When Valve announced Steam Machines, it seemed like the company’s way of invading the living room space which is currently dominated by the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Now Valve will not be making these machines themselves, but will instead allow hardware OEMs to create their own devices, kind of like how Google provides Android as software, while leaving OEMs to come up with their own hardware and design.
One of the companies involved in releasing a Steam Machine is Alienware, a company known for their gaming computers, which is why we can’t say we’re too surprised that they are hopping on board the Steam Machine bandwagon. However despite their initial enthusiasm, it seems that Alienware does not sound too optimistic about the product.
The Wall Street Journal recently spoke to a number of hardware manufacturers about their thoughts on Valve’s Steam Machines plan, and surprisingly many were quite skeptical about it, especially in the face of how well Steam was doing. According to Alienware’s Frank Azor, he expressed doubts himself, and was quoted as saying, “It’s going to be very challenging. This will absolutely be the least profitable system we ever sell.”
Some believed that Valve could pull it off, like Falcon Northwest’s president, Kelt Reeves, while some likened the idea of Steam Machines to Android devices where there will be too many varied devices popping up all over the market with no consistency. We guess we will just have to wait and see how it turns out, but in the meantime what do you guys think?
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