There’s plenty of hype and excitement over the coming of the Steam Machine—a Linux-powered gaming PC designed for big-screen (formerly known as Steam Box.)
The Valve-spearheaded project looks to be as much an attempt to distance PC gaming from Windows as it is a push into the living room. Valve, the makers of games like Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead, has spent years focused on hardware research and design, and the Steam Machine and its various peripherals are the first major fruits of that labor.
Unfortunately, I doubt the Steam Box will have a huge impact on either Windows or the console market.
While disrupting a market is often a noble—or at least newsworthy—pursuit, the Steam Machine doesn’t appear to offer anything that would lure many console users away from their preferred systems, or PC gamers away from their PCs.
Ultimately, I think the Steam Box will command a strong niche and little more.
Here’s why.