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Why one PC maker decided not to ship a Steam Machine this year

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

The Steam Machines PC gaming computers were pitched as a mighty alternative to Microsoft’s Windows when Valve announced them in January 2014. But when the company’s hardware partners announced their Steam Machines this week, only three of the original 14 vendors had products.

Since 2014, Valve has been working to create the SteamOS, the Steam Controller, and Steam Link products for computer makers to ship with their Steam Machines. So far, Alienware, Zotac, Maingear, and Cyberpower have unveiled gaming computers with the SteamOS. The SteamOS once seemed like some serious competition to Microsoft’s Windows monopoly, offering a Linux-flavored alternative to the OS that’s run PC gaming for decades. But at the start of this new era, it doesn’t look like it is turning out that way.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.