The official Steam Box will act as a server that allows multiple users to access content simultaneously on separate displays, says Valve founder Gabe Newell.

In a wide-ranging interview with Polygon, Newell said Valve’s upcoming hardware would not only permit transitions between displays, but could also potentially accommodate up to eight users at once.

“Any PC can serve multiple monitors, so over time, the next-generation (post-Kepler) you can have one GPU that’s serving up eight simultaneous game calls,” he said.

“So you could have one PC and eight televisions and eight controllers and everybody getting great performance out of it.”

The Linux-based Steam Box wouldn’t be as tightly-restricted as people had feared, Newell added.

“If you want to install Windows you can. We’re not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination.”

Newell also discussed controllers, indicating that while motion controls felt like a step backwards in terms of fidelity and latency, he was excited about biometrics.

“Biometrics on the other hand is essentially adding more communication bandwidth between the game and the person playing it, especially in ways the player isn’t necessarily conscious of.

“Biometrics gives us more visibility. Also, gaze tracking. We think gaze tracking is gonna turn out to be super important.”