Despite the fact that Valve recently delayed the launch of its range of Steam Machines, computer hardware company Alienware is still planning to release its own Steam-ready living room gaming PC this year.
The Alienware Alpha is a Steam Machine in all but name, but since the hardware giants are pushing on without Valve, the $550 device will ship without a Steam controller or the new SteamOS operating system.
Speaking to Joystik at E3 this week, Alienware Global Marketing Director Bryan de Zayas said; ”It’s absolutely Steam-ready. It’s not that we’re bypassing Steam. It’s critical. They have the majority of the digital downloads.”
The Alpha comes with an Xbox 360 controller and a dongle for connecting up to four other controllers. It’s also going to be have a Windows 8.1 operating system when it launches, but you will of course be able to set up a Steam Controller and SteamOS on it when they are released.
Valve are apparently supportive of Alienware ‘s decision. ”They’re fully supportive. Funny enough, we have Valve sitting back there in our meetings,” reveals de Zayas. ”We’ve been working with Valve for the past two years on this living room initiative. We fully support – they didn’t feel the OS and the controller were ready, so they pushed it. Fully support them.”
The Alienware Alpha is set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2014. We’ll get back to you with a set date when one is revealed.
