Valve has confirmed that the small black Steam Link box that allowed you stream PC games onto the TV screen has been discontinued. The company is shifting its focus to the software solution.

Steam Link lives on in software
The Steam Link hardware was launched in 2015 as a way to stream games from a PC over the home network to the TV screen, thus allowing gamers to enjoy their games on a much larger screen. It worked surprisingly well but was limited to 1080p60.

The Steam Link technology has since evolved into a software solution that is available as an app for Android TVs, Samsung TVs, and Android mobile devices. On some TV devices, the app supports 4K60 gaming. Valve had also planned to bring it to Apple TV and iOS but Apple rejected the app. Nevertheless, it seems that Valve has concluded that the dedicated hardware is no longer necessary.

- “ The supply of physical Steam Link hardware devices is sold out,” the company said. “Moving forward, Valve intends to continue supporting the existing Steam Link hardware as well as distribution of the software versions of Steam Link, available for many leading smart phones, tablets and televisions.”



Valve is slowly getting out of the hardware business that it identified as a growth opportunity a couple of years ago. Besides the Steam Link hardware and a Steam controller, the company launched a major initiative to sell ‘Steam Machine’ consoles that could bring PC games to the TV. These game consoles were meant to compete with PlayStation and Xbox but have now been largely forgotten.

The hardware is gone but Steam Link will live on in software. We can only hope that Valve will bring it to more devices and platforms over time. Valve is referring to this page for more information about the app solution.