"Designed to sit under your TV as comfortably as it would under a monitor, these are micro PCs-but only because Valve seems shy of branding them consoles. The new Steam Machines are Valve's second attempt at launching a dedicated device to bring the PC into the living room. The first generation Steam Machines launched a decade ago, in November 2015, and while that iteration ultimately flopped, the marketplace in 2025 is much different."
"So, when the announcement video for this new product family went to great lengths to explain that the new Steam Machine is still a PC and not a console, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Valve makes and sells PC games; here's a PC to play those games on. Except ... c'mon, look at it: in every way that counts, the new Steam Machine effectively is a console-and that's no bad thing."
"Pop quiz: what defines a games console? Traditionally, they've been devices manufactured by a single company, with a uniform hardware design, intended to play games developed specifically for that machine, most commonly on a big screen television. The benefits include fixed specifications meaning developers know exactly what they're building games for, and buyers knowing that any game they buy for that system will run (catastrophic bugs aside, of course)."
Valve announced new hardware including a revamped Steam Controller, an updated VR headset called Steam Frame, and a new generation of Steam Machines. The Steam Machines are micro PCs designed to sit under a TV and positioned to bring PC gaming into the living room. The first-generation Steam Machines (2015) failed, but the marketplace in 2025 benefits from the Steam Deck's success and a stronger PC gaming ecosystem. Valve frames the devices as PCs, but the new Steam Machines have fixed, uniform design and living-room focus that make them effectively consoles, simplifying development and consumer expectations while limiting upgradeability.
Read at WIRED
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