When news of the revived Steam Machine dropped, throngs of excited enthusiasts quickly staked a claim in its existence. They excitedly heralded its entry into what we all know to be the long-dead “console war.” The media chimed in too, opining about the timeliness of its return and whether or not it has the chance to significantly dent the crowded market it’s entering into.
But I don’t think the Steam Machine really needs to “fight” in the traditional sense to be competitive. That’s because I don’t believe it actually has to do anything in order to chip away at the already-crumbling console infrastructure to win hearts and minds. It just has to be there.
The console market is arguably in the best place it’s ever going to be for a large shakeup. Nintendo is, as always, doing its own thing with the Switch 2, which has proven itself to be a phenomenon beyond what we’ve seen before, and capable of filling the first Switch’s intimidatingly large shoes and serving Nintendo’s large niche.
