Will Steam Machine change everything (or nothing)?

Steam has been growing steadily for over 20 years, and today has such a large share of the PC market that it is often criticised for being a monopoly. For example, a platform like Epic Games Store only charges game developers and publishers a third of the price to sell their games there, which means quite a lot more money for the people who actually make the games than the platform owner.

But Steam is unshakeable, and just over a decade after Steam launched, there were rumours that Valve was keen to make its own console. No sooner said than done, 2015 saw the announcement of Steam Machines, a concept to create a mini PC to have in your living room, with which you could then run games. The operating system would be SteamOS, which is more optimised for gaming than Windows.

But the concept was sprawling. The only hardware that was consistent was a hand controller, because the console itself would be manufactured by several different companies, not least Alienware, Zotac and Webhallen. The concept slowly lost momentum when it turned out to be quite expensive compared to a regular computer, and SteamOS was honestly not quite ready either.

Six years later, Steam had become even more established and PC had emerged as some kind of standard gaming format, where more or less all games are released (basically except Nintendo's), and Valve was again keen to try their luck with their own hardware and released the Steam Deck. This time it went better. Switch had probably revitalised the need for portable gaming after the flop of PS Vita and the slow-selling Nintendo 3DS.

There was simply a demand to fill, and Steam Deck quickly became very popular and can today count the number of units sold in the millions, while several other hardware manufacturers have joined in with their own variants, including Microsoft, which together with ASUS recently launched the official ROG Xbox Ally.

After a period of rumours that something big was in the works, it was announced the day that the Steam Machines concept will once again be taken to task. Valve wants to have their own console again, but this time they are better prepared. There won't be a bunch of manufacturers, the device is clearly console-inspired (the interchangeable shells really scream video games and living rooms), the controller looks better and perhaps most importantly... SteamOS is really ready.

As a result, many people have been raving about it on social media and in our comments section. It's undeniably an enticing proposition, a console that plays what both Microsoft and Sony have to offer - along with everything else that only comes to PC (which is an awful lot). While it's not the most powerful PC, it runs circles around the consoles thanks to significantly more modern CPUs and GPUs, as well as considerably more RAM. Plus, it's a computer, so it will also work for everything else like media, older games, emulators, Windows and so on.

You can also imagine that Microsoft is a bit stressed about this. Their next Xbox seems to be something similar. A console that can also run as a PC, which means that they will now not only be fighting with Nintendo and Sony for buyers, but also Valve. Even if hardware today is less important for Microsoft, which makes big money on its games for PlayStation and Steam, it still means that the next Xbox will be less unique, and will be directly comparable to another product. Although the aforementioned ROG Xbox Ally shows that they are on the right track with the hybrid approach, it is not yet as refined as SteamOS in that aspect, and this will also be a challenge.

Then there's Sony, which is not quite in the same position, but still in the same neighbourhood. When it comes to customers choosing what they want under their TV, there will undoubtedly be people who prefer a Steam Machine. They might as well play God of War, Horizon and Spider-Man on Steam Machine with better performance, while being able to run pretty much everything else. We don't know how big this audience is yet, but there is no doubt that it exists, although even in this scenario Sony, like Microsoft, makes money from Steam.

But what exactly is the potential for Steam Machines? Will they sell 100 million units like a PlayStation console, will they "only" sell a few million like Steam Deck, or somewhere in between? It's hard to say, of course, but my guess would be that they'll be more popular than Steam Deck - but not by a huge margin.

However, I think that's entirely in line with what Valve intended, because after all, this is not a product they are addicted to. Steam, of course, works just as well no matter what computer you buy, and it's far from the only mini-PC on the market. If you want something more powerful under your TV bench, you can do that, and there are plenty of alternatives.

Rather, it's a product designed for the 250 million or so console gamers out there (a rough estimate based on the number of consoles sold, many of which are still in the previous generation and a significant proportion of which have more than one format). People who want a simple package solution that is plug-and-play and where the homogeneous format means that a community will be built up with support, tips, apps and more. In short... a console.

This also means that what had been the only thing we'd been talking about for a week or two, now kind of already feels a bit done. When a new console is released, there are lots of new features, new games, and a clear step up. Chances are you already have a Steam Machine at home, maybe even more powerful than it is, and if not, you can easily order it now. Aside from the small, handy and stylish design (love the interchangeable panels), the hardware and features are nothing new. It's a PC.

Sure, there will be a new controller, which I definitely think looks exciting, but that alone is not enough to make this feel really exciting. That said, I think there's a lot to suggest that this could still be some sort of first real intermediate step where PC and consoles merge. Not that consoles will necessarily become PCs (although in practice that's what I think will happen - I don't really believe that Microsoft, Sony and all third parties will want to make multiple versions of their titles in the long run), but that PCs will become better at being consoles and really work well with handhelds, connected to a TV. And that seems to start early 2026.