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Games

Valve's Gabe Newell Teases Console-Related Plans For Steam Games (techradar.com) 33

Posted by BeauHD from the vague-comments dept.
Gabe Newell, the co-founder and president of Valve, has hinted that the company could bring Steam games to consoles during a recent question and answer session. TechRadar reports: The session took place at Sancta Maria College in Auckland, New Zealand, and a student's question and Newell's answer were recorded and uploaded to Reddit by user Odysseic (via VGC). When asked "will Steam be porting any games to console, or will it just stay on PC?", Newell somewhat hesitantly replies "You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year," adding, "and it won't be the answer you expect. You'll say, "Ah-ha! Now I get what he was talking about.'" Newell's comments are, of course, pretty vague and have caused a great deal of speculation. The most common interpretation of his words is that Valve could be planning to bring its own games, currently available on Steam, to consoles in the future. Valve games have previously been ported to consoles so this is perfectly possible.
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Valve's Gabe Newell Teases Console-Related Plans For Steam Games More

Valve's Gabe Newell Teases Console-Related Plans For Steam Games

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  • It's not strictly a "console" but if it's some kind of dongle/box and controller combination then it means gamers don't have to have their own PC to play, which for gamers is a similar end result.

    • another way to look at that, is that gamers dont have to even own their save files, let alone the game itself

      • And if you get to play a lot of games for just a subscription fee then let's have it. The fetish of ownership for fleeting entertainment is frankly bizarre.

        • I might and indeed do like to pull a game out of storage years later to play again. For that reason in todays market I will always choose a non-drm corrupted game, like one from GOG. I bought Skyrim for the Switch specifically because it's a complete version I will always have without having to kiss any Gsbe anatomy.

          • You do remember that article the other day about a bunch of things breaking for PS3 and PS4 because they phoned home to a server which no longer exists. I don't know how much research you did but the idea that just because you own the disk and have a functional console, means you are in the clear is a bit of an illusion.

            If anything, the longevity of games on steam outlives all consoles. I can still play my old CS versions and I can easily upgrade my system significantly without needing to buy new copies of

            • You do remember that article the other day about a bunch of things breaking for PS3 and PS4 because they phoned home to a server which no longer exists.

              I don't remember that article, but I remember the article the day after an article saying "woopse, we've decided instead to just shutdown the ability to purchase new games and we'll keep the Playstation Store running on maintenance mode so people don't lose access to their games"

              Steam is pretty damn good with support, but there's no need to hold it high on a pedestal. Other than Nintendo who are hell bent on selling you the same thing over and over again the other consoles are pretty good with long term sup

              • I don't recall them updating the story to include that they would continue with the server in maintenance mode. My point was that these games can have a form of DRM-like features backed in that can brick them.

                I mean I am not trying to put Steam high on a pedestal but just outline that they do bring a lot of value to the gaming community, especially when talking about Indie games. I disagree though about long-term support. Generally the peripherals change and I had a PS2 for a long time for no other reason t

          • I might and indeed do like to pull a game out of storage years later to play again.

            I admit I've done that once. But with 8500 games on average released every year my curiosity is looking for a new great experience rather than simply reliving the old ones on repeat.

            Mind you nothing stops you buying a game that isn't available on a streaming service. Now for your argument to be worthwhile you really need to do that with most of your games, otherwise it's more cost effective to only own a few select games you do replay.

          • I bought Skyrim for PC specifically because of game-breaking bugs that can only be worked around on a PC.

            Did they somehow manage to fix the 234072392 game breakers in Skyrim when porting to Switch?

        • I dont know, being able to pick up a 2yr old title for $20 instead of having to pay the full $69 for a digital copy has a benefit. Thats mostly been my experience. Subscription services based on how I play and what I like would have me losing a lot of cash. Lets say I take 4mos going after every achievement possible and every special item in the next Elder Scrolls, or Fallout game. At $30/mo that would be a bad investment. Lets say I finish it in 2mos and its going to be 6 more months before the next game c

          • I dont know, being able to pick up a 2yr old title for $20 instead of having to pay the full $69 for a digital copy has a benefit.

            Huh? Paying full rate? We're talking about subscription gaming here, not buying anything much less paying $69 for anything.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      I'm thinking it's going to be one or more of the following:
      - (Most likely) Steam will start with a game client that connects to existing Steam installations
      - (Next likely) Steam will stream from it's own data centers (like Geforce Now) if you subscribe to renting a machine for $/mo
      - (also a possibility), Steam will sell an x86-64 micro-console that utilizes Linux and the current windows emulation layers.

      Like Steam already does the first and last point, but hasn't combined the two. Getting Steam on to a Smar

  • More abandonware (Score:3)

    by dpidcoe ( 2606549 ) on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:31PM (#61378806)
    Steam games on console... So like the steamlink, steambox, or steamOS? Bets on how long before they drop support for it?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      Steam Link was my first guess after reading the citation.
      The others are unlikely to happen in such walled garden environment as consoles.

      Perhaps some cloud gaming service that uses the individual Steam library and streams to any device at best, so that the gaming console people don't need to buy a powerful enough gaming PC.
    • For all we know it could mean steamlink app for the PS and Xbox. Nothing ground breaking. The article basically said anything less than useful. To call it a a tease or a hint is an insult to teases and hints.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Why would they? If Valve were smart they would do what ever they want because they own the company and no need to ever look for money again in their lives. The last thing they should do is make a deal which would see them give up control of the company.

  • Why not smartphones? (Score:3)

    by MindPrison ( 864299 ) on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @08:50PM (#61378958) Journal

    Yes we have steam on Smartphones... ...but the games can't be installed there for obivous reasons, but there is a lot of games that COULD be ported, often the 2D ones, and there are already games that is being sold by other stores that is available on PC steam etc. (Stardew valley comes to mind).

    If they do this, they will reach a much broader audience.

  • No big deal. (Score:3)

    by CaptainLugnuts ( 2594663 ) on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @08:57PM (#61378970)
    The last two generations of consoles have been mid-range AMD APUs in a fancy box.

    Porting a game should be near trivial.

  • Maybe they're talking about getting PlayStation / Nintendo / Xbox network and chat cross compatibility

  • Basically, we will get an app for each system/console (a steam client) where you can stream the game from their servers. The exact copy of Geforce Now service that people use to play their steam games on virtual RTX PC. The only requirements will be a subscription fee, a good Internet connection, and a game bought/assigned to our steam account.

  • Could be a plan to update Steam Machine. Maybe this time partnered with a distribution channel like Game Stop.

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