Maybe this is why Valve didn't manufacture their own Steam Box. They want the other companies to test out the water for them. I myself wouldn't bother buying a steambox, as I already have a gaming PC, and a laptop that can stream the games. I just want the steam controller for some couch RTS and DotA action.

...Or just get a super cheap PC. The cheapest I've seen recently are like 200€, which should in practice translate to about $200. If you're going to stream games to it anyway, there's no point in investing more than you have to.

That is why MS, all of a sudden, tries to treat pc as a gaming platform and says most of their games will be on windows 10 too. Valve is starting to threat windows and MS is clearly responding to that.

Oh wow, I really read that wrong. >_> I somehow managed to read that you suggested getting a cheap Steam Machine as a secondary computer, which obviously is not what you said. Sorry, my bad!

What is the point of a Steam machine? Build your own PC for the same price.... Maybe cheaper if you re-use monitor,DVD drive, Keyboard, Mouse, Soundcard etc...

I think they are way overpriced. Do you guys think the likes of Gamestop and game will stock these?

If you already have a computer that can play steam games, the 49.99 steam link is the best option. (no second computer required 1080p 60fps to your living room)

I built my own steam machine in a small format (coolmaster elite 130 case, 650W modular power supply, mini-itx motherboard, haswell i5, dedicated nvidia maxwell card, 16 GB system ram, and 1 TB hard drive, with a blue-ray rw unit) it is tiny and kicks some serious ass for under $1000. I could have spent a little more and gone with the top of the line GTX 980 but decided to save a few hundred since I was only targeting 1080p and 60 FPS... plus I can upgrade the card in a few years without any additional upgrades to the system. NVIDIA is more expensive, however since this is a linux/steam OS system I would not use AMD on it until they fix their linux drivers (you have been warned).

The advantage I see in the steam machine offerings is an off the shelf living room pc experience and it will come at a premium. I think that many of the sub $1000 offerings still present good value for money Webhallen S15-01 and Asus ROG GR8S looked very good.

PS: As of this week the number of steamOS/linux games on steam is over 1000... coupled with HIB, GOG, Desura and so on it is in the 1100-1200 total.

Right, if developers and gamers switch over the Linux.  Which is what Gabe wants, but will that happen might be another thing.

The SteamBoxes, as I see it, isn't really for people that can put a PC togther, but more to get console gamers back to a ready made PC, specifically SteamPC.   That fact that they cost about the same, for probably slightly less porformance is rediculous.  Who cares if you have amazing game sales if the cost of the hardware is the same as another device plus all their games.

With Windows Microsoft has been held back by lots of legacy support.  Now that they are droping it with Windows 10, some of the advantages that Linux had are gone.   Microsoft didn't get where they are by sitting around, will be interesting to see what happens.  But I have yet to see a big game demo on SteamOS.