The other possibility is that their Steam Box fits with their "games as a service" model. Imagine if they charged a monthly/yearly fee and occasionally shipped out hardware upgrades to all Steam Box owners.
We'll be doing that model in 2013 with a B2B SaaS service that benefits from an onsite edge node to reduce latency, among other things.
The hardware isn't sold, it's leased, but the effect is the same: we manage the onsite hardware, fix it when it breaks (next day replacement), and send out new hardware every few years. The hardware is literally plug and play, and works correctly behind a NAT router with DHCP.
We actually decide what hardware a customer gets (it's based on load -- standard provisioning stuff), although customers can upgrade to a system they don't actually need for a fee.
I think this approach is way better for customers, and the response so far has been extremely positive. No longer do they have to worry about provisioning and maintaining hardware, or even deciding what to buy. Of course they don't know the best way to provision hardware for our software. Why would they?
It'd be really interesting to see this approach done in the consumer space.
