The trend is accelerating with cloud gaming streaming PC-grade hardware from data centers, alongside expanding handheld and hybrid devices compatible with PC-like ecosystems.

Steam and Valve position themselves as facilitators and testers for PC gaming, prioritizing feedback from players and developers to shape products and improvements.

Nintendo’s Switch 2 remains a bespoke handheld/console hybrid with lower raw power, contrasting with the PC-oriented trajectory of other platforms and influencing Valve’s Steam Deck and handheld PC trend.

Valve has shown a willingness to sell hardware like the Steam Controller even amid pauses on Steam Machines, signaling a flexible, experimentation-driven hardware strategy.

Gabe Newell predicted that consoles would rely on standard PC hardware rather than bespoke architectures, a view largely borne out by today’s landscape.

Overall, the broader forecast of software and services running on standardized hardware has been validated, with hardware convergence underpinning cross‑platform play, services, and business models.

The current gaming era is a convergence where open hardware, cross-platform access, and flexible branding shape the future of both console and PC gaming, with Valve and Microsoft steering toward shared underlying technologies while keeping distinct platform identities.

Business implications include reduced need for subsidizing custom chips, potential cost efficiencies, and the ability for Sony and Microsoft to leverage widely available AMD/PCRC tooling and R&D.

For developers, cross-platform development becomes standard, allowing engines to run with relatively minor modifications across PC and console platforms.

The convergence stems from the cost and difficulty of custom chips and the advantages of widely understood PC parts that are cheaper and consistently improving.

Modern consoles resemble gaming PCs beneath the hood, enabling broader game compatibility and cross‑platform play, even as purists debate the pace and method of openness in console ecosystems.

Steam Deck exemplifies PC-like gaming in a handheld form, serving as a practical embodiment of the convergence.