Isn’t this industry standard? How many PCs have locked boot loaders?

Edit, reply to Rohansi as I am rate limited, I’m talking about gaming PCs not consoles.

A lot of machines ship with secure boot locked to Microsoft's key. Usually there's a way to turn it off, otherwise you need the shim loader Microsoft signed in 2015 whose signature has just expired and who knows if Microsoft will sign it again.

I can't believe all the replies who see no problem with a company completely controlling their device like it makes no difference.

This is more competing in the game console market than the PC market though.

Yup, even though this is just a gaming PC, most people are going to be using it as a game console.

PS5, Xbox? They're almost PCs and are in the same space as Steam Machine.

Every iphone, ipad, playstation, xbox, android phone (though there are ways of unlocking), smart TV, smart Fridge. These are all devices that run a full web browser, these aren't appliances they're full personal computers. You can write and run software on them, even if arbitrarily limited in hardware access.

Yeah. Hope they never change.