Steam will be selling Steam Machines from third-party manufacturers directly through the company store, as fifteen different listings are now available there. That actually equates to more than fifteen different options, as most of them have various models and configurations to opt for.
Offerings from Alienware, Asus, Falcon Northwest, Syber, Origin, Zotac and more can all be found on the page linked above. These are the same Steam Machines we’ve seen and heard being demonstrated at trade shows across the last year or so. Reports from GDC suggest fourteen manufacturers were showing their models at that event, so this is pretty much all of those (plus one more.)
They’re all scheduled to release in November 2015.
From a snooty PC enthusiast point of view, the price-to-performance ratio on these things hasn’t greatly improved. I don’t think anybody who has ever put together their own PC from purchased components will be giving these much of a second look, because the value remains fairly poor.
However, for people who can’t be bothered to shop and research around for the parts to self-build (or find it too daunting,) and who wish to pop a PC in their living room, I guess these might be an option. Maybe they’ll be a gateway drug to the magical world of PC.
The Steam Controller is now on the Steam store too. Like the Steam Machines, it has a November 2015 release date.
