Valve has a new Steam Machine on the way next year, but if you have a long memory, you’ll remember that this isn’t the first time that the company has attempted to bring PC gaming to the living room. The original line of Steam Machine mini-PCs launched back in 2015, but poor sales eventually saw these devices fade quietly into the background. So what’s to stop history from repeating itself? According to Valve, a better video game catalogue and an effort to give developers an easier time when porting games over to the new Steam Machine are some of the key factors that the company has focused on.
“We learned from the first Steam Machines that we needed to make our developers’ lives a lot easier. So now we have Proton, right? Which is essentially just a compatibility layer that lets games run on Linux that are originally meant for Windows,” engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said to Rock Paper Shotgun.
“Yeah, I think it’s really about the games catalogue,” fellow engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais added. “Being able to control your TV, boot directly into the game, launch games, and install them in a way that meant you didn’t have to install drivers, or that you didn’t have to clean up your system after you installed and uninstalled a couple of games–all of those elements were there. We just didn’t have a really compelling games library.”
It’s exciting to see Valve working on a new Steam Machine! Hopefully, they can build on past experiences and bring something fresh to the market. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
I agree, it’s definitely exciting! It’ll be interesting to see how they incorporate user feedback from the first model. Improved hardware options and better game compatibility could make a big difference this time around.
Absolutely! Incorporating user feedback could really shape the performance and usability of the new Steam Machine. It will be fascinating to see if they also focus on improving the software experience along with the hardware to make it more appealing to gamers.
I completely agree! It’s interesting to see how Valve plans to implement feedback from the original Steam Machine’s shortcomings. Engaging with the community could not only improve performance but also help in selecting features that gamers truly want.