Watch out Sony and Microsoft, a new opponent has appeared!
[dropcap size=small]R[/dropcap]ight now the most popular consoles available are the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One, with the closest competitor being the Wii U. However Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve and the managing director, believes that his company’s console is better than every console available. The console that he is talking about is called Steam Machine and he believes that it will perform better than both PS4 and Xbox One while also being even more cost-efficient.
It makes sense that Gabe Newell would be trying to start a bunch of hype regarding his company’s Steam Machine, the console was released just yesterday and he claims that it will give gamers a PC-gaming kind of experience in their very own living room while being as cost-effective as today’s most recent consoles. It is a pretty big statement to make and Valve is going to have to prove that their console is as amazing as Gabe Newell is making it out to be.
“At console price points we’re going to have machines like Alienware’s, which are faster than today’s consoles. So the same price point as today, except you get better performance and you’re connected to everything you like about the PC and the Internet. Our perception is that customers are always going to make the best choices for what they want. We can knock down the barriers that keep PC gaming out of the living room, and then customers can decide what they want. So the way we organized it, in our thinking, is a sort of ‘good, better, and best’ kind of thing.”
The specs behind the Steam Machines are impressive and the console will surely perform well, but Gabe Newell may have underestimated just how loyal gamers are to their consoles. For example, I have several friends who have owned every single Playstation console since the very first Playstation. Likewise, I have friends who swear by Xbox One and believe it is the best console to have ever existed. Let’s not forget that there are games that are exclusively released just for Xbox One and PS4 that are not available for PC or on Steam. When we take this into account along with Playstation 4’s solid sales record, Steam Machine will have to impress many in order for the console to take off in popularity like the Xbox or Playstation 2 did.
Steam Machine is currently available for $450 at Best Buy and online.
