What Valve's Announcements Mean for Gaming

Now that we have the full picture of Valve's efforts to bring PC gaming to the living room (SteamOS, dedicated hardware, and a fresh controller design), people are starting to analyze what those efforts will mean for gaming, and what Valve must do to be successful. Eurogamer's Oli Welsh points out that even if Steam Machines aren't able to take the market away from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, they put us a step closer to the final console generation. "Valve has hopefully sidestepped the most depressing aspect of console gaming: the enforced obsolescence that makes you consign your entire games collection to a dusty cupboard every five years." GamesRadar notes that Valve's approach is fundamentally different from that of the current console manufacturers because it's about putting more power into the hands of the users. "The takeaway from SteamOS, then, is that openness breeds innovation. Valve's putting the very source code of its operating system in the hands of everyone who wants it just to see what happens. Comparatively, Microsoft is pushing its Windows Store, turning Windows into an increasingly closed platform (i.e. one that charges costly development licensing fees and restricts access to certain content providers)." Everyone's curious to see how the controller will perform, so Gamasutra and Kotaku reached out to a number of game developers who have experimented with prototypes already. "[Dan Tabar of indie studio Data Realms] said the configuration map for the controller allows you to do 'pretty much anything.' For example, developers can slice up a pad into quarters, each one representing a different input, or even into eight radial sections, again, each section representing whatever you want, mapping to key combinations, or to the mouse." Tommy Refenes, co-creator of Super Meat Boy, wrote an in-depth description of his experience with the device. He summed up his reaction by saying, "Great Start, needs some improvements, but I could play any game I wanted with it just fine."

Comments

Unless your engine already supports OpenGL

[tepples]

I was under the impression that engines that already support OpenGL won't need too much modification. SteamOS is just a desktop Linux distribution bundled with the Steam client in Big Picture mode. This means it uses the same video drivers and the same APIs as desktop Linux. The only engines that would need extensive modification are the ones that target only Windows and Xbox 360, as the other gaming platforms use OpenGL or something very much like it.

Re:Unless your engine already supports OpenGL

[Mike Frett]

Valve wants native ports, not Wine usage. Their strategy for streaming is sort of a Microsoft tactic. Consumers will find Steaming to be cumbersome and eventually demand native ports from publishers, that's valves goal with streaming; Native ports. They've had plenty of time to figure all this out and gather the data. It's a big risk for them, they aren't just going to throw something out there and hope it catches.

In the end we all need to stop thinking about Wine. It's more of a problem, than a solution.

Re:Unless your engine already supports OpenGL

[Curunir_wolf]

The vast majority of triple AAA games aren't ported to the Wii

Just how many AAA AAA AAA games are out there, anyway?

Re::Living Room?

[ichthus]

What the hell are you talking about. Contrary to the Verizon commercials, people aren't watching movies on their phones in subways or coffee shops. They're scarcely watching them in theaters either. Where, then, are they watching them? In ... *cough* the.. ah... LIVING ROOM. Yeah, and people still game there too.

When will the right people get to test controller

[ShiftyOne]

I'd much rather see the headline "pro-gamers get their hands on the steam controller and approve" than anything else. Especially any that use the claw or hammer grips (aka keeping a finger on the a b x y buttons at all times). Game developers aren't necessarily known for being good at their games.

This is the future

[tom229]

This is another company using open platforms, and standards, to sell their services. We've already seen this work extraordinarily well with Android, and being that Steam is already the largest online repository for games, I see this working out well for Valve.

This is a fantastic leap forward for gaming and open standards. Unfortunately Microsoft is just barely figuring out how to poorly copy the declining success of the Apple model... looks like they'll have to play catch up again.

Re::Living Room?

[higuita]

Thank you, but i spend all my day at work... where of course, i can't play...
traveling home, i'm driving... so i can't also play
at home, i'm in the couch relaxing... i can play some games in a tablet (not a small phone, forget that) or in the big screen. As most tablet games are simple, if i wan't a more rewarding game i must go the the PC (with linux)... or i can play directly on the TV. Valve helped in both solutions.

Mobile is for kids and teenagers, all rest prefer the office or the couch

I am disappointed in Valve

[asm2750]

I wish Valve would start announcing new games. This console infatuation is getting annoying.

"more power in the hands of the users"

[swampfriend]

What I see is less power in the hands of users as all games become subscription and "early access." The developer is freed from its obligation to ever provide a finished product that actually belongs to the user, rather than being leased or sold "on spec"

Re: It means there's now one more API to target.

[techprophet]

Wayland stands in one corner, hailed by the majority of the Linux community. In the other corner stands Canonical's canonical display server, all alone. Given Valve's actions so far, I'd wager a healthy amount of btc on wayland.

If this works out

[drolli]

then Linux really has won. Game consoles are the last piece of customer devices casually used where Linux has not a strong foothold

-e book readers: most based on linux
-all sony entertainment equipment like cameras, television etc (PS3 excluded): Linux
-most medium to high end media players:linux (exclude ipod)
-most phones (except feature phones and iphones): Linux
-netbooks for consumers: chrombook share seems to explode

The last bastion where Linux never got any foothold were all things related to gaming. If steam now makes a "reference design" for a linux based gaming machine, that could settle some battles at ones. This has the potential to kill the PS4 and the XBOX, since every cheap chinese manufacturer can clone the thing. And like android the marketplace will be the cash-cow holding this together.