Yanis Varoufakis, resident economist at Valve has a blog, where he has posted some interesting details about his work at Valve as well as some details about other project at Valve. As the blog is in Greek, the knowledge about it was a bit low among English speaking internet users, but now, thanks to translation by Neogaf user alexandros we can read about interesting economics in Valve’s games and some more specific things about hardware development at Valve.

“At the time period between March till June I went back to Valve and we began a research program of systematic study of their economies. Within a few days we had the first results that shed light on the way prices are determined and how arbitrage is fluctuating. At the same time, I got the chance to “see the future”. You see, in addition to their game software, Valve has started developing hardware. Worried by Microsoft’s and Apple’s tendency to claim a bigger and bigger cut of its profits (in order to allow users access to Valve games through the computers that run their software), Valve has started experimenting with its own machines that give you the ability to run these games without a (Microsoft or Apple-controlled) computer. I’ve signed an NDA so I can’t reveal much more. I’ll just say that I really saw the future. (it’s not a small deal to see a virtual but highly realistic alien stand beside a real human in the same room with you, walk around the room and wink at you. And all that without a screen, a projector or even a computer near you...)”

The freedom to run games without Microsoft’s or Apple’s software likely means a pre-assembled gaming PC with Linux and Steam. The second part is more intriguing – in Varoufakis’ words it sounds like some sort of high quality hologram. Lack of screen or projector leaves me without any clues about how it could be done, do you have any ideas?