Ben Krasnow, Valve electrical engineer 'n mad genius, has told Engadget that Valve will not be announcing plans for a consumer-friendly "Steam Box" PC this year. The news comes after German site Golem.de reported that Klasnow himself claimed Valve would make such an announcement. The alleged comments would have been made during a talk at the EHSM conference in Berlin last month, which Klasnow attended.

"With regards t' the Steam Box news - there has been a lot a things stated in the media which I didn't say," Krasnow tells Engadget, "For example, it be true that we be working on getting Steam into the living room, 'n be planning for a hardware box, but we have no current plans t' announce anything in 2013." Yesterday's report also stated that the device would run on Linux, though Krasnow says may or may not happen in the end. Still, even if Valve's official Steam Box won't be revealed this year, he says the company has many other hardware projects in the works that likely will be.

Valve itself, meanwhile, tells Engadget that "Many PCs optimized for Steam 'n Big Picture will be shipping later this year," 'n that the company will brings some a these t' it be CES meetings, along with it be own in-house prototypes. Indeed, smaller PCs designed for Steam 'n Big Picture mode be already being announced, specifically Xi3's diminutive "Piston" models revealed earlier this week. As if t' drive the point home, Xi3's new PC be partially funded by Valve 'n will be featured in the company's booth at CES.