The Steam Machine is here, and despite an (isolated) issue dubbed the "red line of death" and performance that has been a little underwhelming, those who own the machine seem to be enjoying it. Either way, its egregious $1,000+ price tag is hardly Valve's fault, but rather a reflection of the wider industry as memory prices continue to climb.
The good news is that Valve has now released official Windows drivers for the Steam Machine, reinforcing that it's still a PC at heart. If you want to install Windows instead of SteamOS, you can, giving you the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want with the Gabecube that you own.
As Valve puts it: "Steam Deck and Steam Machine are PCs, and other applications and OSes can be installed" — there is a catch, however, as Steam hardware still doesn't officially support dual-booting, which may or may not be a deal-breaker for some.
I don't even own a Steam Machine, but I would have liked that flexible OS option if I did. Still, despite this, it's great to see how open Valve is. Providing official Windows drivers is a nice touch, and it's something the company already does for the Steam Deck.
Personally, I wanted Steam Machine to enter the market and provide serious competition for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, that seems to have been wishful thinking on my part, and again, that's through no fault of Valve's. Current market conditions have pushed memory prices to the point where companies are even facing lawsuits over allegations of price-fixing and intentionally restricting supply to keep prices high.
Don't worry, though. I'm sure things can't get much worse — except they can, as I'm sure we're all aware; the memory crisis isn't going anywhere, and we, the consumers, are having to pay the price. But let me know your thoughts on running Windows on Steam Machine by leaving a comment and taking part in our poll below:
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