It isn't exactly surprising news, but it has now been officially announced that the Steam console and controllers will appear at Gamescon later this year. The systems would have been unveiled much earlier if it hadn't been for the launch delay, but better late than never.

What do you think so far of what you heard of the console and what are your expectations?

I love the Steam controllers.  They have a unique design, and although they'll be a bit difficult to get used to, I have hopes for them.  I hope that Valve will allow their use for general PCs, and not just Steam boxes.

However, I have lower expectations for the Steam console itself.  They're basically Linux boxes, from what I've heard.  I have nothing against Linux, and I imagine that the Steam boxes will work incredibly well for what they do.  But with so many AAA games yet to make the transition to Linux, I can imagine a lot of people reserving judgement on this.  Of course, Steam for Windows using Wine could be used to emulate Windows games, but it's imperfect as of now.

I predict that the Steam consoles will fail. No one will buy them when they can just play the games from their computer. Plus, it will be competing against the PS4 and the Wii U. (And the Xbox One, but no one likes it). I doubt it will be able to keep up.

Without the ability to use mods: Return this scrap of metal to where it was made, steam without mods is just isn't fun!

saldek : Now that you mention it, this gives STeam the opportunity to market mods basically as "DLC" and could probably now charge for them.

tgags123 : People will buy them because it aims to be as power as a top notch PC which can be capable of more than the PS4 (I cant confirm on the Steam Machine specks however). Valve + Alienware quote that it will be their "least profitable console" so that signals that it will be reliantly cheap, so console gamers or people with crappy or half-decent pc's can afford their gaming dreams.

It may not catch up with the PS4 but I think it has a chance with the Wii U (since it'll have some games soon) and Xbox 1. Besides it's main goal is to show console gamers that PC gaming is just as good or maybe even better (in my opinion it really is) and to get more people to use steam, which closes the question of what will the guys with top notch PCs do with a steam machine? Nothing, since most use steam (origin is complete s***) that means Gabe still gets his lunch money.

It may be a toy to lore console junkies to use steam to make a ton of money but I'm sure it wont do a bad job at that.

Wow I didn't know that there was a Steam console along with controllers coming out. Man... I am so outdated on stuff . I did search and look at the console and controller though. The controller looks pretty cool and I am not going to lie. I agree with tgags123 since I don't quite see this becoming much as a success like the other consoles who are in a competition at the moment. Steam isn't really meant to be for a console or at least in my eyes that is.

Mark my words, the so-called "Steambox" will find a niche audience and stay popular among them. I really don't see members of Reddit's Glorious PC Master Race standing behind it much, though. We live in an age of pre-built machines, although many savvy people have made the transition to a better way. I hope that someday I'll save up enough to build myself a nice gaming PC. I've heard of middle to high-end machines being built for $400 with all-new parts, although I don't know if that's just here-say or reality.