Just over a month from now Valve will launch their gaming invasion of the living room. Steam Machines, Steam Link, and Steam Controllers will be available to the public for sale on November 10th. This unprecedented move by the game and digital storefront developer that has had people talking for years and will finally be a reality. It’s still too early to predict how successful this move will be, both for the short term and the long term. Regardless, this is a bold move that could be a turning point in gaming history. Here’s what PC gamers and console gamers alike need to know.
Valve is Playing the Long Game
This is not going to be like console release day for the Xbox One or PS4. Don’t expect millions of units to move in the first week. Both Valve and the developers of the Steam Machines understand that this release is the first step in marathon game plan. The goal here isn’t to compete any more directly with consoles than they already are. The purpose of Steam Machines, Steam Controllers, and Steam Link is to bring PC gaming easily and conveniently to the living room. There are no day one release titles that can only be played on Steam Machines like Mario, Halo, or Uncharted. However, for most of PC gaming’s existence, gamers have been relegated to computers and computer chairs with one keyboard and mouse and standing room only, while console gamers have had four controllers, big screen TVs, and couches for the better part of two decades. Bridging the computer-to-TV gap has never been easy or convenient, a problem Valve hopes to solve.
Steam Link is the Most Compelling of the Trio for Current PC Gamers
Steam Machines and the Steam Controller are certainly interesting and innovative additions to the gaming world, but are ultimately just different versions of existing technology. Steam Link is the newcomer that opens up possibilities for current PC gamers. Steam Link is a small black box the size of an external hard drive that connects to the user’s TV and home network. Once connected, Steam Link will connect to any PC on the network that is running Steam, and will then run any game from that PC on the TV. When combined with a Steam Controller, Steam Link is a strong move from a typical gaming cave into the living room, and only for $50 ($100 with a controller).
How good that connection is over a home network remains to be seen. Valve has promised that frame rates of 60 FPS and display resolution of 1080p – both hallmarks and bragging points of PC gamers – to be available over Steam Link. So far, in demos at carefully manicured presentations, that has held true. But major event demos are the commercials of video game world – actual product may vary. It won’t be surprising if reports of less-than-promised visuals and lag start pouring in after release day, with Valve making counter-statements about user’s less-than-ideal home network setups. Still, that promise has yet to be broken, and the entry price point of $50 is an incredibly tempting opportunity for current PC gamers, even if it requires another $50 to upgrade home network equipment to make it work perfectly.
Steam Link has 3 USB 3.0 ports, supports Bluetooth 4.0, Wireless 801.11ac, and has a 100 Mb Ethernet port.
Steam Machines Simplify PC Gaming – But Not By Much
One of the major gripes console gamers have for their PC counterparts is how complicated it can be. For those who are not at least moderately tech savvy, it’s an intimidating step. With an overload of information on processors, motherboards, power supplies, RAM, hard drives, clock speeds, frame rates, hardware compatibility lists, too much information is frequently as good as no information. At time of writing, an Amazon.com search for Gaming Motherboards alone yields 2,238 results. There are entry levels PCs through high end gaming rigs, and literally billions of combinations to sort through.
The Steam Machine promised to solve this problem the same way many computer shops throughout the country have tried: offer to do the heavy lifting for the consumer by pre-making gaming PCs at various levels and price points. The least expensive Steam Machine comes from Alienware and starts at $449. There are 15 different manufacturers making Steam Machines, several with multiple configurations, going as high as $5000.
One of the biggest benefits of console gaming is that it simply works. If you own a PS4, you can play every PS4 game that has ever been or will ever be made, and so can everyone else who owns a PS4. If you have a low end Steam Machine, you will probably be able to play nearly every game out right now, but over the next few years that possibility starts to diminish. By the end of a standard console lifecycle of 5-7 years, that Steam Machine that could barely play the latest and greatest when it was new probably won’t be capable of running most triple-A releases, if any. Steam Machines are upgradeable, but again, that’s a PC problem that console gamers don’t about. For console gamers looking for PC gaming to be just as easy and convenient as console gaming, Steam Machines are not going to make that problem go away.
Steam Controllers Will Feel Familiar, Yet Different
Most early hands on impressions of the Steam Controller have a similar thread running through them – the Steam Controller has a lot that’s similar to other popular gaming pads, but much is different as well. The final design has settled on two thumb touchpads, a left hand control stick, the same diamond style four-button configuration on the front for the right hand, and six back of the controller buttons – two on each side bumper and a larger one on each of the wings, a feature commonly found on third-party controllers, never a PlayStation or Xbox controller.
In the spirit of PC gaming, every one of those buttons are fully customizable, allowing gamers to get their own feel of each game instead of being locked in to what the game developer decided is correct. This will be especially important when playing any game made before designers had to take the Steam Controller (or any controller, for that matter) into account. Gamers will be able to save controller profiles for any game to their Steam account, share them with friends, and the Valve will host the most popular ones for download on Steam, allowing for true gamer optimization.
The large buttons on the wings have been described as more tactile than other buttons, making things like jumping feel more tangible.
All of that is secondary, however, if the controller is not comfortable and natural to use. For all the design and development that goes into controllers, the best controllers are the ones that gamers think about the least while playing. Gaming should feel as natural as possible so you spend your time playing a game and not worrying about what your hands are doing. Early reports on the final version of the Steam Controller indicate that comfort is not a problem, but there is a learning curve with getting used to the touchpads. The Steam Controller is the first to use such touchpads as a way to completely replace control sticks, so it’s no surprise for it not to be as intuitive as generations of controllers before it have been.
Valve representatives have been heard to describe the control stick and buttons as stepping stones to using just the touchpads.
Valve’s gambit here may not in fact be a means of additional competition with consoles, but in expanding the current horizons of PC gaming. Valve has long been known as an innovative powerhouse and a leader in the gaming industry. Steam Machines may not take off right away, Steam Link may not live up to lofty expectations, and people may not like the feel of Steam Controllers right away, but it’s hard to argue that PC gaming is being pushed in the wrong direction. Let us know in the comments if you’ll be picking up any of the three, and check in with Rectify Gaming when I review Steam Link and the Steam Controller after they release on November 10th.
