[UPDATE] Valve wants to continue Steam Machine production

04 / 04 / 2018 UPDATE

Yesterday we presented you with a "strange case" that led us to think that Valve had decided to put a good point on the production of Steam Machine. Any reference to the company's consoles Gabe Newell had disappeared from the official store. We wondered if it was an admission of the failure of a very ambitious project, that of competing with the official consoles, designing others that could boast performance from a medium-high-end PC.

Well, it is Valve's response arrived who denied having ended the production of the Steam Machines. He also explained the reasons for that "misunderstanding". Thanks to Gamesindustry, we learn that Valve has no plans to back down.

Valve has, in fact, reiterated the its commitment to develop its own strategy to propose Steam Machines as an alternative to the most popular PC “platforms”, symbol of the Windows domain on personal computer gaming. Despite widespread reports that the section had disappeared from the Steam store, Valve will continue to support its creations.

Valve employee, Pierre-Loup, addressed recent reports that the company had removed the Steam Machines from the marketplace, as a link on the shop's main navigation bar had disappeared.

This was explained as part of a "routine cleaning" of the shop's navigation system. Low user traffic for this particular link saw the Steam Machines removed from the main bar, but the section dedicated to devices is still very active.

Valve also pointed out that, despite the low sales of these machines (a factor which, therefore, is not denied) it intends anyway increase its presence in the Linux market.

While it's true that Steam Machines aren't exactly flying off the shelves, our reasons for looking for an open and competitive gaming platform haven't changed significantly. We are still working hard to make Linux operating systems a great place for games and applications. We think it will ultimately lead to a better experience for developers and customers, including those not on Steam.

Pierre-Loup went on to say that Valve has "learned quite a bit" about the Linux ecosystem, and that soon there will be information on improvements to the Linux-based SteamOS system that Steam Machines work with.

We also have other Linux initiatives in the pipeline that we aren't ready to talk about yet, SteamOS will continue to be our means of delivering these enhancements to our customers, and we think it will ultimately benefit the Linux ecosystem in general.

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NEWS 03/04/2018

The Steam Machine concept developed by Valve seemed to everyone to be very ambitious from the start, a move designed for make Windows less dominant in the gaming market, enhancing the Linux gaming ecosystem. Imagine having thousands of PC titles that you can play comfortably on what is effectively a home console, but with mid-to-high-end computer hardware power. Extraordinary… maybe.

Apparently, Valve's project has reached a point of no return. The Steam Machines have gone bankrupt? It would seem so, in fact, it is clear that Valve's Steam Machines have failed to gain enough momentum to become a sustainable business model.

Valve sanctions the failure of its "machines"?

Proof of this failure comes from Gabe Newell's company. The old Steam web page dedicated to “hybrid” consoles is no longer there, but by clicking on dedicated link  you are redirected to one standard search page for the keyword "hardware", where you can see some products like Steam controllers or Steam Link, but nothing else to do with consoles. This seems to be a more or less veiled admission that the project has failed. However, no new Steam Machine has been launched for some time, without anyone having expressed a real interest in such an announcement.

Since the introduction of SteamOS / Steam Machine, we have seen several developers engage in ports for Linux, with Aspyr Media e Feral Interactive as two of the most important examples. It must be said that thanks to these two companies, several major triple-A games have been ported to Linux, creating a much more active gaming ecosystem than ever.

Despite this, the Steam Machine project seems to have stalled enough to force Valve to hide the official web page of its consoles from Steam, a move indicative of how much the initiative to transform a gaming PC into a home console did not bring the hoped-for results. This decision, as PC Gamer notes, does not mean that Steam Machines can no longer be purchased. For example, you can still buy theAlienware Alpha Steam Machine, just as it is possible to get hold of the SteamOS controller designed by Valve. But the “hardware” tab on Steam now only shows the Steam Controller, the HTC Vive headset, and Valve's Steam Link game streaming service.

Reasons for the failure of the Steam Machines

It is clear that the Steam Machines are no longer a priority for Valve, which is still one of the leaders in digital video game distribution. On the other hand, those who are interested in PC games they aim almost exclusively at a perfect configuration of their gaming PC, not a console-like hybrid plugged into a TV in the living room. All those, however, who are not willing to play on PC, buy the consoles that have already grabbed the whole market: Playstation 4, Xbox One or their enhanced versions, PRO and X. Plus, Nintendo Switch is having numbers registered of the highest level. This left Valve with only the niche audience that never grew substantially to justify the need to spend more time and resources designing new hardware.

As pointed out by the always attentive and punctual PC Gamer, the Steam Machine initiative has also suffered delays, cancellations and high costs for consumers. In 2015, when the project was at its peak, it was already difficult to advise anyone to buy a Steam Machine instead of a Sony or Microsoft home console. Eventually, Valve shifted the focus to game streaming with the launch of Steam Link, and so the Steam Machines slowly died due to a lack of support across the board. The idea of ​​PC games in your living room still remains attractive, but at present it doesn't seem to matter much, not even to Valve itself.

Stay tuned for more details on this.