When Valve, the company behind the world-conquering digital distribution service Steam and iconic games like Half-Life 2 announced the Steam Machine, many (us included) were sceptical that this cross between a console and a gaming PC could be successful. But when early adopter preorders for the Steam Machine sold out in less than a month, it made the naysayers sit up and take notice. Could Valve’s Steam Machines end up becoming a hit and giving the Xbox One and PS4 a run for their money? Here follow 5 reasons why the Steam Machines could be a success.
1. Huge games catalog
Steam’s huge games catalog is certainly one of its greatest features.
If one thing is clear, is that Steam Machines will have a huge catalog of games available for them. Given that Steam is the most popular online digital game distribution store (with over 100 million users according to GameSpot), it is not surprising that gamers can find more than 3,000 titles on Steam.
But sadly not all of these games will be compatible off the bat with the Steam Machine, as Valve’s machines run SteamOS which is based on the penguin-themed Linux operating system. But at least machines like those made by Syber let users run both SteamOS and Windows 8.1, so this means that upcoming cross-platform games like Fallout 4 will be playable on Steam Machines.
And as far as exclusives are concerned, if Valve could get their act together and finally give a hint that the eagerly anticipated Half Life 3 is in the works (and what’s more make it a Steam Machine exclusive) then there’s no doubt that gamers the world over will be flocking to buy one of these machines for sure…