Microsoft leaders have so far warmly welcomed the new Steam enginedespite the fact that the black box of the PC console looks alarmingly like a competitor to the recent “it's Xbox, everything is for Xbox” strategy. But analysts are not sure that the publisher should feel so calm. They tell GamesRadar+ that the Steam Machine could be “Microsoft's worst nightmare.”
“Steam Machine essentially turns Microsoft's worst nightmare into a finished product,” explains Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and a gaming industry analyst. “This pushes Microsoft further down the path it's already on, where Game Pass and cloud access matter more than plastic boxes.”
“As one of Steam's largest publishers,” Spencer continued, “we welcome new opportunities for players to access games everywhere.”
Former Blizzard President Mike Ibarra echoed this sentiment.stating in response to the Steam Machine: “Xbox should just make great games. The cost model, the focus, the morale will all go in the right direction.”
“Xbox console sales are really struggling,” David Cole, founder of DFC Intelligence and industry analyst, tells GamesRadar+. “Steam Machine is another sign that there may not be room in the market for a dedicated Xbox console system.”
But van Drunen suggests that behind the peace, love and smiles of Microsoft lies something more troubling. “The strategic risk,” he says, “is that Valve is becoming the PC/console hybrid of choice, meaning Xbox games strengthen the Steam ecosystem more than Microsoft's own ecosystem.”
