Steam Machine Release Date Delayed To 2015 By Valve To Work On Steam Controller

Fans of Steam Machine may have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on the next update of the popular gaming platform.

Valve employee Eric Hope updated the Steam Community about the status of the Steam Machine, a new piece of gaming hardware that seeks to bridge the gap between the PC and the console video game experience in the living room. In a blog post on Tuesday, Hope said Valve is continuing to improve its wireless prototype controllers in live playtests with gaming professionals as well as die-hard and casual gamers. But the controller tests and improvements will affect the launch date of the Steam Machine.

“Realistically, we're now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014,” Hope said in the Steam Community blog post.

Unlike console offerings such as Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox One and Sony Corp.’s (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 4, which are built completely by the respective companies, Valve’s Steam Machine will be built to different specifications from several original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners, including Digital Storm and Alienware. In addition, Steam Machines is expected to support the nearly 3,000 games currently available on the Steam digital distribution platform for the PC and other operating systems.

The internal hardware specifications of individual OEM Steam Machines may vary to suit the different types of gamers Valve hopes to attract with the Steam Machine platform -- which makes the underlying software, operating system and Steam Controller essential to unifying the gaming experience across the various versions of the Steam Machine.