Valves trips to the living room: strong start with a sobering end

In the world of PC games Valve is a giant special. Use each month 120 million players inside Steam, the sales platform of the Group. The next larger competitor, Epic Games, can only have scarcely half of these numbers.

Now Valve also wants to take foot in the world of console foot. At the end of the year, the steam deck should appear. A handheld in the style of Nintendos Switch, significantly powerful, which gives access to a large part of the Steam library and even emulation allowed. It is not Valves first attempt to conquer the living room after the desks. In the early 2000s, the company published numerous console ports, mostly received positively. Thereafter, Steam Machines should offer an alternative to consoles - and flopped terrific. So Valves s story was in the living room.

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It started with Half Life

First approaches on consoles practiced Valve with Half Life. The debut of the Group appeared in 1998 for Windows, 2001 followed a port for the PlayStation 2. It was largely identical to the PC version, but offered no online multiplayer. For this was a exclusive coop mode with Decay, developed by Gearbox Software, which extended the main history by a sideline. Some players presented the original version in the original version as the better gaming experience, other preferred the port. The press, however, had agreed and awarded, as already three years earlier, high ratings.

Half Life s success should connect two years later the Xbox version of Counter Strike. On the bumpy development - four studios worked successively - followed average response, at least to the ratings. Some testers inside complained about missing singleplayer content, although the title has been designed by the integrated Ethernet port of the Xbox for multiplayer battles, as the PC version. The General Tenor: It is the usual counter-strike experience, albeit with smears. Technically, the Xbox version is weaker and the controller control underlie mouse and keyboard. As compensation, the port contained some adjustments like subtle car AIM.

Gorge child PlayStation 3

It ran better for the next two console ports from Valve. In 2004, the highly praised Xbox version of Half Life 2 and three years later the Orange Box for PC, Mac OS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It contained next to Half Life 2 two zone pismods for the main game as well Team Fortress 2 and the celebrated puzzler portal. The press overturned with troubles, but the PS3 version cut off worse. The most common reasons were Supplier loading times, frame rate problems and slowdowns. Guilt was not compelling lack of expertise by Valve. Numerous developers in other studios complained also about working with the complex system architecture of the console. So the PS3 versions of titles such as Bayonetta, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim and many other similar technical problems.

The next two console versions of Valve games came shortly thereafter. Left 4 Dead appeared in 2008, the successor the following year and both only on Microsoft s console. Valve rather seemed to reflect on their own strengths or preferably simply the path of the slightest resistance - with success. The Xbox 360 versions of the zombie shooter were rated on average as positive as their counterparts on the PC. It is all the more surprising that Valve had seemed only one and a half years of Sony s hardware with the notorious Cell chip apparently. This proves at least Portal 2. The PS3 version was equal to the versions for Xbox 360 and Windows; All three have a metascore of 95. loud a message from PC Games hardware, Valve has even referred to the PlayStation port as the best version.

Heaving end of a success story

With the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Counter Strike: Global Offensive In 2012, Valves should end excursions on consoles. And that on an unexpected bad grade. The first reviews of both versions were optimistic. What they could not foresee was Valves negligence.

The PC version changed in the last nine years constant and continues to draw on average 500,000 users per month, the consoles meanwhile received hardly updates. Today, you can serve at most as a time capsule for nostalgic players. In addition, Valve did not trying to optimize the gameplay for consoles, as at the time at Counter Strike for Xbox. Why Valve then invests resources in the console versions of Counter Strike: Global Offensive invested, it can only be speculated. With a view to the next few months, it seemed important to the Group as his success with ports anyway.

with mini-PCs in the living room this world

At the end of 2012, journalists and industrial insiders about their own console of Valve. In fact, some hints spoke. Steam received the Big Picture mode, which promised a simple operation on TVs. At the same time advocated company founders Hab Newell publicly publicly the Open-Source operating system Linux and in the same breath expressed his aversion to Microsoft s new operating system, Windows 8. In July 2012, he scolded: Windows 8 is a disaster for all PC owners Inside. This was mainly referred to the upcoming start of the Windows Store competition for Steam. Also, he was concerned about the sales margins demanded by Microsoft, which, so Newell, would endanger small studios.

In the coming year, the speculation ended. Am 23 . September 2013 Announced Valve with Steamos its own operating system. It should be based on the Linux version Debian, which enabled the Steam Client new features such as Media Sharing or Parent Control. The much larger message followed only two days later: Valve worked on the Steam Machine, a mini-PC based on Steamos, which should beat the bridge between desk and sofa and was mainly intended for games. The publication period was planned for mid-2014.

In January 2014, Valve then announced the cooperation with a total of 14 well-known PC hardware manufacturers at the Consumer Electronics Show, including alienware, Origin PC or Gigabyte. They all should bring their own Steam Machines on the market, in different sizes, colors and with different configurations whose cost points were reached from the middle three-digit to the middle four-digit range. So Valve wanted to make sure that both beginners inside and enthusiasts would find the right Steam Machine for their needs.

The plan came to the perfect time. Should the Steam Machines be a success, Valve would have been able to offer a capable competition product for the upcoming PlayStation 4 or Xbox ONE next year. The binding of the mini-PCs to Steamos would also have been active in the future independently of Windows and Microsoft. But the plan was not on.

The experiment Steam Machines failed

At the end of 2013, the beta tests began 300 Steam Machines. Loud PC gamers were the first impressions mixed. The same was considered the feedback on the design and handling of the Steam Controller, the Valve developed for the Steam Machines. The next few months brought above all one: shifts. From March 2014 Revised Valve multiple times the Steam Controller. In May of the year, the Group was working on a wireless version, which is why the publication of Steam Machines had to be laid on 2015.

Only in March 2015 reported Valve, the Steam Controller received his final design. Pre-orders of Steam Machines were then possible in June 2015. The first reviews of the finished mini-PCs in November, such as Alienwares Steam Machine, Alpha, were sobering and threw the question, for whom the Steam Machines were thought.

As the sales figures should show later, the experiment Steam Machine was considered failed. Only round 500,000 copies were sold until June 2016. For comparison: Sony already sold in 2013, ie in less than two months, 4.3 million PS4 consoles, while Microsoft, on the other hand, 3 million Xbox-one consoles. 2018 Valve introduced the advertising for the Steam Machines on Steam and in November 2019 the production of Steam Controller. The remaining stocks of the controllers were sold for only $ 5.55, a tenth of the regular prize. Last year gave n e well to: The hardware was not nearly ready at that time.

Only Valve delighted for Steamos

The causes of the failure of Steam Machine emerges from interviews with their manufacturers. One of the main reasons: the operating system. No one bought her with Steamos, said the former Digital Storm Marketing Manager Rajeev Kuruppu. It was about to blame for performance problems, especially the lack of games. Most PC titles are designed for Windows. On Steam today round 51,000 games are available for Microsoft s operating system, for Linux only just under 8,000. Only in August 2018 Valve Bat thanks to the Proton software a way to run for Windows developed Steam games on Linux. Too late for the rescue of Steam Machines.

The aversion to Linux also affected developers. To justify Linux ports, demand must be right. This is possible this only with a correspondingly large basis of players inside. However, only still plays less than one percent of all steam users on Linux - among other things because of the game arm. The HENNE EI problem was known even Newell.

Diverse manufacturers therefore refused to offer their Steam Machines exclusively with Steamos. We wanted to offer our customers no experience that was limited only and thus limits the number of playable titles, says former Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski. Origin PCS Steam Machine, Chronos, offered about a so-called dual boot feature, the user s choice made the choice between Windows and Steamos. Later, the manufacturer renounced Valves operating system.

Even during the final phase of the development of Steam Machines, Valve shot into his own leg last time. At the same time as the launch of the mini-PCs should appear in November 2015 Steam Link. A device that steam games from the PC on the TV streams, with a resolution of 1080p and 60 pictures per second. That was the idea behind the Steamos, says Hoang. Specifically, he says: It was possible to stream Windows PCs with Steam on the Steam Machines.

The concept Steam Machine seemed increasingly obsolete, not least because of the comparatively low steam link price of $ 49.99. Whether Steam Link has contributed to the failure of Steam Machines is questionable. Finally, the device extended a similar destiny. In November 2018 Valve set the production and sold the rest of the quota for only $ 2.49. As a substitute today serves the free Steam link app for Android, iOS and smart TVs from Samsung.

An uncertain, but promising future

Whether the Steam Deck is expecting a golden future, it can only be speculated about it. At least according to Valve, that seems likely, because one has learned from the past: Steam deck feels like the highlight of our previous work, explains Valve Designer Greg Coomer. By Steam Link, Valve should have learned more about the stream from the PC, on the other hand, the Steam Controller has shown what customers are particularly important.

Because the handheld will put on proton, the lack of matches and compatibility issues with Linux should also be largely the past. Good news, not just for users. It was important to tell you that you do not have to port this time. Your games will run on the steam deck, Coomers colleague Lawrence Yang assures all developers.

Meanwhile, well-known influencers and journalists could try the steam deck. Your assessment: Valve could celebrate the successes with the handheld who hoped for five years ago by Steam Machines. With the publication of the Steam Deck in December 2021, it will be determined if you are to keep right. It would be desirable for Valve that the handheld is more likely to be linked to the successes of Half Life and less to the failures of their mini-PCs.