PC Gamer had a chat with Alienware manager Frank Azor about the changing situation of Steam Machines. They feel Windows 10 is part of the reason Steam Machines and SteamOS didn't do so well.
He also mentions that the limited library we have compared to Windows is an issue, which is obvious, but slowly improving with time. One comment that I found a bit odd was his comment about what controller you can use (he says controller, meaning gamepad), as Linux generally has very good support for almost all gamepads. SteamOS specifically will also soon gain official config support (like what you can do with the Steam Controller) for the Dualshock 4, which is currently in Beta. This will be rolled out to others in future too. Even without that ability for other gamepads, Linux/SteamOS still works well with most of them.
Sadly, he also points out that the Alienware Alpha with Windows 10 significantly outsells the Steam Machine version of the unit. Not sure I'm really surprised there though.
I don't see the Windows 10 store being much of a threat yet, considering the low sales that have been described and the controversy surrounding the newest Call of Duty. With the release of the latest CoD, gamers found if they got their copy from the Windows store they couldn't play with anyone on Steam. The fact remains though, things could still turn sour at any point—especially if Microsoft start adding in more and more cross-play titles with Xbox One and the Windows 10 store cutting into Steam sales. I don't see Valve dropping SteamOS anytime soon due to this.
Personally, I don't ever want to use Windows 10 for anything more than benchmarks and comparisons. All those privacy issues are just too much for me. I know you can turn some off easily, and others with downloadable scripts, but it goes too far for my liking. I am surprised more people don't have an issue with just how much it tracks you. It's worrying.
It seems like the release of Windows 10 has calmed down OEM concerns about users gaming on PC. This isn't good for us, but it's certainly not the end of the world. The fact still remains that SteamOS and Steam Machines have pushed Linux gaming to heights some of us never dreamt to be possible.
So while SteamOS momentum may be slow, Linux gaming in general is still doing rather well in my opinion. Just look at how many games have been ported this year despite SteamOS and Steam Machines not doing so well in terms of sales.
We still need more day-1 ports of bigger titles, VR support and games that perform closer to Windows to even begin eating into Windows market-share.
What's your take on this?
Thanks to calvin for letting sending it in! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quote“I think the landscape two years ago was very different to what it is today,” Azor said. “The catalyst for the Steam Machine initiative was really around what Microsoft’s decisions were with Windows 8, and if you remember that operating system, it really stepped away from gamers in a big way. We were concerned as an industry that we were going to lose PC gamers on the Windows platform to any other platform that was out there, whether it was console, Mac OS X, Android.
“So that’s where the partnership between Valve and Alienware really initiated around the Steam Machine concept,” he continued. “We said: ‘Hey, we can’t lose Windows as a gaming platform.’ We had to take matters into our own hands because we couldn’t rely on Microsoft. So we did that, and we started pursuing the path that we did.”
He also mentions that the limited library we have compared to Windows is an issue, which is obvious, but slowly improving with time. One comment that I found a bit odd was his comment about what controller you can use (he says controller, meaning gamepad), as Linux generally has very good support for almost all gamepads. SteamOS specifically will also soon gain official config support (like what you can do with the Steam Controller) for the Dualshock 4, which is currently in Beta. This will be rolled out to others in future too. Even without that ability for other gamepads, Linux/SteamOS still works well with most of them.
Sadly, he also points out that the Alienware Alpha with Windows 10 significantly outsells the Steam Machine version of the unit. Not sure I'm really surprised there though.
I don't see the Windows 10 store being much of a threat yet, considering the low sales that have been described and the controversy surrounding the newest Call of Duty. With the release of the latest CoD, gamers found if they got their copy from the Windows store they couldn't play with anyone on Steam. The fact remains though, things could still turn sour at any point—especially if Microsoft start adding in more and more cross-play titles with Xbox One and the Windows 10 store cutting into Steam sales. I don't see Valve dropping SteamOS anytime soon due to this.
Personally, I don't ever want to use Windows 10 for anything more than benchmarks and comparisons. All those privacy issues are just too much for me. I know you can turn some off easily, and others with downloadable scripts, but it goes too far for my liking. I am surprised more people don't have an issue with just how much it tracks you. It's worrying.
It seems like the release of Windows 10 has calmed down OEM concerns about users gaming on PC. This isn't good for us, but it's certainly not the end of the world. The fact still remains that SteamOS and Steam Machines have pushed Linux gaming to heights some of us never dreamt to be possible.
So while SteamOS momentum may be slow, Linux gaming in general is still doing rather well in my opinion. Just look at how many games have been ported this year despite SteamOS and Steam Machines not doing so well in terms of sales.
We still need more day-1 ports of bigger titles, VR support and games that perform closer to Windows to even begin eating into Windows market-share.
What's your take on this?
Thanks to calvin for letting sending it in! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: calvinMicrosoft can't go walled garden; it would enrage enterprise, and that's a primary market for them - much larger than gaming, despite its status as a growth market.
You're gonna have to explain that one to me.
Apple is very walled garden; and for whatever reason enterprise loves Apple. Microsoft's biggest product is Azure (and patents/licensing). Windows doesn't net them nearly as much, or at least so I've been told.
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Quoting: tmtvlQuoting: calvinMicrosoft can't go walled garden; it would enrage enterprise, and that's a primary market for them - much larger than gaming, despite its status as a growth market.
You're gonna have to explain that one to me.
Apple is very walled garden; and for whatever reason enterprise loves Apple. Microsoft's biggest product is Azure (and patents/licensing). Windows doesn't net them nearly as much, or at least so I've been told.
Enterprise has decrepit VB6 apps and Access 97 databases they lost the source to. Windows' bread and butter is backwards compatibility. Connect the dots.
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"He also mentions that the limited library we have compared to Windows is an issue, which is obvious, but slowly improving with time. "
i hate to say it, but, the windows library is growing faster, we grow up to 20% of the number of games on windows but we are at 20% for a while, i dont think this will change until valve futher pushes steam machines.
i hate to say it, but, the windows library is growing faster, we grow up to 20% of the number of games on windows but we are at 20% for a while, i dont think this will change until valve futher pushes steam machines.
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ElectricPrism Nov 14, 2016
Opinions seem to be all across the board on this thread.
A lot of effort has gone into the ideas of what SteamOS isn't doing and what they should be doing.
People today are still confused about whether or not Steam Machines were meant to compete with Windows 10 or Consoles.
I think that Steam Machines are still very much beta. I think that the composite technologies required for it to snowball are fresh out of the oven - Vulkan, VR, MESA-Git + AMDGPU, etc... etc...
I think Valve is smart enough to know not to put the cart before the horse and I think they've intentionally been reserved marketing SteamOS.
I think they're using Linux community as Beta testers to help them work out the bugs.
I think that they are being very strategic about not ruining the SteamOS & Steam Machine name and are holding back on the all out assault while they gain experience as a Console Creator. Consoles still have not hit brick & mortar stores and are not available world wide yet. I think this is part of their beta-test plan.
I feel like something unseen is at work at ValveHQ and I can't put my finger on it, new Vulkan versions of all their games CS:GO, Dota, TF2, HL3, etc... or they're working on something else very quietly like a new VR Vulkan 1st class game that will crank some juice & high FPS.
This is my appraisal of the situation based on my observation of Valve and Gaming on Linux over the past few years.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 14 November 2016 at 11:53 pm UTC
A lot of effort has gone into the ideas of what SteamOS isn't doing and what they should be doing.
People today are still confused about whether or not Steam Machines were meant to compete with Windows 10 or Consoles.
I think that Steam Machines are still very much beta. I think that the composite technologies required for it to snowball are fresh out of the oven - Vulkan, VR, MESA-Git + AMDGPU, etc... etc...
I think Valve is smart enough to know not to put the cart before the horse and I think they've intentionally been reserved marketing SteamOS.
I think they're using Linux community as Beta testers to help them work out the bugs.
I think that they are being very strategic about not ruining the SteamOS & Steam Machine name and are holding back on the all out assault while they gain experience as a Console Creator. Consoles still have not hit brick & mortar stores and are not available world wide yet. I think this is part of their beta-test plan.
I feel like something unseen is at work at ValveHQ and I can't put my finger on it, new Vulkan versions of all their games CS:GO, Dota, TF2, HL3, etc... or they're working on something else very quietly like a new VR Vulkan 1st class game that will crank some juice & high FPS.
This is my appraisal of the situation based on my observation of Valve and Gaming on Linux over the past few years.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 14 November 2016 at 11:53 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Nov 15, 2016
Quoting: CorbenBut then there are coming big titles to Linux, thanks to all the hard work of all the porters and porting companies, so I cheer again. Just to realize, how much you have to fiddle around with those games, to make them work. There is always something you have to fiddle around on Linux, and it feels like it's a lot more than on Windows.What? I've never had to "fiddle around" to get games working in Linux. Sure, I have to tune some of the in-game settings to get optimum performance, but you have to do that in Windows, too. Linux "just works" in my experience. If I want to play a game, I click "Install" in Steam. It installs. I click "Play". It plays. You shouldn't have to do any "fiddling" beyond that unless there's something wrong on your end.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 15 November 2016 at 2:16 pm UTC
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Quoting: ElectricPrismor they're working on something else very quietly like a new VR Vulkan 1st class game that will crank some juice & high FPS.Oh fuck YEAH ... A VR Portal 3, now *that* would be nice and could get me buying a VR device :D
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TheRiddick Nov 15, 2016
Too many BIG TICKET items are windows only, for example GTA5, FO4, Witcher3, DA3, all the COD/BF games, the list just keeps going on with these sort of platform selling games. Probably take a miracle for those sort of games to see Linux any time soon!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 15 November 2016 at 2:55 am UTC
Last edited by TheRiddick on 15 November 2016 at 2:55 am UTC
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Yeah, there should be at least one good reason for people to switcht to steamos, better performance or half life 3 steomos only. It seams open plaform isn't enough.
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TheRiddick Nov 15, 2016
You need to have very good working drivers, Linux has been plagued with major issues with drivers for a long time, and not just GPU drivers.
Until their flawless, we won't see a major shift. I know thats asking allot, but Windows has pretty damn good working drivers for both cards for all the games I have played with only occasional bugs with certain games now and again. Linux on the other hand is a literal landmine!
PS. I'm pro Linux, but I can't just drink the coolaid fantasy and ignore the major issues as to WHY Linux struggles as a gaming/desktop platform! %1-2 on Steam stats is just sad, we need %10
Last edited by TheRiddick on 15 November 2016 at 4:44 am UTC
Until their flawless, we won't see a major shift. I know thats asking allot, but Windows has pretty damn good working drivers for both cards for all the games I have played with only occasional bugs with certain games now and again. Linux on the other hand is a literal landmine!
PS. I'm pro Linux, but I can't just drink the coolaid fantasy and ignore the major issues as to WHY Linux struggles as a gaming/desktop platform! %1-2 on Steam stats is just sad, we need %10
Last edited by TheRiddick on 15 November 2016 at 4:44 am UTC
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Quoting: neowiz73well on the business side of things, Microsoft won't completely go walled garden until they know they have all the major companies on board with it. So far EA has their own storefront setup that I don't think they want to relinquish everything to the MS store anytime soon.
Everything is in flux, which is why things with SteamOS have stagnated. But with more vulkan development around the corner. all throughout next year should start the next evolution of gaming, which is where we will see DX12 and Vulkan go head to head and we find out the performance is almost identical. with some edge cases of each API having better performance over the other.
plus wine will get dx12 support which I'm really curious to see what sort of performance there will be. (i'm assuming there will be little to no performance hit). which will be all the more reason for Steam to incorporate their own version of wine at that point, as part of their runtime. this will help to alleviate most compatibility issues on Steam OS.
When it comes to the mainstream gamers all they want is for things to work without much fuss. it all boils down to what games can I play and what is the performance compared to price. Where as most of us geeks it doesn't matter so much.
Wine, Vulkan and DX12 development will be a good time for Steam OS to try to shine. Which will be over the coarse of the next couple of years.
WTH?
wine dont fully support Dx9 yet, the support for dx11 is not a big thing yet and they will fully support dx12?
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