While We Eagerly Await The Second Coming Of Steam Machines, It's...

Good ideas just need more time in the oven to bake properly.

Steam Frame: Valve's new wireless VR headsetSteam Machine: Compact living room gaming boxSteam Controller: A controller to replace your mouse

When I first learned that Valve was going to release Steam Machines again, I groaned inwardly. Although I never bought one myself, I briefly had the chance to use one about nine years ago and wasn't in the least bit surprised that the project failed. It was only when I got to try a Steam Deck for the first time that I realised Steam Machines weren't dead at all and now they're back again entirely. So what went wrong the first time, and will the new ones fare any better?

To fully understand the significance of the Steam Machine's rebirth, you need to go back to the year 2012. This period is important because it's when Microsoft released Windows 8, a version of the PC operating system that was supposed to be an OS for all devices, but mostly just succeeded at pissing people off.

Developed over four years, Windows 8 wasn't just a mild tweak of Windows 7, with a fancy new GUI slapped on top. Microsoft wanted to dominate the entire personal computing market (desktop, laptop, tablet, phones, etc) and the software industry tied to it. In the case of the latter, that came in the form of Windows Store, a new digital distribution service where vendors could sell applications that stuck rigidly to Microsoft's Metro design rules.

As you can imagine, the move wasn't exactly popular because if it took off, Microsoft could potentially have full control over what apps and games could be sold for Windows-based PCs. One of the most notable dissenting voices just happened to be Gabe Newell's, who said at the time that "Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space."

More importantly, though, he dropped the biggest hint as to what Valve was contemplating behind the scenes: "We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well." To that end, the company released a Linux version of Steam, along with tools for developers to help them port games to the open-source operating system.

A few months prior to this, Valve added Big Picture Mode to Steam, a configuration for the GUI that made it more suitable for TVs and displays other than your average PC's monitor. At the time, we weren't entirely sure whether Valve was expecting us to just plug our gaming rigs directly into the back of our TVs or use some kind of streaming mechani

Source: PC Gamer