Alienware’s Steam Machine will be their “least profitable system” ever

After the glut of information about upcoming Steam Machines during this year's CES, new details have been hard to come by. But speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Frank Azor, general manager of Dell Inc.'s Alienware game-PC division, said that they don't expect the their Steam Machine to be a large profit driver.

"It's going to be very challenging. This will absolutely be the least profitable system we ever sell," Azor said.

While Alienware has yet to provide an official price for their upcoming system, they have said before that they plan on being competitive with current consoles. However, those statements were made before Microsoft introduced their Kinect-free $400 system, putting it at price parity with the PS4.

The article does not delve into why Alienware feels the need to take that risk outside of the "power of Valve," but Azor has said previously that updates to their hardware will come regularly. "We will be updating our Steam Machines every year. The platform will continue to evolve as the games become more resource intensive."

Valve showed off a reconfigured version of the Steam controller back in March, and that it will be available this fall, followed by the actual Steam Machines. Valve typically doesn't have a presence at E3, but we expect to hear some new details about Steam Machines from other developers during this year's conference.

Justin Haywald is a senior editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @JustinHaywald Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email [email protected]