Valve to discontinue Steam Link once current supply sells out

The Steam Link launched in November 2015 to moderate praise. The main feature of the Steam Link is its ability to stream gameplay from your computer to a TV, allowing gamers to play on their living room couch while still tapping into the power of their gaming PC and their Steam library.

While Valve’s other November 2015 release, Steam Machines, never gained much traction and quickly fell into obscurity, the Steam Link has enjoyed success as a niche streaming device for the past three years. Sadly, its days are numbered; Valve has announced they will no longer sell physical Steam Link devices after the current stock runs out.

A quiet update to the Steam Link product page says that the Steam Link isn’t long for this world:

The supply of physical Steam Link hardware devices is almost sold out. 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 [sic], tablets and televisions.

In other words, Valve will not renew stock of the Steam Link. Instead, the company will shift focus to the Steam Link app for smartphones and other Android machines (e.g., Android TV devices).

It’s possible that the Steam Link isn’t selling enough to warrant continued support. Since Valve already has software that allows game streaming through other devices, there’s likely little reason for the company to continue the upkeep demanded by a physical device. Valve can let other OEMs do the hardware heavy lifting and continue to update their Steam Link software, which is more cost effective at scale.

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