Any new hardware announcement from Valve will come just weeks before Microsoft and Sony launch their respective next-generation video game systems for North American audiences.

SEE ALSO: Sony Announces PS Vita TV To Rival Apple TV, Chromecast

If Valve brings an inexpensive, Steam-powered console to retail shelves with its existing user base, it would mark the first, serious disruption to the home console market since Microsoft introduced the original Xbox in 2001.

Whatever Valve reveals, the industry will be all ears.

Reach reporter Will Federman here or tweet him at @wfederman.