Valve has finally launched its first Steam Machines

Powered by Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS, the Steam Machines are finally here. Well, at least three of them anyway. Before the end of the month, a total of fourteen Steam Machines are due out from Falcon Northwest, CyberPowerPC, Alienware, Gigabyte, Origin, and Zotac, among others. Most are scheduled for late November, but on Tuesday the first three Steam Machines roll out alongside the Steam Controller, SteamOS, and the Steam Link game streaming device. Valve’s Steam Machine concept hopes to wrest PC gaming from Windows, propel the more open Linux as an alternative platform, and push PC gaming into the living room. Whew! But don’t hold your breath on that happening anytime soon. While the Steam Store’s Linux catalog topped 1,000 titles earlier in 2015, most big name games are still a Windows only, or at best Windows and Mac, affair. The same day these three Steam machines roll out, for example, Fallout 4 is launching on consoles and Windows PCs only. The concept of the Steam Machine was also born in the heyday of Windows 8. With Windows 10 and DirectX 12 winning back many critics of Microsoft’s operating system, the Steam Machine may have already missed its big moment.