Overall, CES has been fairly predictable in terms of the products announced at it this year. There have been a few surprises but even things like the announcement of Valve’s partners and some upcoming Steam Machines was pretty much expected. What is surprising about the announcement though is the inclusion of some of the details of the systems and the apparent strategies that Valve’s partners have in terms of selling their Steam Machines. Unfortunately, I ultimately think that many of these companies are not likely to succeed in terms of sales numbers. Let’s take a closer look at some of the options available and why they may or may not succeed.

The High End PC Gaming Rig With Steam OS/Steam Controller

These machines tend to be from the companies that already specialize in high priced prestige PC gaming desktop systems. In essence, the Steam Machines from these companies are similar to high end PC gaming systems that they already sell but with Steam OS and the Steam Controller to make them Steam Machines. I would say that the Digital Storm Bolt II, Falcon Northwest Tiki, and Origin PC Chronos all fall into this category. The systems are configured with very high performance components such as Core i7-4770K processors, GeForce GTX 780 Ti or TITAN graphics cards and some mix of hard drives and solid state drives. Sure, they will offer some amazing gaming performance perhaps even for all those 4K TVs that were announced at CES this year.

So why are these systems likely to fail? Well, they are just too expensive. Each of the Steam Machines mentioned is priced over $1500. That is three times the cost of an XBox One or PS4 console system but many of them will cost much more as they are configurable up to pricing as high as $6000, ten times the cost of a console. Sure, they have way more performance than those consoles but if you going to just hook it up to the TV, what is the point of spending that much? After all, these systems are overkill when it comes to gaming at 1080p resolutions which is what the majority of people will use with it. The audience for these systems likely already have a high end Windows based gaming system setup to use multiple displays or a 4K PC display.

The Dual Boot Windows/Steam OS Steam Machine

In addition to being sold with the Steam OS installed, several companies including Digital Storm and Origin PC have announced that their Steam Machines will be able to boot into Windows and Steam OS. This may sound like a good idea but it seems like a huge waste of space on the system. The reason is that by having both operating systems, you are essentially doubling the space of all data on the system. This is particularly true if you are going to have your Steam games installed on Steam in the Windows OS and Steam OS.

The problem boils down to the fact that if you have Windows and Steam installed in Windows, you can already hook it up to your TV and use it to play your games through the Big Picture mode. Why bother with using the Steam OS over the Windows installation? If you are looking at the Steam OS offering a higher performance, early testing between the two has found that . Admittedly, this is testing done with the Steam OS beta so that could change but it is not likely to have any dramatic difference. What makes the Steam Machines different is they are sold with the Steam Controller, but if the controllers are sold separately, then you are once again back to the issue of why have Steam OS over Windows in such a machine?

The Mid-Range Steam Machine Problem

A number of companies have announced Steam Machines that will be priced around $1000. These include Alternate, Material.net and SCAN. Each of these companies faces multiple issues in regards to their Steam Machine releases. Once again, price is going to be a major factor. At these prices, they are roughly twice the cost of a competing Xbox One or PS4 console. The second problem they have is that these are not brands that are familiar with consumers. Many consumers have probably never heard of even the established companies. This is going to make many people wary of opting to spend more for an unknown brand than either a low cost Steam Machine let alone a console.

The Steam Machines Most Likely to Succeed

In order for the Steam Machines to be taken seriously, they need to be priced in line with the dedicated consoles. This means that you should not be priced more than around $600. Thankfully, there were a number of Steam Machines at this price point. They include systems from CyberpowerPC, iBUYPOWER and Zotac. Now the performance for these may vary pretty far as they have some widely different components in them and some will be customizable which means that their price can go above $600. In general though, they should work just fine for games at the crucial 1080p resolution of the HDTVs that people would be connecting to.

Another successful tactic is that of Maingear as . Here the goal isn’t just raw performance but portability. The system is just four and a half inches square by two and a half inches high. That is small enough that one could easily unplug it and take it with them on a vacation or to a friend’s house to play some games. The specifications look to be decent for playing games up to the 1080p resolution of HDTVs but the big unknown is the pricing. Once again, if the system ends up costing double what a traditional console is, it will make it a more difficult option for those considering a Steam Machine instead of a console.