The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/valve-will-not-make-exclusive-games-for-steamos

Valve has confirmed that it will not be making games that are exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines.

Speaking to IGN, Valve’s Greg Comer said, “you won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.”

This will also apply to third-party titles, Valve’s Anna Sweet told us. “Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms," she said. "Because we think that customers are everywhere, and they want to put their games wherever customers are. That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that’s exclusive to SteamOS or Steam machines.”

“Or to drive customers there artificially,” Coomer continued. “Because if it can run in both places, we don’t like to create those artificial barriers to accessing content. We believe that, in maybe five years from now, folks will find it a quite antiquated notion that you should assume that when you change devices or platforms, that you lose all of your other games and friends. We’re hoping to unify, to get Steam to be as platform- and context-agnostic as possible. You shouldn’t have to shed that every generation, or even slightly shed it.”

Wow, they have ballz.

 

[Boleskine]

Another hands-on with The Verge.

 

[tuluse]

Heh, Valve dissing pretty much everyone.

 

[Dexter]

Wow, they have ballz.

That's quite noble of them and I largely agree with the sentiment.

The new console hardware even resembles PCs now to a T and thinking about it fundamentally, the idea of having "platform exclusives" is equally stupid as if you could watch movies by Sony Motion Pictures only on Sony TVs with Sony Blu-Ray players and other stuff only on Microsoft or Apple TVs and you’d have to buy one of each even though one alone could do the job. Although we might be heading there at the pace they are trying to each bank on the TV market and “Exclusivity” there too.

AAA games largely seem to be letting go of the concept of "Exclusivity", likely because production has become that much more costly and the big three can't afford as much money to pay them off to offset not releasing on other platforms, so they will likely rage themselves out more on unsuspecting Indies during the next generation.

What I don't know is how Valve plans to sell their machines to the console peasants if it isn't for "Exclooosives" (I didn't expect them not to release their games on Windows PCs too, but if they release their games on the other consoles there is hardly a point, that is exactly how Half Life 2 and subsequent titles popularized Steam), since that is largely what moves them to do anything.

 

[Infinitron]

Dexter I could see how in Valve's mind, releasing (for example) HL3 on Windows PC and Steambox but NOT on traditional consoles isn't "exclusive".

 

[tuluse]

I bet they release on consoles, the last 2 Valve published games were on all platforms (Portal 2 and CS:GO).

 

[Bruticis]

Dexter I could see how in Valve's mind, releasing (for example) HL3 on Windows PC and Steambox but NOT on traditional consoles isn't "exclusive".

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I don't think they're trying to directly compete with consoles (yet). This whole initiative is fundamentally an attempt to get away from Microsoft and their increasingly stupid ideas for Windows. Thus, I think their main target for the time being will be current PC gamers and Steam users, and all the living room stuff is supposed to entice them to give SteamOS a shot, be it with a Steam Machine or by installing it on their main rig, HTPC, or some kind of small streaming box. It may also capture console peasants who wanted to give PC gaming a shot, but were scared away by all the complexity (lol), however, I do believe they will be an added bonus for Valve at this point, and not the primary target.

Then, in a few years, as console hardware becomes more and more outdated, and all of Valve's new software and hardware mature a bit, who knows what could happen.

On a related note, this is quite a clever overall strategy. Valve is basically using the fact that Microsoft wants "hardcore" gaming to move from Windows to the Xbox, to put everyone who has a stake in the "gaming" PC hardware market (most notably AMD and NVIDIA, but also many OEMs; not sure how much of a shit Intel gives tbh) on its own side. I think we might all be surprised by the scale of their "launch" mid-2014; Valve itself is a relatively small company in terms of manpower (although with huge cash reserves presumably), but I think they'll have some major support from much bigger parties.

I wonder what Microsoft will do in reaction to all this. Probably nothing.

 

[Achilles]

Dexter I could see how in Valve's mind, releasing (for example) HL3 on Windows PC and Steambox but NOT on traditional consoles isn't "exclusive".

Yup, this is what I expect them to do.

 

[Dr Tomo]

Valve Will Not Make Exclusive Games for SteamOS
If Half-Life 3 comes, you won’t need a Steam Machine to play it.

Valve has confirmed that it will not be making games that are exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines.

Speaking to IGN, Valve’s Greg Comer said, “you won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.”

This will also apply to third-party titles, Valve’s Anna Sweet told us. “Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms," she said. "Because we think that customers are everywhere, and they want to put their games wherever customers are. That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that’s exclusive to SteamOS or Steam machines.”

“Or to drive customers there artificially,” Coomer continued. “Because if it can run in both places, we don’t like to create those artificial barriers to accessing content. We believe that, in maybe five years from now, folks will find it a quite antiquated notion that you should assume that when you change devices or platforms, that you lose all of your other games and friends. We’re hoping to unify, to get Steam to be as platform- and context-agnostic as possible. You shouldn’t have to shed that every generation, or even slightly shed it.”

Coomer added that “it would be pretty silly” if a third-party developer wanted “to limit their game to a certain platform.” He did note that small, independent studios who only have the resources to focus on one platform may inevitably make games that only run on SteamOS, “but that’s a very different thing.”

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/valve-will-not-make-exclusive-games-for-steamos
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/valve-will-not-make-exclusive-games-for-steamos

So it will take long time before the OS is adopted?

 

[abija]

Talk is cheap, and atm exclusives won't make up for expensive hardware. We'll see in 2-3 years (when they'll be able to sell 300-400$ steam boxes 5-10 times more powerful than xbone/ps4) if there will still be no exclusives for steamos.

 

[Infinitron]

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/1946973719015581944

Total War: ROME II Is Coming to SteamOS
8 NOVEMBER - GREGORI
Those of us working on Steam hardware and SteamOS are pleased to announce another game coming soon to the platform. Here's the message straight from Rob Bartholomew at Creative Assembly:

At Creative Assembly we want our customers to be able to play on as many platforms and in as many locations as possible, so today we are announcing future support for both SteamOS and the Steam Controller.

We’ve always wanted the Total War franchise to be enjoyed by living room gamers, but the limitations of traditional hardware made our style of game play impossible. Last month, when Valve invited us to test out the new Steam Controller and unveiled their plans for SteamOS - we were impressed. We believe it will provide us with the control fidelity and platform we need to make a living room experience for ROME II that could be a more compelling experience than playing with keyboard and mouse.

ROME II will be launching on Linux early next year, with full Steam Controller and Big Picture support to be added as soon as Valve gets us a controller dev kit. Pick up a copy of the game this weekend while it’s 25% off and you’ll be able to play the Linux version as soon as it launches!

 

[Hornawkawk]

Playing an RTS with a gamepad

 

[Gragt]

That's quite noble of them and I largely agree with the sentiment.

I'll consider them noble when they actually do something worthy of the word.

 

[sea]

We’ve always wanted the Total War franchise to be enjoyed by living room gamers

Playing an RTS with a gamepad

Eh, the only real limitation is the lack of a mouse pointer. The Steam controller seems to mostly solve that issue.

 

[Hornawkawk]

We’ve always wanted the Total War franchise to be enjoyed by living room gamers

Playing an RTS with a gamepad

Eh, the only real limitation is the lack of a mouse pointer. The Steam controller seems to mostly solve that issue.

What about numerous keyboard shortcuts?

 

[sea]

What about numerous keyboard shortcuts?

D-pad and buttons? Shortcuts help but they aren't required provided the interface is designed to be context-sensitive enough that the limited button inputs aren't a huge issue. Obviously it's not preferable to using a keyboard and mouse, but playable? Of course.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Yeah, every developer making mouse driven games for PC is now salivating at the prospect of expanding their audience with the Steam controller. It's no surprise that one of the games they used to showcase the controller was Civ5.

We’ve always wanted the Total War franchise to be enjoyed by living room gamers

Playing an RTS with a gamepad

Eh, the only real limitation is the lack of a mouse pointer. The Steam controller seems to mostly solve that issue.

What about numerous keyboard shortcuts?

Matters in a competitive RTS like Starcraft, not so much in Total War.

Although apparently there's a dude near GM on the SC2 ladder with a Xbox360 controller, so what do I know...

 

[Metro]

Valve has enough pull with Steam that they will get at least 75% of the major publishers (outliers being Blizzard/Activision and EA) and probably 99% of the minors/indies to support SteamOS. Dunno why people doubted that.

 

[Hornawkawk]

And I'll be very happy to see that, considering that windows is becoming a tablet bloatware piece of shit with an appstore.

 

[toro]

I've played CS 1.4/1/6 in the past and I don't know if is just my impression but this new CS:GO feels unnatural. The new weapons recoil simply sucks and there are some issue with the hitbox (it's weird !?).
I don't think CS is the best fps but in the older versions you actually had to crouch, aim and shot. You could snipe with AK 47 but it was harder because you always had to aim a little higher above the head for a headshot.
And in the new one you hit where the cross-hair is pointing which means that every idiot can snipe with AK47 and he can shoot through unrealistically small holes.

 

[OSK]

More Linux games!

 

[abija]

You could snipe with AK 47 but it was harder because you always had to aim a little higher above the head for a headshot.

Those were just broken hitboxes. That stupid fog in GO is there exactly because it was too easy to HS with AK 47 across maps (and not only). No idea why they didn't put a dmg reduction width distance instead of using the fog though...

 

[toro]

You could snipe with AK 47 but it was harder because you always had to aim a little higher above the head for a headshot.

Those were just broken hitboxes. That stupid fog in GO is there exactly because it was too easy to HS with AK 47 across maps (and not only). No idea why they didn't put a dmg reduction width distance instead of using the fog though...

Ok, I get it. The hitboxes are better now.

But the pace of the game has changed: run and gun was not really the best option in the past but now it seems that is the main solution to everything. I've tried to play the game as before: cautious with patience, always crouch and take aim before shooting but this doesn't work anymore. Everything is about throwing grenades, always being on the move and exploiting every hiding place in the maps. It took me one week to rise from the absolute bottom to the upper half of the top on the servers I'm playing. This is ok considering that I did not play in several years but this is no longer a tactical shooter.

 

[Gurkog]

CS was always shit. It is one step up from CoD.