Steam Machines News: Digital Storm Console Revealed, Specs and Price Confirmed

A new model of a Steam Machine has been unveiled by manufacturer Digital Storm, and it represents a more high-end version of the console which will carry Valve's Steam digital distribution service into the living room.

The company stated that the machine will go on sale for $1,469, but did not reveal a release date for the console. More information will be revealed at CES in January 2014.

This version of the Steam Machine is the first to not only have a price tag attached to it, but also some specs to look into. The Digital Storm console will be able to support many different configurations for hardware, including being able to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan graphics card. This would make it so the machine could potentially deliver graphics on par with the best available now on the PC. In addition the machine will be liquid-cooled and be able to handle power supplies up to 700W. However, the CPU/GPU for the console was not revealed, but may be available at CES. The Digital Storm creation will be able to run Steam OS like all Steam Machines, and will also be able to use Windows.

Digital Storm released a photo of their Steam Machine, which looks very much like a PC Tower. The machine's dimensions are slightly bigger than the Xbox One (which is the biggest of the current generation of consoles) but can stand up on it's side unlike the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

While this may not be the first Steam Machine revealed to the public, it is the first to have a price tag as well as some specs revealed for the console. Valve is making 300 custom Steam Machines for beta testers, but will not be making their own console using Steam OS and the Steam Controller. Instead, different manufacturers will be able to make their own versions of the device, leading to a wide variety of options being available whenever they begin to be released.

Valve announced the Steam Machines program at the same time they announced the Steam OS operating system and the Steam Controller. All three will be used to try and take Steam from a PC only service and bring it into the living room as a traditional video game console. With Steam recently setting a new record for most users at once it appears as though now is the time for Valve to challenge Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for space in the living room.