Valve is known for supporting its hardware releases with games that typically showcase the hardware’s full capabilities. We have previously seen this with titles like Aperture Desk Job alongside the Steam Deck and Half-Life: Alyx coming out just a year after the Valve Index VR headset. However, the company hasn’t released any game or software showcase for its recently-launched Steam Machine. When asked about the subject by Bloomberg, engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said that Valve didn’t want to make a game exclusive to the console.
“Restricting where people can play a game I don’t think is a great model, at least for us,” he said. “We’re much more interested in having the whole PC catalog as our ‘launch exclusive.’”
Keeping in line with Griffais’ statement, neither Half-Life: Alyx nor Aperture Desk Job were exclusive to their respective hardware releases. The former can be played with just about any PC-compatible VR headset, and while the latter makes note of some interesting features of the Steam Deck, it can be played using just about any compatible controller.
In the same interview, another engineer, Yazan Aldehayyat, said that Valve has no intention to muscle out other hardware manufacturers with the Steam Machine. On the subject of potentially subsidizing hardware costs of the Steam Machine to make it more enticing to a wider audience, Aldehayyat said, “We want it to still be viable for other hardware manufacturers to offer things like the Steam Machine either with higher performance or a different feature set.”
Griffais added: “We look at it from a long-term perspective. Someone that is creating one of those PCs might actually create some meaningful innovation that is really important for things to come on PC that becomes so universal and brings the experience forward by that much that now the experience is better for everyone and then people might buy more games.”
The Steam Machine was launched earlier this month, and despite its high price tag – starting at $1,049 for the 512 GB version – has been considered by Valve to be a success. As for the future of the platform, however, Aldehayyat has warned consumers that the memory situation is “still getting worse”.
“Just in case people are not aware. What people are seeing on retail shelves right now, from our observations, is lagging what we’re seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months.” Griffais has said that Valve is “basically building everything we can. We’re limited by memory capacity, for sure.”
On the subject of potential launch titles for the Steam Machine, the highly anticipated Half-Life 3 was rumored to be coming alongside the Linux-based gaming PC. While Valve hasn’t made any official announcement regarding the title, rumors have indicated that the company was previously aiming for a Spring 2026 launch for both the Steam Machine and the game.
However, despite the Steam Machine having finally launched, there hasn’t yet been any sign of Half-Life 3. Reports from last year have also indicated that updates have been made to the Source engine to help its development, which might indicate that it might still be on track for release at some point.
