Three big Valve announcements coming next week, probably a Linux-based Steam Box

Valve has posted a new teaser site which declares that "the Steam universe is expanding in 2014." Three symbols tease three announcements in Valve's typically-cryptic fashion, with the first coming 71 hours from the time of this article's writing, also known as "Monday morning."

Nothing else is cryptic about this, though. The teaser site clearly teases the content of the coming teasers: these announcements are about Valve's push to get PC gaming into living rooms, probably with the long-rumored Steam Box .

Additionally, in a talk at LinuxCon 2013 earlier this week, Valve boss Gabe Newell said that the company's next step is "on the hardware side" and talked about "bringing Linux into the living room." That removes any remaining mystery: the clear conclusion is that Valve is announcing a Linux-based Steam Box.

Or this has all been a series of carefully-crafted red herrings, and the announcements are Ricochet 2, Ricochet 3, and Ricochet 4.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the rise of personal computers, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early PCs his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Bushido Blade (yeah, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He thought it was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.