A History of Valve's Hardware Attempts Before the Steam Deck

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The Steam Deck, Valve's latest foray into the video game console market, is only weeks away from release; set to be the Nintendo Switch of PC gaming. Instead of playing cartridge-based games like the Switch, the Steam Deck will be able to play a user's entire Steam library in both handheld mode and docked to a television. It will release with three different models of varying specs, and may just be the portable PC that some players have been looking for.

The Steam Deck is not Valve's first attempt at creating a console for PC players. The console market is a crowded space with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all vying for attention. Valve has cornered the PC market with its Steam storefront,but it has also wanted a piece of the console market. The Steam Deck marks Valve's second game console attempt, and third attempt at hardware for TV.

Steam Deck's Latest Developer Update is a Promising Sign for Multiplayer Games

In 2013, Valve announced its first attempt at entering the console market: Steam Machines. Steam Machines were small gaming PCs designed for TV that ran on Valve's own SteamOS. They were created in collaboration with many computer hardware companies, meant to bring Steam to the television. Companies like iBuyPower, Alienware, CyberPowerPC, Origin PC, and even Gigabyte were all making Steam Machines, and each had different specs with prices ranging from $499 all the way to $5,000.

The machines each ran on SteamOS, Valve's Linux-based operating system designed solely to run Steam. The operating system is also open source, which allows anyone to adapt it to their liking. Because SteamOS only allows playing video games and browsing the web, there is no file manager or integration with streaming services except for