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Windows 10 App For Xbox One Could Render Steam Machines Useless
SlappingOysters writes: The release of Windows 10 has brought with it the Xbox app -- a portal through which you can stream anything happening on your Xbox One to your Surface or desktop. Finder is reporting that the love will go the other way, too, with a PC app coming to the Xbox One allowing you to stream your desktop to your console. But where does this leave the coming Steam Machines? This analysis shows how such an app could undermine the Steam Machines' market position.
They probably mean redundant. Having an alternative doesn't make something useless.
No, the whole point of Steam Machines is so that Steam can survive Windows. If the best streaming experience for Steam winds up being through Xbox One, I don't think they will care all that much. Steam Machines exist primarily because Windows 8 onward aren't a level playing field. Applications sold through Windows Store get special APIs (like a UI toolkit that isn't a horribly bad abomination) that non-Store apps aren't allowed to use. And Steam can't sell applications using the Windows Store APIs since those kinds of applications are installed by the TrustedInstaller account, which has privileges above and beyond normal administrative accounts in Windows. I have seen no indication that this situation has changed in version 10.
Why would a streaming XBox make a steam machine irrelevant?
The $50 streaming device from Valve makes the XBox+App irrelevant: Steam Link Streaming Box
Love sees no species.