Two Steam Machine announcements came out today.
One, the popular Alienware Steam Machine – the glossy
8x8x3ish unit said to be priced competitively with the newly released consoles –
is expected to release this September.
The second piece of news indicates that that the Steam controller has undergone
a slight redesign to a new prototype, dropping the touch screen and looking
more like a traditional controller whilst keeping the touch bowls. Think of it
as keeping the shape of the Steam Controller, but swapping the placements of
the face buttons and the joy sticks on a Dualshock controller. Images of 3D rendering of the
controller have been Tweeted online, and is said to have undergone some other changes as well.
Last week, I wrote a piece admittedly high on the idea of
Steam Machines. However as the dust has long since settled, much of what Valve
expects from their new hardware is still confusing.
Where PC and console gamers such as myself share a valid
concern is that the Linux based Steam OS only supports 250 games at this time. While
this is will likely be more than what the new consoles will have even until the
end of the year (with plenty of “last generation” cross overs like Metro: Last
Light and Assassins Creed IV), this is unacceptable for the now established 75
million Steam users who have access to the nearly immeasurable amount of games
listed on what I’ll call “Steam Proper” through Windows.
There are ways to access Steam’s full library on a Steam
Machine. Users will “simply” have to install Windows on their Box, provided
that they have the correct hardware. From what’s been talked about at CES, it
seems that the lower grade-lower priced Steam Machines: iBuyPower and Alienware,
either cannot install Windows or aren’t built to make it simple for the casual
consumer. To get access to that, one would have to invest in the higher end
Steam Machines which break the $1,000 threshold. Looking at accessing Steam via
Windows on a Steam Machine effectively turns the system into just another PC, which completely defeats
the purpose of investing in a Steam Machine in the first place.
250 might be a decent number for a catalog; but in knowing
that it’s but a small fraction of the full Steam software support and not
knowing what the incentive is for developers to support Linux at this time
makes the Steam Machines a little less appealing (though I’ll probably still
get one anyway).
Outside of the Linux vs. Windows debacle, Valve’s messaging
on who the Steam Machine is for is unequivocally disjointed. By simply looking
at the hardware concept, Steam Machines are the answer to making PC gaming
simple and accessible, which in turn will bring in new users such as myself.
However, Valve has stated that they’re not looking to step into the market that
Microsoft and Sony is catering to; instead, they’re looking to offer an
alternative option for current Steam users, the very same Steam users that have
a very comfortable PC gaming experience already, including making Big Picture
Mode work on their own.
This makes no sense to me.
The act of bringing new products to the consumer market is
meant to widen the audience. But this approach of looking at current Steam
users is the very mentality that brought up the question, “Who are Steam
Machines for?” I understand the hesitancy in talking to a market that has
likely been imbedded in the console space for their entire gaming lives, but
there’s nothing wrong with stating, “We are looking to give our Steam users
another option along with offering newcomers a streamlined PC experience.”
Despite the confusion, split messaging and lack of
conviction on who this new line of hardware is for, the fact that we’ve seen
the idea of Steam Box move to hardened details of the Steam Machine line up is
undeniably exciting, albeit not fully knowing what to be excited for yet. Some suspect
Valve’s peripheral stance on not manufacturing their own hardware might be a
sign that Valve isn’t fully confident that Steam Machines will be a success.
However Valve is onto something here. PC gaming deserves to be more consumer
friendly just as it is important for the gaming community at large to have
easier access to PC software. This is an idea that will catch on, one way or
another – even if we don’t see it yet.
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