A top manager from Dell stated that he thinks that the Alienware-Steam Machine is going to be the least profitable system they have ever produced. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal General manager of the Alienware devision Frank Azor is not amused at all, he states that it is going to be a challenge to make any profit on these machines. He doubts that the platform can compete with the Sony Playstation 4 and Xbox One from Microsoft.

Consoles often are sold without any profit as the manufacturers make money out of the game sales, this does not apply to Steam boxes. With the consoles sitting in the 400-500 USD range an expensive SteamBox 750 USD product does not make much sense for the cinsumers. The problem lies herein, the core hardware partners like Dell do not receive any software royalties opposed to Valve, who grabs all the profit on the content side of things. 

Tuan Nguyen, responsible for products and marketing from iBuyPower also casts his doubts, they will release a Steam Machine yet the many platforms and concepts available will make this a tough sell. And making money on the hardware alone again is going to be tough when you need to compete to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One which are sold below the product value. Thus far manufacturers will still play ball with Valve, as Valve is very influential with the Steam-platform on PC, Steam currently has 75 Million active accounts.

Dell: Alienware-Steam Machine is the least profitable System Ever