Your mostly right.  Steam has had 65 million people use their service out of the possible 1 billion plus pc users...  They are totally controlling the market!  The key is that Gabe was spouting the number of people to ever use the service.  Not the active users of his service.  BIG DIFFERENCE!!!  I have a steam account that I use only because certain games require it.  The part where steam makes a bunch of money from me is very limited, as I don't do the digital download from them.  I have bought a few of their "specials" and mostly regretted it.  I don't blame them, as they are just the portal to the the content.  Point is, most of the core gamers have a steam account, whether they want one or not.  That doesn't mean that it will help the Steam Box at all.  Sure, the hard core gamers might buy one, as it may be optimized to play a few games better.  But it is more likely that the hardcore gamer will have his own special PC to play games on.

Nothing wrong with steam or Origin(I have that too) for that matter.  THere just isn't a need for a steam box.  Gabe just wants to circumvent Windows/Microsoft, and will waste tons of money for nothing...

im not way off, you simply cant seem to grasp that steam boxes are not their to transition PC gamers to the steam box, as it is evident by your previous post. steam boxes are made to increase the user base of steam. unlike xbox one where its made to replace the 360 and transition the users from the old to the new gen console. thats why he said they stand at 65 million, while xbox one is at 3. 

Most people calling him a fool are really forgetting the fact that most any PC can be turned into what they call a Steam Box. A Steam Box is no different from any other PC. It's just a pre-built PC with an official Steam seal that comes with Steam OS pre-installed. Nothing more. You can make yourself one if you install Steam OS in your own PC. And besides, any PC that runs Steam could be called a Steam Box. -__-

The Steam Box is just there to expand on what Steam already is. The user base is already there and no matter the way you're using it, laptop, desktop windows PC, Mac, Steam OS... The userbase is the same and expending. It doesn't reset like when a new console launches. This is something unique with the PC architecture. Console centric gamers in here don't quite seem to grasp this concept.

Well for a start the link I already provided is only talking about Gold members. http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/Live/?xr=shellnav

Or for example when Microsoft announce any Live figures they announce Active users who spend time Actively Playing on Live. Which requires Gold. Like this statement:

Microsoft said it has sold more than 55 million Xbox 360 video game consoles since 2005 and it now has 35 million active Xbox Live users who spend an average of 60 hours a month on the service.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/03/microsoft-tops-35m-active-xbox-live-members-and-55m-xbox-360s-sold/

You cannot be active on Xbox Live if you have Silver. Otherwise the average usage would be way more as it would include anytime the Xbox is actually on. Its not really difficult.

And of course because steam is Magic there is no need to upgrade your PC, steam will run everything... Só 65M is an unquestionable number.

Posts like this are the reason I don't post much anymore.

I think people misunderstand what the Steam Box is. It isn't meant to be a new console. It's not supposed to canibalised the already existing Steam userbase. It's supposed to expand it. By offering pre-built gaming PCs. Just like Alienware and others have been doing for years. Only this time, it has a Steam seal on it.

I think people like you, who are quick to defend everything MS, are just trying to find something to complain about where there's really no big deal.

Nothing here proves that they are gold members.

Check this out: Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Division CEO Dennis Durkin believes that 2010 has been a milestone year for the Xbox business.

"It's been a good three years for us," he told listeners at the Credit Suisse Group Technology Conference yesterday. "We've had nice stair steps in terms of growth every year sequentially getting bigger than the previous year, and this year is going to be our biggest year ever."

He also revealed that last week had seen "our biggest Black Friday in history, in our Xbox history."

Live and Kinect appeared to the focal points of growth, with Durkin revealing high take-ups for paid Live subscriptions. "Of our 25 million members, about half of them are subscribers for the business and pay us about $60 a year for that. So, it's a very, very large business for us and for our partners." The average subscriber was on the service for three hours a day, he claimed.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5045830/steam-65-million-active-accounts-6-million-concurrent-users

The numbers they report don't only represent Gold members. If I am wrong I'm sorry, but there is just no way there are 50m actively paying for Gold.

So what your saying is in todays society, Across over 80 million WP8 devices, 750 million Windows 8 copies and 83 million Xboxs only 48 million Xbox Live accounts exist? To get any phone games on WP8 or 7 yu have to create an Xbox Live account.

How is it ironic for me? I defend all manufacturers when I think it's deserved. 

As for how many they'll sell, who knows. They're not even out yet. But that's not the point he was making. Every PC using Steam is a Steam box. That's what he meant. Simple as that.