Okay, we've got to admit, Valve's new Steam Machine is pretty cute, right? The little 'GabeCube', as it's affectionately being named in some corners of the internet, is Valve's new attempt to bridge the gap between console and PC hardware - in the wake of its successful Steam Deck device. However, the first thing that popped into our heads when we initially laid eyes on this thing wasn't a Valve system at all - it was Microsoft's old 'Project Lockhart' mockups.
If you cast your minds back to summer 2020, as anticipation continued to build for Xbox Series X, there was a rumoured second Microsoft console being talked about by pretty much everyone in the industry. At the time it was known as Project Lockhart — later becoming Xbox Series S of course — and there was this little cutdown Series X mockup that folks were using to speculate about the machine.
Fast forward to 2025 and the Steam Machine isn't just reminding us of that, it's even reminding Xbox's senior social media manager of that:
Yep, these two designs are very similar in overall shape and style - even if Series S ended up looking much more like an Xbox One S than this little cube. Speaking of cubes, there are also shades of the GameCube in the Steam Machine too; something our friends over at Nintendo Life have swiftly noticed as well.