It's true that the marketing around SteamOS and Steam Machines wasn't all that great, but what they're showing as "Optimized for Steam Machines" is a bit of a joke. As noticed on reddit.
On the Steam Hardware page is a scrolling list of banner advertisements for games that are supposed to work well with a Steam Machine or a Steam Controller. The problem, it seems Valve haven't really done their homework for one of them.
Optimized? Sure it is…
ARK: Survival Evolved shows up as "Optimized for Steam Machines", which to me is pretty insane.
The game has always been pretty terrible on Linux. The list of issues with the Linux version of ARK is pretty long and the developers don't really seem to care at all about the Linux version. They never seem to comment or even acknowledge any Linux bug reports. Want to see an example of a good list of issues? This review nails it. From personal experience, I've experienced nearly all the issues listed in that review, as I know many others have too.
It goes to show how out of touch Valve actually are with the marketing of their own ideas. Advertising a game that has a pretty poor Linux version will only do one thing — continue making SteamOS and Steam Machines look bad. Remember how a lot of tech sites reported on the lower performance of games on SteamOS compared with Windows? Stuff like this really doesn't help.
If Valve ever want SteamOS and Steam Machines to be taken seriously, now or in future, they really need to up their game on things like this. I understand why they did it, since it's big and popular and they needed those titles to sit along side Steam Machine advertisements, but it's still a damn poor choice.
I've grown more impatient to see what Valve will be doing with SteamOS over time. I've honestly defended it too many times. Unless Valve really start pushing the boat out for it, SteamOS and Steam Machines will fade away without anyone really caring. Thankfully Linux gaming as a whole is doing pretty damn well, just not what we all originally hoped for.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: constThis page is there since the SteamMachine pre-release campaign.I am aware of that, doesn't change a thing.
Well, I consider this mostly a news portal and our community gave their comments to this choice already then. This is just a symptom of Valve having put SteamMachine campaign on hibernate.
Quoting: liamdaweAn overstatement for sure, butQuoting: constDo we really need this kind of discussion every 2 weeks?That's a massive overstatement and you know it. The last article specifically about SteamOS was Early in July. And I think it's important to highlight issues, not bury our heads in the sand about what's happening.
1. There are regular discussions about this on reddit and while I really enjoy your site here and see a lot of added value compared to reddit - this is mostly the same community
2. Valve don't care for the SteamMachine-Hub since shortly after release. Nothing has changed in the last 2 months.
Quoting: liamdaweCan happenQuoting: constAlso: You could maybe have added a reference to the reddit-article that inspired you. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/6z9hwu/its_interesting_to_see_what_valve_promotes_as/That was supposed to be there, I've re-added it. Seems when moving it from gdocs to here I accidentally cut it out.
Quoting: const1) This is not reddit though. I won't just not talk about something because reddit has, a lot of people I know on here refuse to visit reddit. If I had to weigh my posts against what's already on reddit, I might as well not post anything. Also, I hate reddit.Quoting: liamdaweAn overstatement for sure, butQuoting: constDo we really need this kind of discussion every 2 weeks?That's a massive overstatement and you know it. The last article specifically about SteamOS was Early in July. And I think it's important to highlight issues, not bury our heads in the sand about what's happening.
1. There are regular discussions about this on reddit and while I really enjoy your site here and see a lot of added value compared to reddit - this is mostly the same community
2. Valve don't care for the SteamMachine-Hub since shortly after release. Nothing has changed in the last 2 months.
2) Likely true.
TheRiddick Sep 12, 2017
Yeah I might give debian a spin once 4.15 comes about, or AMDGPU DC driver gets pushed to the kernel. In saying that I prefer KDE these days, I have tried XFCE and it gets a little overwhelming to customize.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 12 September 2017 at 4:20 am UTC
Quoting: GuestDebian derivatives and "stable" distributions are a waste of human resources anyway.Must be tough for a die-hard fanboy to accept that these derivatives are so much more popular on the desktop than Debian itself. I don't think they're a waste as long as they provide some value for their users.
Quoting: GuestDebian derivatives and "stable" distributions are a waste of human resources anyway.Good god man, give it a bloody rest with this zealotry.
appetrosyan Sep 12, 2017
1. The development has ground to a halt. Valve are very supportive of Linux, but their OS is a little too complicated for seasoned Nixers, I don't see how it's going to be appealing to any of the Newbies.
2. The Steam machines don't make sense as a console. It's essentially PC hardware. It costs more than a typical console, you have more variety of Hardware so no "Just works" or "Highly Optimised". Also, at best we have official support for Nvidia (because their drivers are allegedly better), so they'll put Nvidia chips into the machines, and the Green company is going to screw them over. Why? Well, ask Linus Torvalds.
3. There's no pressure to develop for that platform. The asset flips have defamed Steam considerably, it's no longer that prestigious marketplace. Everyone seems to want to move away from Steam: EA, Ubisoft, have, and make more money.
4. SteamOS isn't marketed well. You have no Exclusives, at best, you can expect a shitty port with lots of bugs months after release. Few Franchises that have all titles ported to Linux, e.g. Shadow of War, Deus Ex, The Witcher all have only one awkward port. If I somehow avoided them on Windows, tried it on Linux, and wanted to play more, I HAVE to come back to Windows.
5. Valve don't take actions. For example, we have a company, that outright refuses to support Steam OS and rakes in crazy amounts of Cash - Bethesda. And that doesn't only refer to newer releases: Quake IV, Doom 3 (with the BFG edition) don't only support Linux, but are partially OpenSource to boot. This is an offence on Steam OS, it makes no sense not to upload a well-written native port that ALREADY exists.
Microsoft would have made them an offer, e.g. reduce the percentage of royalties, on the condition that the game supports SteamOS and supports it well. Sony would have kicked them off the store unless they supported Steam OS. I would have given games priority only if they had Steam OS support, so if you wanted to be featured, you had to support it.
6. You literally aren't introduced to it, unless you already had interest. The companies like Google and Microsoft nag people to use their browser because those little nags work. If Steam don't, people will simply not know that it's an option: to have an OS dedicated for Gaming (that has few games supporting it, numerous technical issues, and the Gaming performance sucks).
7. No Wine Support. It's literally what other "Ports" are doing, often offering better performance on top of better hardware support. Its license is permissive, so the only reason why nobody includes wine into the Linux version of Steam has to be either technical, or laziness.
All in all, with all due respect, I'm not sure that Valve are all that interested in the SteamOS project. It's a lost cause by now, even if they changed their minds, it's already too late to make a difference.
Last edited by appetrosyan on 12 September 2017 at 1:08 pm UTC
Last edited by Kohrias on 13 September 2017 at 1:50 am UTC
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