Its not unless its subsidised which valve may chose to do given that the enthusiast PC marked is crashing, which in time will eat some of their growth.
I don't see Valve doing it. Unlike an actual console they can't lock down the hardware. People would start buying Steam Machines then replace the OS or even resell the parts.
> People would start buying Steam Machines then replace the OS or even resell the parts.
That would be highly unprofitable. A subsidized Steam Machine contains a 7600M equivalent. It'll probably have a great price for machine with a 7600M, but it'll be significantly more expensive than a machine with an iGPU. Non-gamers aren't going to pay extra for a machine with a 7600M. And gamers are likely buying Steam games even if they aren't using SteamOS. You can't rip out the 7600M to sell it.
If they only subsidize engineering time, not part cost, this could still be a success for them. It could benefit them even to have people swapping OS and reselling parts. Steam does work across a lot of these combinations already.
