Valve Partners With Retailers to Sell Steam Machines, Controllers & Digital Game Cards - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 October 2015 / 3,976 Views
Valve has partnered with retailers to have dedicated Steam retail space this Christmas. These retailers will sell Steam hardware, the Steam Link, Steam Controllers, and digital Steam game cards.
GameStop has secured exclusivity in the US, EB in Canada, and GAME in the UK. The Steam areas will launch on November 10th.
"GameStop, GAME UK, and EB Games are leading retail destinations for core gamers and early adopters," said Valve boss Gabe Newell. "Creating a 'store within a store' across North America and the UK is a significant win for getting the first generation of Steam hardware products into gamers' hands."
"Steam continues to grow and has become synonymous with PC gaming, and as the UK's No.1 gaming specialist retailer we are excited about bringing these products to GAME in UK," added GAME’s retail MD Charlotte Knight.
“With the innovation that the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and the Steam Machines give gamers in the living room, we expect to see significant demand for these new products. The first signs of this can be seen with the sold out Early Bird launch of both the Steam Link and Controller on October 16th exclusively at GAME in the UK. GAME are delighted to be partnering with Valve on the new technology and support the continuing growth of this category."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This move sucks (because I dislike Gamestop), but it makes sense.
I don't understand the Steam Machines in the slightest. They give 900 options, they are all pricey and serve ZERO purpose.
Why do people buy consoles? Price and EXCLUSIVES. Isn't part of PC Gaming building your own rig with your custom parts and tuning it whenever you want/need? To that... all those people who already own a good rig, why would they spend in one of these?? There's ZERO point. And for the console market, people will be like "Can it play Halo?" "Can it play Uncharted?" "Can it play Zelda?" The answer's no. So who are these targeted to? There's no market for these things.
PC gaming is whatever you want it to be. THAT is the point, not building it yourself.
I am probably one of the very few people to whom buying a Steam machine actually would make sense. Mostly because I work on a Mac, that I have no desire to run bootcamp Windows on and the only current gen console I own is the WiiU, so especially my third party gaming options are limited.
I have a Macbook for work and I don't want to clatter my room with a giant tower. So for me a steam machine sounds like an alright idea, I guess.
Regardless I'm not going to get one as they are pricey and I get almost the same third party support + exclusives if I just buy a Ps4 down the line at a better price.
Save to say I'm not that concerned about graphics....
They think it's going to be a big deal, but I dunno. I still think it's a very small niche. They aren't going to do anything for the people who already are devoted to their Steam sales & library and the console gamers aren't likely going to shell out more money for a Steam machine either.
From the prices, I really don't get why you wouldn't just go the PC route overall.
Pfft.. digital "cards"... haha
