The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Sentinel]

Ahhhh... those russians!

 

[Modron]

Please tell me ghost_rus games are still there though? Checked and they still are crisis averted.

 

[Venser]

According to reddit some legit devs who put work into their games got burned because they signed with a shitty publisher and now their games are removed.

 

[Infinitron]

Death of the Steam Controller: https://www.theverge.com/good-deals...alve-steam-controller-discontinued-sale-price

Pour one out for the Steam Controller, now on closeout sale for just $5 plus shipping
An amazing gadget bites the dust

The Steam Autumn Sale has begun, allowing you to nab a copy of Resident Evil 2 for a mere $20 among other savings, but there’s one deal that stands out from the pack — a $5 farewell to Valve’s weirdly wonderful Steam Controller gamepad.

Yes, you can now buy the Steam Controller for just $5 plus shipping ($13 total for me), and Valve confirms that this is the last batch of these gamepads that will ever be made.

And while I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly like I did when Valve discontinued its amazing Steam Link wireless HDMI cable-in-a-box, I will say that $13 is a pretty excellent price if you ever plug your PC into your television, or sling your PC games wirelessly to the Steam Link app on your phone and need an accurate solution.

My Steam Controller, next to an earlier prototype.

That’s because the controller, originally introduced in 2013 as part of Valve’s failed Steam Machines initiative — read our feature on how it was designed — is one of the most fully customizable gamepads ever made, and perhaps the only one to offer mouse-like pinpoint precision. That’s because it uses a pair of trackpads, complete with tiny solenoid actuators for haptic feedback, so you can emulate a mouse or trackball. Plus, there are paddles around back for crouching, jumping, strafing, you name it without needing to take your thumbs off those trackpads.

But that’s just the beginning.

The Steam Controller had some growing pains — I remember building the perfect Metal Gear Solid V configuration only to find out the game continually got confused whether I was using a mouse and keyboard or an Xbox gamepad. Eventually, I stopped using it altogether because most games felt more comfortable with a traditional gamepad — and because there wasn’t as much reason to whip out the Steam Controller when Valve started letting you remap any gamepad the same way, with native support for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and even third-party controllers like 8BitDo.

But I’ve never stopped marveling over the Steam Controller as a pure gadget, cramming in wired and two forms of wireless connectivity, trackpads that can play chiptunes (see below), insane battery life from a pair of AAs, and cleverly engineered levers to pop those batteries out.

And the Steam Controller did get somewhat of a new lease on life last year when Valve brought the Steam Link app to smartphones, letting you beam games from your PC to a phone, and adding Bluetooth to the Steam Controller with a firmware update so it can be your gamepad for those titles. It doesn’t work as a controller for regular Android or iOS games, though, and you’ll either need a phone stand or a 3D-printed attachment to clamp the gamepad to your phone. I prefer my DualShock 4 for that, which also pairs natively to both mobile operating systems and whose trackpad can similarly double as a mouse.

I doubt I’m actually going to convince you to buy a Steam Controller if you’ve never been sold on the idea before. (Plus, paying $8 for shipping seems a bit much.) But I’m keeping mine around as a piece of gaming history, and I’m a little tempted to buy a second just in case I ever lose its USB dongle.

Or maybe, just maybe, to do this:

Update, 3:32 PM ET: Clarified that shipping will probably cost you more than the controller itself — seemingly $8 in the continental US — so the total is more like $13.

 

[Curratum]

Controller costs 5 EUR, shipping is another 21 EUR. How about "no"?

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Just missed that deal. Was pretty pissed. My 11 year old 360 pad is nearing death too, would have been perfect

 

[Rahdulan]

Steam controller kinda got undeservedly hated on. Haptic feedback is one thing, but a lot people basically misunderstood what the controller was and saw it as their go-to gaming controller rather then a tool to emulate M&K.

 

[Sentinel]

Death of the Steam Controller

Valve filed a patent for a v2 revision last year. It's not dead.

 

[Fedora Master]

Steam should purge all anime after the russki shovelware purge.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Yet Underworld Ascendant is still available. There is no justice in the world.

 

[Jenkem]

Yet Underworld Ascendant is still available. There is no justice in the world.

It's 85% off.. I should buy it, right?

 

[Steamboat Willie]

It's not even 85% completed.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Is it 15% completed?

 

[Infinitron]

No more controllers:

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Meanwhile, in a third world country run by mafia

 

[DalekFlay]

If VR revolutionizes gaming to the same extent the Steam controller did I'll be a happy man.

 

[Morgoth]

https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/3/20994257/valve-in-the-valley-of-gods-campo-santo-half-life-alyx

Firewatch team’s next game ‘on hold’ as it works on other Valve projects
Campo Santo team is working on Half-Life: Alyx, Dota Underlords, and other projects for now

In 2017, Firewatch developer Campo Santo unveiled In the Valley of Gods, a promising-looking first-person adventure set in Egypt. The following year, Valve, the maker of Counter-Strike, Steam, and Dota 2, snapped up Campo Santo. Some Firewatch fans worried that Campo Santo had been swallowed by a company notorious for not shipping games.

Just last month, Firewatch fans freaked out a little bit more when multiple Campo Santo developers who had joined Valve removed any and all mention of In the Valley of Gods from their Twitter bios. It was a worrying sign.

But then Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx, a VR-only prequel to Half-Life 2. Several Campo Santo developers were confirmed to be working on the project. Still, the fate of In the Valley of Gods was uncertain.

But no longer. Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin confirms that “In the Valley of Gods development is on hold,” but not outright canceled. In a statement to Polygon, Rodkin says that former Campo Santo developers are busy working on not just Half-Life: Alyx, but Dota Underlords, Steam, and other Valve projects as well. Here’s his full statement:

To fans looking forward to In the Valley of Gods, it’s probably clear that the optimistic “2019” at the end of the announcement trailer isn’t going to be accurate. In the end, Valve Time makes fools of us all. But yes, developers from the former Campo Santo team have joined other projects at Valve, including Half-Life: Alyx. As you can imagine, our experience in the first-person adventure genre is pretty relevant. You hear a lot about how at Valve you can work on what you want. It turns out that’s true, and there’s a lot of work available. As we integrated ourselves into Valve it became clear there was a lot of valuable work to be done on Half-Life: Alyx. Some of us starting lending a hand, and have since become full-time on the project as it approaches launch. Similarly, some ex-Campos are working on Dota Underlords, some are on Steam, and so on. So to answer your question as of today, In the Valley of Gods development is on hold—but it certainly feels like a project people can and may return to. And when that happens, we’ll find an exciting way to let fans know.​

Half-Life: Alyx is scheduled to be released on Steam in March 2020. In the Valley of Gods’ release date on Steam is now listed as “TBD.”

It's dead, Jim.

Thanks, Gaben.

 

[LESS T_T]

More important news:



(It was @steam_games.)

 

[passerby]

If VR revolutionizes gaming to the same extent the Steam controller did I'll be a happy man.

Not a perfect analogy, since unlike VR, Steam controller would be a significant improvement, if simillar design was adopted by console manufacturers and AAA games were designed with it's capabilities in mind.

Otherwise I agree, VR will flop. In the current form it is suitable for an amusement park, not for regular gaming. I'm waiting for 90% off sale on VR sets, few years down the line.

 

[DalekFlay]

Otherwise I agree, VR will flop.

For the record I'm not saying it WILL flop, just that I hope it does.

 

[Gerrard]

Campo Santo team is working on Half-Life: Alyx

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

 

[Fedora Master]

Good job Steam, can't read fucking shit because you can't enlarge the image.

 

[LESS T_T]

To be honest that's also (probably more) on the developer. I understand that compact image is more 'shareable' on social websites, but they're posing on Steam announcement. They should have posted actual text there.

 

[Country_Gravy]

If VR takes off, I'm going to hold off on the 90% off sale on the attachment that goes on your cock to let you virtually fuck everybody.

 

[DalekFlay]

If VR takes off, I'm going to hold off on the 90% off sale on the attachment that goes on your cock to let you virtually fuck everybody.

There's already VR porn, so just buy a fleshlight and go to town if that's your thing.