Microsoft leaders have so far warmly welcomed the new Steam Machine, despite the PC-console black box looking worryingly like competition to its recent "this is an Xbox, everything's an Xbox" strategy. But analysts aren't sure that the publisher should feel so unruffled. They tell GamesRadar+ the Steam Machine might be "Microsoft's worst nightmare."
"Steam Machine basically turns Microsoft's worst nightmare into a shipping product," explains Joost van Dreunen, NYU Stern School of Business professor and games industry analyst. "It pushes Microsoft further down the path it's already walking, where Game Pass and cloud access matter more than plastic boxes."
