When Steam Machines first entered shelves in November 2015, it only sold fewer than 500,000 units in the next seven months (via Ars Technica ). When 2018 arrived, Valve took the Steam Machine out of their online shop. What then led to this PC gaming system’s catastrophic failure? The primary factor in the end was that they would only run on Linux. There were still a ton of games that could be played on the system, but the vast majority of them were Windows-only. Despite Valve’s efforts, there simply wasn’t enough support for Linux-based gaming.
Due to its belief that Microsoft may have eventually surpassed the PC gaming market with its Windows Store, Valve made this decision. The CEO of Valve, Gabe Newell, had reservations about this concept because this store has stringent restrictions on what can and cannot be sold there. Additionally, he expressed concern about the number of clients Microsoft might have snatched up from Steam, according to Ars Technica . Overall, Newell was very keen to promote PC gamers’ switch to Linux, which is why Valve remained committed to using it for its Steam Machines. As a result, it alienated a sizable portion of the market, making customer interest in purchasing a Steam Machine very low.
