CES 2014 easily dropped the jaws of many gamers who were lucky enough to attend. Much of the floor was covered with tons of new innovations in gaming. The already popular Oculus Rift was able to show off the new tech and improvements they’ve made since they first came into the limelight. Sony unveiled its new game streaming service Playstation Now. Michael Bay even had a slight breakdown while talking about the new curved Samsung Smart TV.
Another big unveiling came from Valve and there Steam Box. No it’s not a fancy humidifier. What it is, is Valve’s attempted entry into the console market. For many attendees, this was a huge hit. The fact that the very beloved Valve was going to create a console type machine with the help of tons of trusted gaming PC makers such as: Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and iBuyPower to name a few was to everyone’s delight.
A long time has passed since their CES showing, and the internet has been nitpicking the Steam Box in every which way possible.
As of now, all we really know is that the Steam Box has been delayed yet again. Valve was aiming at a release towards the second half of the 2014, but some revisiting in the controller aspect of the console caused them to push the date to some time in 2015, or until they can be sure that the controller is perfect and fits the needs of every type of gamer who picks it up.
It’s nice to know that Valve is trying their very best at making sure the interaction between the player and the game they play perfect via the controller.
However, this prolonging in release has caused plenty of speculation about the viability of such a machine. Some are to the benefit of the Steam Box, while others are putting huge dents in the idea of a successful Steam Box.
Two critiques have been seriously threatening the possibility of the Steam Box successfully entering the market
The first one being:
Can you really play all types of games with the Steam Controller?
The picture above is of the controller that has brought so much worry to Valve in its different iterations. PC gamers look at this and question its ability to play games like League Of Legends and Dota 2, or any RTS game for that matter.
Valve has been assuring gamers profusely that this controller will be perfect for all types of gamers, especially RTS games, but gamers just won’t budge. Whether you’re playing a FPS game, a puzzle game, an RTS game, or racing game, this is the controller for you, is what Valve is trying to get into the heads of people questioning the functionality of this controller.
All gamers are competitive in their own way, and a sufficient means of controlling what they do in the game is the most important thing to them. There’s no doubt that the rapid movements you’re able to achieve with a mouse allows your aiming and precision to be as good as you are. So obviously most competitive players, or even players who need precision as it’s highest, steer away from controllers.
On the plus side: at least the controller is symmetrical. Those with OCD rejoice! Also left-handed gamers. Since the beginning of games, left-handed gamers have been sort of left behind (see what I did there?) due the fact that game developers have been optimizing controllers for right-handed people. Which is understandable since right-handed people are the majority.
The symmetry in this Steam controller seems like it’s trying to break the barrier between left-handed gaming and right-handed gaming. Which will hopefully get rid of players having to navigate the menus, find controller setup options, switch it to left-handed gaming, and then learn a whole mess of new button configurations.
Another major bump in the road for Valve is:
Who exactly is this Steam Box for?
Along with trying to break the barrier between right-handed playing and left-handed playing, Valve is also seemingly trying to break the barrier between console gaming and PC gaming. Which seems like a very noble thing to do, since the war between consoles and PC has been going on for far too long. What it bring up though, is the question about who is Valve targeting with this Steam Box.
PC gamers look at these Steam Boxes and probably say, “wow that looks pretty.” I know I did. I mean, look at that blue one! I wouldn’t even use that for gaming. I’d rather have it mounted up on a shelf and just stare at the beautiful blue swirls hoping the answer to the universe come out of it.
Another thing that probably comes to their mind is, “why would I buy that? I already have my PC.” Understandable of course being that the Steam Box is just a PC stripped down to only its video game playing abilities. Similarly to PCs, the Steam Box is also upgradeable, giving consumers the ability to keep up with the ever-growing quality of video games.
The Steam Box will essentially come off as a bit of a gimic to PC gamers.
The luxury of upgrading is sadly lost to those who only have a console. Since Microsoft and Sony create their respective consoles as these one things. What you paid for is what get is the essential idea behind buying a console. It’s a safe bet to go on if your looking for stability in your console’s video game playing ability.
But if you’re going for a consumer who prefers safety over luxury, selling a console that still requires the maintenance of PC gaming is probably not a good strategy. Valve will probably get lucky and put the idea of PC gaming in the heads of console gamers, who will then go for the middle man, Steam Box, as their introductory to PC gaming.
Nevertheless, you cannot blame Valve for trying something new. As Gamer Headlines’ own Erwin Murillo said in his article, 2014: The Worst Year for Console Gaming in the Past 8 Years, this year in gaming has been seriously lacking in originality.
A new fresh addition in the gaming community could be good in the long run. Sure it’s just another console, but hopefully it will show other companies that although new ideas can be scary, that does not mean you shouldn’t go for it.