Steam Machine is the “most important” reason why Sony has paused PC ports, says ex-Blizzard president

Sony is returning to a more console-exclusive approach with its first-party PlayStation games, at least for single-player titles like Ghost of Yōtei and the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine. This is despite the company launching “PC Ready” DualSense (PS5) controllers last week. Shortly after that news surfaced, Microsoft announced its new ‘Project Helix’ device, designed to play both Xbox and PC games. However, ex-Blizzard president Mike Ybarra suggests it’s Valve that Sony is worried about, less so Microsoft.

Valve says its new Steam Machine mini PC is still coming in 2026, despite some memory and storage shortage-fueled setbacks delaying the original early 2026 launch window. The cubed device aims to provide a more living room-friendly experience that console owners will be familiar with, running on the same operating system as Valve’s Steam Deck handheld, SteamOS.

Sony will see Valve as a major competitor, more so than Xbox, says Ybarra

You may have first thought that Sony is returning to console exclusives as a way to sidestep supporting Project Helix, but Mike Ybarra (ex-Blizzard president and former Microsoft & Xbox executive) believes the “most important” factor is Valve. He says Sony will see Valve as a major new competitor, and one that “doesn’t make many mistakes” at that.

Now, the price of the Steam Machine remains a big factor in all of this, and it’s still a question mark amid RAM and SSD price hikes. Leaving that issue aside for now, the SteamOS-powered device comes with many consumer-friendly pluses for those coming from a regular console background.

As Ybarra points out, there’s a massive number of games available on Steam, there’s the Steam Families feature for game sharing, and Steam’s popular two-hour game refund promise. Not to mention plenty of PC exclusives of its own, like the recently-launched Slay the Spire 2 in early access or the array of PC esports titles.

Is Xbox less of a threat?

We started hearing rumors about Microsoft’s new ‘gaming PC-based’ console last month, so it’s not out of the scope for Sony to know about the development and react with a return to more PS5 exclusives, cutting out the prospect of PC ports and rendering them unplayable on the new Xbox device altogether. However, we can see why it may view Valve as a bigger threat.

In recent years, the PlayStation creator has warmed to the idea of bringing its single-player experiences to PC – God of War Ragnarök, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and The Last of Us, to name a few, but keeping future titles in these franchises away from PC (and away from the Steam Machine) could prove to be a powerful bargaining chip. The same could be said for VR-focused titles when comparing the value of the PlayStation VR2 versus the upcoming Steam Frame.