[1] Valve has indicated displeasure with the approaches that both Microsoft and Apple are taking with their respective operating systems, limiting what applications could be run, and upon the release of Windows 8 in 2012, Valve's CEO Gabe Newell called it "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space", and discussed the possibility of promoting the open-source operating system Linux that would maintain "the openness of the platform".

[2] An official Linux client for Steam was released in July 2012, along with developer tools to help port games to the platform.

[3][4] Valve worked to assure that users' game libraries would be portable, including offering Steam Play whereby purchase of a title for one platform automatically allows that user to play the title on other supported platforms, and cross-platform multiplayer features.

Prior to Valve's official announcement of Steam Machines, rumors of Valve's plan to get into the hardware market developed in the industry throughout 2012, based on aspects such as the emphasis on the Linux operating system and the introduction of features like the 10-foot user interface "Big Picture Mode" for Steam which would be a necessary feature for a video game console.

[7] He also envisioned the software to enable screencast capabilities, allowing the single box to work with any monitor or television within the home.

[7] During the Steam Dev Days in January 2014, Valve further explained that the initial target market for Steam Machines was to be placed in the living room and build a demand for support for Linux versions of games such that they can continue to work away from Windows and OS X operating systems for the future.

[10] The unit is based on Xi3's "performance level" X7A model and is slightly larger than a human hand, containing various I/O ports to connect to power, video, and data signals.

[11] Xi3 began taking pre-orders for the Piston Console at the 2013 South by Southwest Festival in March 2013, anticipating high levels of interest in the hardware with plans to release the unit for general purchase by the end of 2013.

[12][13] Valve clarified that although they conducted some initial exploratory work with Xi3, they have had no direct involvement with the Piston's specifications, and it was not necessarily representative of the final design for the Steam Box.

An additional 2000 units were provided to developers attending the Steam Dev Days event in January 2014.

[18] Based on feedback from these testers, Valve announced in May 2014 that they have pushed back the anticipated release until November 2015.

[23] Valve responded that they recognized that Steam Machines were not selling well and saw little user traffic, prompting them to make the change to the storefront.

Valve stated they remained committed to an open gaming platform and will continue to develop the back-end technologies like SteamOS that will help such efforts.

[41] Valve has added improvements to the controller's capabilities based on public feedback, which include movement and aiming controls schemes using its internal gyroscope, the ability to trigger actions that enable cursor movement limited to certain regions on a UI (such as to manipulate a game's mini-map), a quick-access popup for 16 commands that can act similar to hotkeys for keyboard-and-mouse games, cloud-based controller configuration saving, and support for non-Steam games that otherwise can be played through the Steam Overlay.

[45] And in March 2016, Valve released the computer aided design geometry files for the Steam controller, to facilitate hardware modding by end users.

iBuyPower announced a prototype model, powered by an AMD CPU with a discrete R9-270 GPU and a 500GB hard drive with a price of $499.

[61] However, Valve will not stop developers from making SteamOS-exclusive games, particularly those that are best suited for playing from the living room.

[62] Through SteamPlay, users can play games available on SteamOS that they already own on Windows or OS X and will not need to repurchase the title.

[67] In an article published in July 2017, PC Gamer lists several factors why Steam Machines did not take off as Valve had anticipated.