Valve isn't likely to make Steam Machine-exclusive games

With the release of the Steam Machine, Valve has officially entered the console game. Or, more accurately, the company has jumped into the "gaming in your living room" space, as the Steam Machine is basically a cube-shaped PC that'll also play all your games via SteamOS. With Valve now being potentially able to compete with Xbox, PlayStation, and even Nintendo in part, you might be wondering if it'll follow the patterns set by other platform owners.

One thing Valve won't be doing, according to engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, is focusing on making exclusive games just for the Steam Machine to try and sell more units. "Restricting where people can play a game I don't think is a great model, at least for us. We're much more interested in having the whole PC catalog as our 'launch exclusive,'" Griffais told Bloomberg.

Moreover, Valve is pretty happy to keep games non-exclusive, as it means other manufacturers can freely create Steam Machine-like devices, without having to worry about not having the same games. "We want it to still be viable for other hardware manufacturers to offer things like the Steam Machine either with higher performance or a different feature set," said fellow Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat.

"We look at it from a long-term perspective. Someone that is creating one of those PCs might actually create some meaningful innovation that is really important for things to come on PC that becomes so universal and brings the experience forward by that much that now the experience is better for everyone and then people might buy more games," added Griffais.

Valve doesn't seem to have much trouble shifting Steam Machines right now. Even with its hefty price tag, the GabeCube is currently only allowing purchases through reserved slots. You put your email in through the Steam Store, registering your interest, and then hope you're lucky enough to spend $1000+. What a world.