No prices yet. I may never financially recover from this.
Does it run on electricity or do you have to throw coal in it somewhere?
Hope this work great, gaming industry really needs that
Yeah, I’ll never be able to afford any of that stuff, no point me even looking at it sadly.
It’s for middle class people who have piles of cash to burn :-(
When I look at this announcement, the hardware is very exciting, for sure. But it is Valve’s dedication to Linux that really has me smiling. I don’t see three hardware devices to buy. I see two big proclamations for which the hardware is the message:
-
SteamOS on desktop! It seemed inevitable but it’s still great to see.
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STEAM VR USING LINUX AS ITS TARGET PLATFORM?!?!?
I will grant that it’s very possible I buy all three pieces of the hardware, even though I like building my own PCs. I will also grant that Valve’s support for linux probably would not be what it is without the enshittification of Microsoft’s ecosystem. But in this world I’m gonna go ahead and accept the imperfect good news.
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why is this thing not called Steam Engine?
I’ve been saying for years that VR can get off my lawn until I can buy Linux native hardware. I guess I’m interested in VR, now.
“I may never financially recover from this.”
is well said.
I need to buy all of these.
Uh-oh…my wallet is in trouble.
I posted this in the other thread, but wanna share here too:
Most interesting thing to me is the Frame apparently runs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and is using SteamOS, implying official ARM support for SteamOS, Steam and Proton! Could mean steam and proton coming to android too.
And the base would be Arch Linux ARM, right? So that should see an uptick in development too.
Arch Linux has been implementing a build system for other architectures. Perhaps they’ll make ARM official by the time Frame comes out.
If I remember correctly Valve paid for this build system specifically for ARM support, so yeah I think that is going to happen.
I’m still a little curious how that will work for games. Are they going to somehow emulate Win32 amd64 games? Do devs have to recompile them in some new way? Will engines support it beyond Unity and Unreal?
It was mentioned in the LTT coverage. Aside from native ARM games they have a translation layer(FEX) to play x86 games on ARM. They’ll have a “Verified” tag like the Steam Deck for compatibility. I assume you’ll still be able to force trying to run unverified games.
Edit: FEX is not a Valve thing, but an existing open source x86/x86_64 emulator that Valve is using. It’s not clear if they’re forking it or directly contributing though.
That same video says that “Valve has heavily contributed to FEX”
Well, that shows how well I was paying attention to the video
Yup, FEX to translate x86 to ARM.
The Frame isn’t playing the games on its ARM chip. It’s just streaming audio/visual data from the PC and relaying the controller inputs back to the PC.
That’s the normal mode of operation, but it can apparently also run games locally on the Frame itself, which I guess gives people a portable — if less powerful — gaming option that they can haul around easily if they want.
Hm, guess I missed that part, my bad.
Jeff Geerling is probably having a fit right now.
what does that homophobic ass have to do with it, is he not a fan of ARM or something?
…wat.
I think you must be thinking of some other Jeff Geerling. The one I’m talking about is probably the #1 guy on Youtube for content about ARM stuff, and AFAIK isn’t a homophobe.
Your comment doesn’t make any sense because, even if you were talking about the right person and your accusation were accurate, why would you know some obscure thing about him while being unaware of the thing he’s famous for?
No, I know exactly who I’m talking about.
I’m pretty sure there are genetic dispositions towards different kinds of sexual behaviors and patterns—just as there are genetic dispositions towards such things as alcoholism, racism, elitism, etc. A genetic predisposition towards homosexuality does not make homosexuality a ‘good’ or a ‘right,’ or even ‘okay’ for some people. Just as with every other human behavior, a wider worldview must be used to judge the righteousness of a human action or behavior—including acting on homosexual tendencies.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2011/exodus-app-–-pulled-app-store
As homophobic as this indeed is, it’s also from 2011. As a pansexual trans woman, I’m pretty sure I might have sais some very transphobic/homophobic stuff in 2011 as well, thankfully I was not posting it online.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but I respect that you may not be inclined to do that. I have possibly too much faith in humanity.
But also, let me say this : acting on your homosexual tendencies is pretty damn righteous 😎
I love acting on my homosexual tendencies!!
That whole article reads like he was a reasonably intelligent person who was born into a christian family. So he’s been conditioned to automatically see homosexuality as bad, and been educated in writing eloquent arguments to support his position, but he’s just aware enough to not take a stand and actually say what he thinks because that would get him in trouble.
Even just considering your snippet:
I’m pretty sure there are genetic dispositions towards different kinds of sexual behaviors and patterns—just as there are genetic dispositions towards such things as alcoholism, racism, elitism, etc.
This is just an opinion and the logic seems sensible. But why make the comparison to only negative traits and vices?
A genetic predisposition towards homosexuality does not make homosexuality a ‘good’ or a ‘right,’ or even ‘okay’ for some people.
Stating the obvious then referring to 3rd party opinions. Doesn’t seem to do much other than keep up the negative tone.
Just as with every other human behavior, a wider worldview must be used to judge the righteousness of a human action or behavior—including acting on homosexual tendencies.
Whoa, I agree! And using my view of the world and society at large I hereby judge that we need to lay the fuck off of people who act on their homosexual tendencies and focus on actual problems! I wonder if the author can say the same.
Also, I just want to point out and give a “fuck that” to the heavy focus on “choosing” and “acting” rather than simply existing. In my experience that is a very common step in the short process of dehumanizing somebody and mentally writing off their concerns and rights.
Dehumanizing somebody for a trait they were born with is obviously doable, but it is still a tougher sell for some people than dehumanizing a person for an intentional act. Even if that act didn’t hurt anybody or anything.
I’ll leave the whole train of thought of “how can you punish people for acting like the thing they were born as” as an exercise for the reader.
Going back roughly a decade you can find blog posts and some bits on Twitter. I don’t see anything outright gay-bashing but his moral worldview, when he speaks on the matter, seems to be shaped by his Catholic faith. I don’t think he hates homosexuals, and I can’t guess at how his beliefs effect others (who for, or how, he votes and such), but he certainly seems to have a moral opposition and hasn’t since stated otherwise that I am aware.
If you need a smoking gun, here’s a quote from Twitter around 2017. Context is that this apparently stemmed from the removal of developer Larry “Crell” Garfield over “Gorean” (?) beliefs or participation in that subculture. Relating to some BDSM, male-domination, female slaves “Gor” novel series, that I cannot be assed to dig deeper into, and concerns he’d carry the “misogyny” into into the workplace. Anyway:
The Drupal community is treading perilous waters right now. Risk of excluding more members than just Crell. Careful with moral equivalence! It’s a heck of a lot more nuanced than that. But basically, if the criteria for being part of the Drupal community anymore is “Must both publicly and privately support Gay marriage, etc.” then… I think I might be excluded.
As an atheist looking in, I find Abrahamic faiths fundamentally incompatible with homosexuality. Having a gay Christian marriage, for example, is an absurdity to me. To be clear I’m not personally opposed to it. I find very much wrong with his faith but I don’t believe Jeff is wrong about his faith. But kudos and power to whoever wants to lie to themselves and retcon Christianity in order to believe (what I perceive to be) a bigger, more comforting lie. If we can keep eroding at it maybe we’ll finally get over the hatred and hangups it causes, or at least no longer be able to point to it as a justifying source.
Well, that’s unfortunate re: Jeff, but it’s still weird to me that the other commenter would be aware of that about him (which you mention having to dig through a decade of blog posts and old tweets to find), without at some point also finding out that he’s ‘the Raspberry Pi guy.’
It’s like knowing that Hitler was a vegetarian but somehow not knowing that he was the dictator of Germany who started WWII – it just doesn’t make sense for a fact to be that isolated from its context.
A bit odd I suppose, but he’s also “The ansible guy” and a solid “proxmox/truenas” guy. It’s not unlikely they could’ve become aware of him looking for information on automation or virtualization. That’s actually how I first came across his content. The Pi and other hardware reviews are okay but I care more about the how-to’s and what I’m actually running on my toys over the toys themselves.
Anyway, I didn’t dig real deep but I’m not ready to nail him to a cross. I’ve met Christians who “don’t approve” of whatever while simultaneously acknowledging someone else doesn’t need their approval in the first place to be who they are. That it isn’t their place to thrust their moral beliefs upon others. Not to say I don’t still find their worldview problematic either, and their level headedness is being drowned out by Christofascist rhetoric as of late, but time is still sanding the edges off their faith and it remains light-years ahead of other parts of the world.
I know Jeff does raspi stuff. I know about his colostomy. I’ve used one or two of his scripts and took some Home Assistant motivation from him. I liked his gentle sounding voice and mannerisms until I learned he’s a religious freak.
I know Jeff does raspi stuff.
Then why’d you ask if he’s not a fan of ARM? Were you unaware that Raspberry Pis use ARM CPUs?
I’m not trying to defend the guy or dispute you, BTW; I’m just still confused about why you’d say that.
Oh shit he’s homophobic?
Yikes
Steam/Proton on android would be quite something, I would finally be able to play something decent on my phone that wasn’t originally released for the PS2
It is fascinating and a huge step, but I want to keep expectations low. It will work, but it will not be as compatible as x86 Proton, not at all. It is first and primarily an OS for streaming games and running VR. That is the VR rendering from the streaming computer, not the VR game itself. In other words, they only had to get exactly one app to run well enough for public use. According to the developer, it is working with a surprising amount of games. I agree, one game is surprising, but trust me when I say you will not be running Windows x86 games in ARM Linux for a long time.
It’s using an x86 compatibility layer, pex i think it was called. So apparently you will be running windows x86 games on it.
Edit: fex! https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX
Edit 2, from tom’s hardware article:
The company also showed off the x86 version of Hades 2 running standalone (as in not streaming from a PC) on the Steam Frame. And the game ran just fine and looked good at what Valve reps told me was 1400p in a window inside the headset
That is nice, but Hades II is hardly my idea of a hard benchmark to clear. Looks like a fun game, though !
Wonder how long it could run standalone on decent fps.
I think that for running games locally on the Frame, for anything other than games designed specifically to be gentle on a battery — and many games are not, unfortunately — you’re also really going to need to leave it plugged into a powerbank. The internal battery just isn’t that large relative to what the device can draw.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/steam-frame-specs-availability/
The battery included on the Steam Frame is a 21 Wh model. The Snapdragon system-on-chip gobbles up around 20 W at full power—that’s how much it’ll likely use while playing a game locally in standalone mode. From this, we can expect around an hour of playtime without additional charge.
I want backpack sized battery banks.
You could probably put a 400 Wh powerbank in a backpack (search for “power station” on Amazon).
Attach a decent rumble pack and you have total immersion in your military/adventurer game!
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Sometimes I think about how LOATHED Steam was when it launched. That was probably valid even. Still, it feels worth noting that Valve is maybe THE only company from my childhood that feels like it largely stayed true to its spirit, or whatever.
People who came to Steam later on probably don’t realise that when it was new it barely fucking worked.
Downloads crawled, games refused to launch because of authentication issues, friends/chat was offline for literally months, etc.
The only reason it became widely adopted was because Valve forced you to use it if you wanted to play the latest CS or, later, HL2. Everyone hated it.
This is true but this was also done at at time when all of these things were unprecedented. Valve was blazing a trail with Steam and digital distribution and there was nothing else even close.
What if he really wanted to make it up to you? Is there anything he could do to apologize?
HALF. LIFE. FUCKING. THREE.
Exactly. How tf do you propose to get it if you digest him? You’ve hit on the crux of the issue here.
Yeah he could hand over a couple billion dollars, that would make up for it.
friends/chat was offline for literally months
Friends lists didn’t work reliably for years.
It was pretty janky. I received a download code for Half Life 2 in the box with my Radeon 9800 Pro several months before the game was actually released. I didn’t have a lot of use for Steam before then, but I installed it anyway and my account is so old that back when the account IDs were still numeric and sequential, mine was four digits.
I only got Steam when HL2 released because I had no need for it before then. I don’t remember having any real negative feelings about it.
I was one of the haters when it first launched because I was on dialup at the time and physical discs I bought were forcing me to install steam AND THEN install a massive patch that did not work on dialup. My first day playthrough of Skyrim was ruined because of that. Took a week for that shit to download even though I went physically to a store.
But now Steam is the last man standing between us and corporate greed.
But now Steam is the last man standing between us and corporate greed.
Man how quickly people forget what things were like before the lawsuits forced valve to make steam more consumer friendly and regulatory abiding…
When was that?
Hello, Veteran Steam User (made my account the day steam released, I was big into the half life/cs/tfc scene back in the day), steam was HORRIBLE when it released. I had a cable modem way back then and it was incredibly slow. Only the ugly green theme, and crashed all the time. It was only used as DRM, not as a way to catalogue games. I clung to those WAN servers up until Valve no longer supported them, it was a sad day at the time.
I still remember the pissed-off memes, novel-long outrage threads, etc.!
If Valve went DRM free like GOG, I would have no reason to ever buy games anywhere else
(apart from exclusives, which should be illegal IMO)
I remember being annoyed that I had to install yet another launcher and make yet another account when I was installing portal. But I didn’t know at the time that this was the launcher to end most other launchers and accounts, or at the very least made most of that transparent other then adding an extra click to launch some games.
Iirc, Blizzard had just replaced the wow in-game patcher with a launcher (though I don’t recall if they had a unified launcher for each game, if they all had their own at that point, or if it was just wow), Oblivion had a game launcher, and I think there were a few others. Some of them even needed to be installed separately iirc.
Steam is nice because, being the launcher for most of my games, it’s just always open and helps organize my games. And it doesn’t feel like its main purpose is to make money, with everything else just being about opening pathways to that money. And even though it is meant to make Valve money, it’s the lack of blatant dark patterns and constant upsell attempts that makes it feel better than most of the rest of the commercial world.
I think its because there’s likely more people who got into Steam after Steam was already a pretty popular storefront so clueless about the growing pains. My first ever PC game purchase was from the Steam store and that was maybe back in the 2010s.
So those going on about days of CDs or whatever are talking to a generation that had already moved onto digital.
It basically didn’t add any value to the experience. We just wanted to play CS, and steam just got in the way.
It happened to me (with blizzard)…and it will happen to you!
A lot of companies turned to utter shit over the years but Blizzard hit me the hardest I think.
I just paid $20 for a physical copy Counter Strike, and I find out I need to install an additional launcher and make an account to play the game I just installed. It’s the principle of the thing!
because most people got exposed to steam’s launch on HL2’s launch. Where they bought the physical game, came home, installed it off like 5 CDs… then had to run steam to decrypt it and download more files because the fucking install was encrypted, and the goddamn fucking decryption took like 8 hours if you didnt have the worlds greatest computer.
Nope, I’m still totally not salty about not being able to play the game I fucking bought until the day after cause bullshit encryption fuckery, why would you ever think that.
I still have that goddamn box somewhere… i need to dig it up and see what release retail HL2 is like compared to HL2 you’d downlaod today from steam…
Well, I bought Half-Life and OG You Don’t Know Jack on discs at Target, then had to return them because HL didn’t run and YDKJ was “too worldly.” So.
They have good PR and fanboy propaganda. They’re every bit as evil as every game company out there. Steam fans just got tricked into thinking Gabe was THEIR billionaire and steam is THEIR billionaire corporation, and they can do no wrong. No other game platform has a fan base as aggressive and hostile when you point it ou
Edit: im being downvoted, sent IM threats and have had my comments on here removed by mods, if that’s not proof of what I was saying I don’t know what is lol
Technically no PR. Their MO has been to let others do the work. Their games come from hired modders, with many skins made by the community. Their localizations are from the community. The game devs and publishers have to moderate their own spaces on Steam. The players do product promotions by using the social network of Steam. Valve is practically unreachable for the press, and their actual press releases are the rawest I’ve seen: infrequent, featuring no images and little information. Their press account is run by Kaci Aitchinson, the local Fox News host who was originally hired to present The International for Dota 2, but ended up doing a bit of everything, like many at Valve.
Why does everyone here Yuck other peoples Yum? You aren’t forced to buy them
The irony of this being your previous comment
Edit: Since parent is editing - his reply called me a cocksucker, hence the mod removal. Yay for blatant homophobia
Removed by mod
Steam’s main thing is that they have recognised that killing the golden goose is a bad thing for everybody. They have consistently played for long term growth and profits, over purely short term gains.
Steam has made mistakes, but their demonstrated values have been shown to be mostly compatible with mine. I can work with that.
Also, them being privately owned means that they are less have seagull investors swooping in and demanding short term gains now now now.
The downvotes seem to agree with you…?
Dang. The new Steam Controller has a D-pad, buttons, thumbsticks, gyros, and trackpads.
And the thumbsticks are TMR (like Hall effect, but nicer).
As long as it’s comfortable to reach all that stuff, that’s gonna be a new bar for PC game controllers.
EDIT: and grip sensors.
EDIT2: and four haptic feedback motors, two in the trackpads.
Now if it just had a replaceable battery…
It does! Verge reports that battery pops out like old cellphone batteries
Nice!
Edit: do you have to disassemble the controller (with a screwdriver or something) or is it accessible with just my hands? I swap (rechargeable) AAs on my XBox360 controller quite a bit, and part of why I like it is that I can do it quickly if the battery dies while playing.
Looks like you’ll have to remove the entire bottom shell. From GN’s video:
The shell doesn’t seem to have a separately removable battery cover, although I don’t see a reason why someone wouldn’t be able to just cut a hole or 3D-print an accessible shell. Dbrand comes to mind. Or that’s just a show piece and the retail product might have a battery cover.
It also looks like the screw posts don’t have threaded metal inserts, which is concerning.
That is a bit of a shame, I was excited to see the Steam Frame controllers simply use AA batteries.
I wish more things used those, or maybe some new standard with more energy density. Swapping batteries immediately is one thing I miss from the Wii days…
FYI you can just post the link without shilling for your preferred search engine
but kagi is a good search engine
Companies are not your friend. Also a single douche can ruin the company.
You can also not whine when people mention it. FYI.
Also, if they said “googles” or “ddgs” I doubt you would have complained. They don’t use either of those presumably.
It probably will. Watch Gamers Nexus’ video, it has a short clip that shows the battery, and it looks like it’s held in a receptacle like removable phone batteries. Valve have already said that you’d be able to disassemble the controller with a screwdriver, but no word yet on replacement parts. But based on the Steam Deck, I would be shocked if they didn’t offer at least replacement batteries.
I personally think the Deck is very comfortable given its bulk. I have a lot of faith in the controller ergonomics.
The first time I held a deck I was kind of amazed at how comfortable it is to hold. Bricks shouldn’t be that comfy to hold, but, it is. The ergonomics are spot on. Gotta handle the Steam Controller V2 myself before any verdict, but I have high hopes.
The 8bitDo Ultimate 2 has TMR sticks too, best controller I’ve used. Better than the Xbox Elite Controller Series 2. I do wish the 8bitDo had 4 underside buttons instead of only 2, but it’s still better. The sticks are insane.
Literally just got one the other day!
I’ve been using OEM controllers forever, and after the Xbox Elite controller crapped out on me after ONE year, I gave up on “premium” controllers. It had everything I wanted in a controller EXCEPT durability.
The Ultimate 2 is amazing so far! For $60, I can’t complain. Much better than the PS5 controller I had been using for over a year. Nothing terrible with it except te battery. It seems to need to be charged on a wall outlet to fully charge… but that could be because I’m using Linux, but it also happened in Windows so…
Excited to continue using it for the next few months to really wear it in, but I am legitimately impressed with it so far!
Cheers!
I’m super pleased with it, rock solid performance. Very snappy input lag as well, not even detectable, and I play games that require very precise timing on inputs.
Wish I could disagree with you on the durability of the premium controllers from Xbox. So bad. I got the Elite 2 like I said, but I exchanged it for a new one literally an amount of times that I can’t even remember, and it took place over almost a year. The issue was with its sticks. They were either drifting or had some kind of gap where the stick wouldn’t sit still in its socket. Both left and right sticks, or one or the other.
Eventually I had enough and settled on one that had very little of the issue, on the left stick (less used), because I just wanted to freaking play my games because I was without a controller all the time sending them back.
8Bit? Third of the price, first controller sent to me was flawless.
I’m not experiencing an issue with charging though. In what way do you notice that it doesn’t charge fully? The charge light never switches off?
Sorry, I probably made it confusing on which controller was acting up in which ways!
The Xbox Elite 2 controller had the RB button go out on me, and that means I couldn’t play games that required that button (which is surprisingly a LOT of the games I play!). I think it gave out on me on Dark Souls 2 or 3 since that is a RB button heavy game for the light attack. I tried using the paddles to replace the RB button, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me using it, so I put it away. I’m sure I could fix it somehow, but I have a very limited amount of time when I get home from work and just want to chill and play a video game, so tinkering isn’t something I would really want to spend my limited time on at this moment in my life.
For the PS5 controller, it basically refuses to charge when connected to my desktop computer. Specifically, it would never seem to charge, even when turned off fully and then connected to the charging cable. Now, when I read a Reddit post about someone else having the charge issue (without a PS5, apparently…), they said they had to plug theirs into a wall outlet to charge it. It actually charged it to 100% over night, and was able to last an entire 3-4 hours of gaming in one go, unlike before where it would ding me on KDE that the battery was low, IMMEDIATELY after unplugging it from the desktop cord to use for play. It was such a shitty experience that I had to look it up on Reddit! lol
This 8BitDo controller is absolutely fantastic so far, and like you, I must’ve gotten a good one from the warehouse! I saw some of the reviews saying it had some issues, but I usually chalk those up to user error unless it has some convincing pictures to go with it. Anyway, I have only had the 8BitDo controller for two days so far, BUT:
The sticks are literally the best feeling sticks I’ve ever used. I was actually able to turn my dead zones on both sticks to 0 (or negative in Steam? I’m not entirely sure how that works, as it looks like it goes into the negatives?) and can feel every little turn in game. Can’t believe I’ve been playing my games in an inferior manor!
The hall effect triggers are also amazing! I’m playing GTA4 (with FusionFix mod) on openSUSE Tumbleweed, and I have never had better feeling triggers before. When I can barely press on the right trigger, and the vehicle (Comet, in game) actually starts going slowly? That was something to see with my own eyes, and feel with my own hands. I can’t describe it well enough, but if you are reading this, it made a HUGE difference in feel!
I can’t tell you about battery life just yet, since I only get 3-4 hours after I get home, but I’m sure with it’s charging stand, I won’t need to personally worry about that!
The only thing I can say I don’t like is that I have decent sized hands, and can accidentally press the back buttons just by gripping or rearranging my grip on the controller, so I have those turned off in Steam for now until I relearn how to handle a controller like this since I have been using a PS5 one for so long now.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, but I just can’t believe I have been missing out just because a few controllers gave me issues! Plus, I just love talking about gaming! Thank you for taking the time to reply! :)
I read every word. 😉
But yeah, it just goes to show that the mass production vs caring and dedicated production really are playing in different leagues altogether. Mass produced stuff is just shit no matter how expensive, and this controller-centric company blows the big dogs out of the water for a third, quarter, eighth of the price!
Anyway, I hope you get more free time for yourself soon, so you can enjoy it more. 😌
~$25 for an 8bitdo ultimate 2c! The price is just too good. I know it doesn’t have TMR or the extra buttons, but it just works and feels really good to me compared to the xbox elite controller that got the shoulder button issue within 3 months for me.
The trackpads are unnecessary imo. Games made for controller aren’t going to expect the deck touchpads, they’re gonna expect xbox and playstation controllers without it. The touchpads just fit a very specific niche of people who want to play with the steam deck on a TV in games that are not fully controller supported and don’t have a keyboard and mouse paired for that use case. Always better to have options I suppose.
I have carpal tunnel syndrome and mouse heavy games hurt, but playing with a controller is great. If this can easily replace a mouse and keyboard setup then I’ll be playing with it a lot, and those track pads are a big reason why.
They’re also good for emulating certain consoles with quirky controllers, like the N64.
It can’t really replace mouse and keyboard though. Not unless developers start designing games to work that way, and these touchpads are exclusive to an ultraminority of the hardware market share. The deck gives you that virtual keyboard which kinda works with the touchpads but it’s not ideal.
There’s no shortage of amazing games that are fully compatible with controllers though, thankfully.
Btw have you tried a trackball? i’ve been using a thumb based one like a logitech M575 for the better part of 30 years, ever since I saw one at CompUSA. Professionally 100% of my time is spent with one, and I used to have top tier KDR in counter strike 1.X back in the day (though I use normal mice for gaming usually nowadays.)
The 8bitDo Ultimate 2 was like $40–50 or something, so cheap compared to the Elite 2. I got the dirt cheap 8Bit just to try it out for giggles because I’d never tried TMR sticks before. Bro I haven’t touched the Elite 2 since unpacking the 8bit.
Trackpads give options. Sure most first person games have controller support. Coming from mouse and keyboard, I still can’t stand playing those with a stick though. Trackpad + Gyro is an absolute game changer, I prefer that even over a mouse now.
But it’s missing a 3.5mm headphone jack bizarrely.
I’ve been dreaming of this since the first steam controller released! I absolutely loved the first one but it definitely had it’s quirks and issues. This seems just like the upgrade that I wished for in every way possible with some nice additional stuff on top. I just hope it won’t be $100+
I got the Steam Controller (OG) when it was $5. I wanted to love it so bad, but never could get over the full replacement of the thumbstick on the right side with a trackpad. I could even get over the “cheap” feeling plastic, but that non existent right thumbstick was just too weird for me to get over.
I’m a life long controller gamer though, so maybe it was the best thing ever for some, but I am happy they went with the Steam Deck layout, as that was what I was hoping for!
I understand that feeling and a lot of people shared it, but I was someone that loved it regardless despite generally being a controller gamer as well.
I think to get a good experience you had to be very willing to play with the settings a lot. Not unlike the Deck now, but the software wasn’t as accessible and the users not as accustomed to it. Of course it would never feel the same no matter what, but it was definitely responsive!
I understand exactly what you mean by it not being as accessible. They really outdid themselves with the Steam Deck. With EmuDeck, it installed so many different profiles that each have their own little sections in the radial menu. If I had known that was a thing, and if I had some time on my hands, I’d probably have used it a little more!
Either way, we have the best of both worlds now with this controller, so I can’t complain at all now! :)
Did Valve just announce THREE of something?
If Valve makes ARM Linux work properly as a gaming/desktop OS, I will uhh hmm.
I will buy this thing.
I wonder if they’re still using Arch. Its ARM version is kinda not so great, although not terrible either.
Only one company has apparently learned how to print money and not be ghouls.
To be fair, they say they made a lot of tradeoffs in the name of being price conscious, but they haven’t put a price on it yet.
I’d say it’s priceless.
That’s a great deal, I’ll take the full set and throw in some extra controllers thanks
conscious*
Thank you. Didn’t notice I screwed that up.
They have haptic grip sensors and ALL the sticks and pads, I wonder what they traded off lol
Valve and therefore Steam is still privately owned, never went public. No share holders demanding things surely is a major factor.
I’m aware. Once Gabe retires or dies, I’m going to start distrusting Valve. Once they go public, it’s over.
Privately owned still means shareholders. Ultimately it comes down to the board and the rules around it, not so much as to whether it is publicly listed.
Yeah sure I love their hardware and contributions to software, but I’d say profiteering off of children gambling for over 10 years is pretty ghoulish.
Their entire profit margin is pushing gambling on children
I mean, they get a sizable cut from the majority of games sold on PC. I think that’s their business model.
I hear you about loot boxes and skins and stuff. It’s just, that has to be a small part of their total profit.
Why does it have to be? It’s basically free money for them, whereas they have to make deals and curate their store front a lot more. Games take time and energy (if you don’t just want AI generated slop, at least), so to get that to market takes time. Whereas microtransaction garbage is basically hit it and quit it and generates insane amounts of money.
Um, no?
I guess this must be surprising to hear, but it’s just easier to sell content of actual value than bullshit. Yeah… some people will buy bullshit, and yeah, one can take advantage of those people, but having actual products is still a better business model.
But hey, if you’ve got these things all figured out, totally start your own game studio/global digital distribution system. Go make bank on microtransaction garbage.
Sorry, clearly you are far more knowledgeable about such things, despite having nothing more than I do to back it up. I apologize for contradicting your opinion on the internet, that was my bad.
Hey, if I’ve offended you, I do apologize for that, it truly wasn’t my goal. But I do strongly disagree (which is allowed).
And I think it’s pretty obvious that microtransactions could never, ever, possibly be more lucrative for Valve than selling games. It’s just a numbers thing. I mean, dlc can sometimes make more money than game sales for some titles, that’s a fact. But Valve has what, a dozen games that they could potentially sell dlc for? That’s a pretty hard limit. Whereas they also make money on every title sold in the store, and there are currently over 10,000 titles available from the steam store. That’s just like, a lot more than a dozen…
Any data to back that claim? I thought most of their income is from Steam and games(including those with pushing gambling on children) is a very small share.
Obviously given valve is private we don’t have first party numbers but estimates of case openings alone are in the multi billions. https://www.dexerto.com/counter-strike-2/valve-made-insane-amount-of-money-from-cs2-cases-just-last-month-alone-3176876/
Given that valve has about 350 employees that’s on the order of $5M per employee just from case openings alone. Given that they also take a cut of every transaction and trade that number is possibly orders of magnitude higher. And that’s just CS.
Now if you take the leaked financial slides at face value (https://www.simplymac.com/games/3-5m-per-employee-how-valve-quietly-became-the-most-profitable-gaming-company) you’re not looking at the majority of income but skins are almost entirely profit, there’s next to no overhead on generating a fake item.
In conclusion, without publicly released figures it’s impossible to say with certainty and my statement obviously involves hyperbole to some degree but in all likelihood a very significant portion of valves profit comes from pushing gambling in their first party games and on the marketplace.
Side note: in my view, $2.50 earned from pushing gambling on a minor does more societal damage than $100 of predatory sales transaction cuts
Valve remains committed to an open PC ecosystem
happy noises
Where steamphone
