Valve’s Steam Machine is a genuine PS5 and Xbox Series X challenger – but I have three particular concerns

The console gaming market has included a big three for decades, with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo dominating the space by providing powerful consoles to fuel great couch gaming experiences. Sony's PlayStation 5 is the latest to outperform its rival, with sales that have surpassed every Xbox console.

Now, there's a new contestant in town. Valve recently announced the Steam Machine, which is virtually its second attempt at a hybrid PC console experience, powered by a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6-core processor and an RDNA 3 28CU (compute units) GPU.

Its small form factor, alongside its console-like connectivity (via HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4) and operating system, automatically places this in the same conversation as the aforementioned console big hitters.