Well well, perhaps we finally know what the end game is here for the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer and a lot of the other work Valve has been doing for Linux with a possible handheld Steam console. Take this with a heavy pinch of salt as we're into super speculation territory now. UPDATES WILL BE POSTED AT THE BOTTOM.
Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB who has often dug up interesting new strings showing up in Steam updates has a new Twitter thread up going over some new appearances that raise some eyebrows.
New appearances are seen mentioning a "Neptune" controller along with things like "GameList_View_NeptuneGames", "SteamPal Games" and more curious entries that mention things like quick access and a power menu - all of which point to something quite a bit more than just a new controller. Not only that, there's also earlier mentions of a "Callisto Developer Program" and "Device Optimized Games" going by what Djundik found.
Recently, Valve's Gabe Newell spoke at Sancta Maria College in Auckland, New Zealand that was highlighted in a since deleted Reddit posts (but you can find the video on the likes of YouTube) where Newell was asked about Steam on consoles to which Newell replied "You’ll get a better idea of that by the end of this year". Initially, we thought that might mean the likes of Half-Life: Alyx on PlayStation VR 2 but now we're not so sure going by this new set of leaks.
It would make sense for such a device to be powered by Linux, so Valve has no licensing fees to deal with and can heavily customize it to their needs. It could easily leverage all the work Valve has put into Linux graphics drivers, Steam Play, perhaps Gamescope and much more that Valve has done for Linux. Perhaps their work on sorting out "new ways for prospective users to get into Linux gaming" and the "live USB media" that we mentioned here were all efforts towards this in some way? Would be a given for it to use an AMD GPU of some kind, considering Valve's investments into the open source Mesa drivers too.
Imagine if "Device Optimized Games" were those specifically ported to Linux to work with this device, that would also work well across desktop Linux with the Steam Linux Runtime dealing with any possibly library incompatibilities. Oh the possibilities. Throw in the idea I recently brought up of a Steam Game Pass…quite exciting.
Then again, it could end up just being a Steam Controller 2 and these optimized games are just setup for it ready. I would be happy with that anyway, not quite as happy as a full Linux-powered handheld Steam console but I do love the Steam Controller. Possibly even something standalone for future VR kits and of course possibly nothing as some leaks turn out. However, with the hints mentioning an "AirplaneMode", that would only be useful for a full handheld.
Bundle a new Valve game with it like they did with the Valve Index and Half-Life: Alyx and you could get plenty of sales.
What are you thoughts on all this?
UPDATE: the website Ars Technica has reportedly spoken to "sources familiar with the matter" who have confirmed it's real and will be Linux-powered. It may even launch by the end of this year. We've reached out to Valve Press to see if they have anything to say about it for us.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: MalFunny thing. Everyone is 100% sure consoles are sold at loss, nobody challenge this accepted fact. Yet in EpicVSApple Epic couldn't provide any piece of evidence or even some clue that this is a fact, despite this being a fundamental piece of its theory and despite having both Sony and M$ support. This at least should suggest something on consoles real manufacturing costs.
Well we know the Xbox Series X (IIRC) at the very least is being sold at costs from Xbox's divisions VP saying as much in testimony and I wouldn't be surprised if at cost has been the case for the other two console manufacturers most the time. The only clear case of taking a loss I can really recall is the original 3DS model post price cut as it was definitely taking a loss just from some basic BOM costs even accounting for scale as a few people with electrical engineering experience figured it up on a few of the console centric gaming forums. But at costs makes sense as selling at a lose even when you factor in games sales couldn't be that large of a loss, as from many outside data firms many sold consoles only see about 10 game sales each on average with the people that buy a lot of new games helping balancing out the people that generally buy used or simply don't end up buying many games.
Quoting: rustybroomhandleProcessing Vulkan Shaders
zzz
Can easily be done on Valves servers. The target is exactly known, so nothing has to be done on the device itself.
slaapliedje Jun 3, 2021
Quoting: ExidanI'm gonna bet it's just a steam controller, steam link and a screen smooched together, so you can stream from your desktop to a handheld thing.I mean I could already do that from my GPD Win... but it's too loud for normal Windows operations, let alone actual gaming / streaming...
Sir_Diealot Jun 5, 2021
If they manage to make a device that looks attractive as alternative to or even over preferable over the Switch then it may well work out. Obvious pros are the large selection of games available and the presumably small effort to get games to work on it. The obvious problem is that the Switch is very well established as _the_ handheld gaming device.
If it does succeed it will massively increase the Linux player base, in a sense. Keep in mind though that developers will not target Linux, they will target the SteamPal, which happens to run Linux. So whether that would improve general Linux support is an open question. For example, we do not know whether developers will port more games to Linux or rely on Proton.
slaapliedje Jun 5, 2021
Quoting: Sir_DiealotJust heard of this thing being planned.Well targeting the SteamPal would be targeting Linux, seeing as how what it would come down to is coding for Steam API (the input, the other benefits of Steam, etc) and since it's just Steam under the hood and Linux, they'll get more performance out of straight up targeting Linux. The games will work on Desktop or SteamPal. So yeah, it'll at least allow more people to switch to Linux in the long run.
If they manage to make a device that looks attractive as alternative to or even over preferable over the Switch then it may well work out. Obvious pros are the large selection of games available and the presumably small effort to get games to work on it. The obvious problem is that the Switch is very well established as _the_ handheld gaming device.
If it does succeed it will massively increase the Linux player base, in a sense. Keep in mind though that developers will not target Linux, they will target the SteamPal, which happens to run Linux. So whether that would improve general Linux support is an open question. For example, we do not know whether developers will port more games to Linux or rely on Proton.
Mohandevir Jun 7, 2021
Last edited by Mohandevir on 7 June 2021 at 6:48 pm UTC
slaapliedje Jun 8, 2021
Quoting: MohandevirSteamPal with an optionnal eGPU docking station... Mmmmmm...
Yeah, I'm not sure how the Switch does this, I think the Dock basically just allows for more overall power to the system when Docked, so as not to eat the battery when undocked.
This brings up a question, has anyone been able to get eGPUs to work in Linux? Last time I tried with mine, it didn't work all that well.
Mohandevir Jun 8, 2021
Quoting: slaapliedjeThis brings up a question, has anyone been able to get eGPUs to work in Linux? Last time I tried with mine, it didn't work all that well.
Same here. Tried with a thunderbolt egpu and it was meh... Unstable, worked, reboot, doesn't work anymore, wash & repeat... Annoying!
Who knows, since it's a dedicated hardware, Valve might find some SteamPal specific means (custom port layout/controller/firmware) of achieving this without all the troubles that we, desktop users, have. Just a guess.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 8 June 2021 at 4:12 pm UTC
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