Leave it to Valve to announce some new hardware out of left field that quietly one-ups its competition, except for maybe Nintendo. If anything, Nintendo might be an inspiration for the PC czar and its continued attempts to give customers more options to play their library on the big screen. There's no way to look at Valve's new Steam Machine without thinking about the Nintendo GameCube. But the similarities go well beyond mere shape. The vibe of the latest Steam Machine is playful, and that's a rarity in the hardware space.

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