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SteamOS

Yesterday, Valve announced that it has shipped more than 500,000 Steam controllers since unveiling them in Nov. While that number sounds initially impressive for a brand new console and operating system, a closer assay reveals it's really pretty bad.

Said analysis comes courtesy of Ars Technica, who contacted Valve to ostend that the 500K effigy includes Steam Machines, all of which ship with a Steam Controller. Toss in SteamOS users who may have purchased a controller separately and people who bought more than than one, and the actual number of Steam Machines sold since the platform formally launched last November could be significantly lower than 500K. That'south an extremely depression figure compared with the millions of PS4s and Xbox Ones that Sony and MS accept shipped since last November. While information technology may seem unfair to compare a brand new platform to established franchises, Valve explicitly stated that it wasn't competing with PC gaming, only targeting the living room console industry.

Valve offset announced Steam Machines and SteamOS 2.5 years agone, to great fanfare and with 13 manufacturing partners. Valve then delayed the platform launch into 2022, which had the side consequence of killing a great deal of manufacturer interest. SteamOS is however receiving bug fixes, feature updates, and improved GPU back up, but its pocket-size install base and low sales could trap the platform in a expiry spiral. Weak Steam Machine sales means lower programmer interest and decreased willingness to launch on SteamOS. The platform may have also been hampered past its lack of exclusive titles and a general dearth of AAA games.

1 striking difference betwixt the Linux-uniform titles and their Windows 10 counterparts is how quickly prices fall on the Linux side of the equation. By Folio 2 of the Linux listing, game prices have fallen to $19.99. The Windows listing, in contrast, is still pegged at $54.99 by the bottom of the second page. SteamOS has far fewer AAA games and many more indie titles, which may make developers nervous when they consider supporting the Linux-based operating system.

SteamOS solves a trouble that didn't need solving

Valve and SteamOS accept done great things for Linux gaming and encouraged the manufacture to support another major operating organization. For most of the past xx years, "Linux gaming" was practically an oxymoron, especially if you didn't use Wine. Thanks to Valve, that's no longer truthful; Linux gamers have a richer and more varied selection of games than they've ever had before.

The central problem with SteamOS is that it'south trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Back when Microsoft announced Windows 8, Gaben denounced the operating system in the strongest possible terms.

I call back that Windows viii is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space. I think that we're going to lose some of the tiptop-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They'll go out the market. I recall margins are going to exist destroyed for a agglomeration of people. If that's truthful, it'southward going to be a skilful idea to have alternatives to hedge confronting that eventuality.

OEM margins weren't the only thing Valve was concerned almost back in 2022. The entire push behind SteamOS was predicated on the belief that Microsoft might lock game installations to the Windows Store or force developers to sell through its own platform. Such a maneuver would have been a catastrophe for Valve, which currently controls a pregnant share of PC gaming revenue. When that threat failed to materialize in Windows 8 or Windows ten, some of the fire went out of SteamOS. It doesn't help that the Bone is also much slower than Windows 10 in many games, even when testing titles based on Valve'due south Source engine.

If Microsoft had pushed such callous rules from the commencement with Windows eight, gamers might take responded past flooding to Linux and SteamOS. Since that didn't happen, the use example for SteamOS as opposed to Windows is fundamentally weak unless you're a PC gamer looking for a Linux-based console that can run a wide variety of PC indie titles and a smallish scattering of AAA games. There aren't a whole lot of people that fit that criteria. Unless Microsoft does something extraordinary evil, full general gamers aren't too likely to pick up a console-like PC with limited support for AAA titles.

Valve and SteamOS take done a tremendous job of establishing Linux as a gaming operating system, simply SteamOS is in a tough place right at present. OpenGL and Vulkan performance withal lag Windows ten, at least in some titles, and OEM support for the OS has dropped off considerably since the initial announcement. Valve can continue to polish its Bone, but it'southward not clear very many people are going to use information technology or fifty-fifty have the chance to purchase it from a PC OEM equally opposed to rolling their ain installation.