GameStop has gotten a lot of flack over the years for its business practices, but that didn’t stop Valve from exclusively bringing their gaming hardware to the world’s largest brick-and-mortar game retailer.
If you’re one of those that boycotted GameStop and you want to buy a Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Link in a store, you might need to think twice. GameStop is the exclusive brick-and-mortar retailer for Valve’s new hardware in the United States, and GAME UK will be selling them in the United Kingdom, and EB Games in Canada.
The Steam Link and touch-driven controller have been both praised and criticized and most retailers including GameStop, have extremely tiny PC gaming sections that seem to only be dedicated to Blizzard. So to be able to get access to the 6000+ titles Valve has, your only choice is pretty much Steam.
It’s also true that Valve needs a retailer that is well-versed in enthusiastic hype for sales, and this is where GameStop shines. However, it still isn’t positive if Valve’s new gaming hardware will be able to sell to modern PC gamers, especially since anybody can build their own “Steam Machine” for much cheaper.
The good news is the Steam Machines will run any operating system just as a PC does, but besides that the question is, with PCs already being versatile and dominated by Steam, and console gamers already being set with their systems, how will the Steam Machine do? We’ll find out November 10th.
Source: wired.com