Remember in the mid-noughties and early 10s when every XBOX player was worried that their XBOX would turn into a glorified brick when it would present us with the ‘Red Ring of Death’? Well, as spotted by Digital Foundry and seen in a Reddit post on the Steam Machine subreddit, it appears we could be heading for a similar issue with the recently released Steam Machine.
Posting their dismay on the subreddit, one early adopter of the Steam Machine said “Well, the Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes that it worked”, showing a picture of their Steam Machine with a blinking red light, which, according to the Steam Support website, is related to GPU failure, which as any PC user will know, isn’t something typically devices can come back from.
Explaining what happened to their Steam Machine before the issue appeared, the OP said, “Got five minutes of No Man’s Sky in, then I installed the update the machine had available and it bricked itself.”
And in true internet fashion, users flocked to show their sympathy, with one user saying “Sorry for your loss mate, thank you for your service.”, and another with “The red line of death is here”, drawing the comparisons to the epidemic of failing hardware that XBOX suffered in previous hardware generations.
Valve hasn’t yet commented on the issue, and how prevalent it is to the user base, but as and when a comment is made, we’ll update the article.
Have you been one of the unlucky few who has suffered the Steam Machine Red Line of Death? Let us know in the comments below!
For your next read, see how long Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations DLC is, or the Dune: Awakening physical release announcement you shouldn’t miss.
Luke Addison is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Thumb Wars. Having previously been a part of multiple outlets over the years, including building an entire gaming team from nothing to something, he thought it best to forge his own path and answer only to himself. As likely to be found playing the latest game as he is in the kitchen relaxing (by cooking), he always brings the same bold and brash attitude to everything he does, with a heavy leaning on sarcasm and dry wit!
