With the Steam Deck upcoming, what do we think the chances are that Valve will reveal a new game to go along side it?
One thing that Valve didn't quite get right for Steam Machines was a new game (and a lack of games overall). It's not quite the same with the Valve Index, since it was a very different form of gaming and so they did put out Half-Life: Alyx to showcase what a big game would really be like with it (although it came later). So what about the Steam Deck?
Half-Life: Alyx has reinvigorated Valve with game development, and Valve did confirm previously that they had multiple games in development - the question is will we see an announcement this year? There's not all that long until the Steam Deck releases at the end of this year but like with the Valve Index it could come some months after. Valve have multiple teams doing different things too, so it's not like all the work going into the Steam Deck would take away from people involved with game development. The point is, Valve are once again a games company, not just a service company with the Steam store.
After playing through and completing Half-Life: Alyx myself live on our Twitch Channel, We're very keen to see what other games Valve can come up with, it proved they've still "got it" (unlike Artifact, which they gave up on). If they do, what shape would it take? What series would it be part of it, or would we see something entirely new?
This time around, it's not like they actually need to produce a new game. The Steam Deck hardware should speak for itself on what it's capable of based on what's been shown, along with Steam Play Proton enabling thousands of Windows-only games from Steam's back catalogue to run on SteamOS 3 (and the ~8,000 native Linux titles) they've definitely solved one of the biggest hurdles in doing new hardware but still - we can't help but want a new Valve game.
So there might be no actual need to make one but they might be a bit silly not to. At this point, it seems like it's already something of success. Everyone is talking about it and most people seem very excited by it both inside and outside of Linux circles. Reservations took down the Steam store, and even when it came back up there was so much traffic that their payment system for it went down and orders took a long time - so we know there's genuine interest. Should Valve capitalize on that? Absolutely.
What do we actually want from a new Valve game though? Left 4 Dead 3? Half-Life 3? Portal 3? A new Counter-Strike? Or something entirely different perhaps? They have a number of good titles there that are ripe for picking up once again and bringing them in an updated form to the desktop and the Steam Deck.
I think they would be a bit silly to do Left 4 Dead 3 right now, considering how Back 4 Blood is releasing in October with it being widely reported as a spiritual successor and Turtle Rock Studios are the original developer of Left 4 Dead. Half-Life: Alyx definitely put that series back into the spotlight, and with the incredible ending there's a lot they could do with it although it might be weird to carry that from VR into traditional gaming. Portal also has Portal Reloaded and Portal Stories: Mel for people who want more of that. Difficult to say what they would / should do. Doesn't stop us wanting more from Valve though.
What do you think: will Valve announce a new game late this year or early next year? Or perhaps it's still far away?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
We know the basic idea of the Steam Deck is to play standard PC games on a handheld.
The worst move would be to release sth big and make it exclusive to the Steam Deck.
Even a time exclusive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_C5KVJbUw&t=135s
So I'd image that a new Valve game will come like in a year, and it will be perfectly suited for the Deck. No idea in what genre though. L4D3? Valve never does a third part of a series, right? *scnr*
I'd image a new title in the Portal universe, as "jumping" through portals would probably make VR players insta-puke :D
Last edited by Corben on 22 July 2021 at 11:11 am UTC
Quoting: CorbenI'd image a new title in the Portal universe, as "jumping" through portals would probably make VR players insta-puke :D
Which is kinda sad but I have a hard time with Alyx already. :/
Quoting: subWhich is kinda sad but I have a hard time with Alyx already. :/Aww, also when using teleport instead of locomotion?
I do have issues with locomotion myself, but I also learnt it depends on the game. Boneworks for example causes heavy motion sickness after 1.5h - 2h, and I have to sit down, stop playing and the sickness still lasts for quite a while.
I have no isses at all with teleport though, there I could play for hours and hours, without any issues.
But there is the VR mod for GTFO, where you also only have locomotion. And this is done so well, I can play the game for several hours without any issues.
This could either mean, I kinda got used to locomotion now (haven't touched Boneworks in a while though), or the way locomotion is implemented in GTFO VR is way better than in the other games I tried so far.
Back to topic though: Valve also has to release another VR game! *please*
Last edited by Corben on 22 July 2021 at 11:18 am UTC
Quoting: TeodosioI would like to see a new game from Valve, released on GNU/Linux only.Exclusives are bad.
Last edited by anth on 22 July 2021 at 11:32 am UTC
If they can also manage to make something with a compelling story experience (maybe even In The Valley Of The Gods since they ate Campo Santo) that works great with a controller and can be played well in few-hour chunks (because battery life), that would be pretty nice.
Quoting: CatKillerWhat I'd really like to see is some proper dogfooding. Use Vulkan, and use the Steam Linux Runtime. Have it available for Linux day one. They've failed on each of these things with their own projects in the past. They can't really advise other devs on how to do things if they can't manage it themselves.
If they can also manage to make something with a compelling story experience (maybe even In The Valley Of The Gods since they ate Campo Santo) that works great with a controller and can be played well in few-hour chunks (because battery life), that would be pretty nice.
When it comes to "In The Valley Of Gods" I have this bit I came across:
There's Claire Hummel
https://twitter.com/shoomlah
She worked for Campo Santo (At Valve since)
http://cliqist.com/2019/09/23/claire-hummel-talks-about-art-directing-for-in-the-valley-of-gods/
and posts a lot of these pics about a serious heavy-weight hieroglyph course she takes
https://twitter.com/shoomlah/status/1407260360923512835
also references ITVOG from time to time
https://twitter.com/shoomlah/status/1411089557970243585
My bet is they are indeed still working on it to get out.
Did I mention I just love Firewatch?
Ah yeah: She removed references to Campo Santo and ITVOG on her personal page at the time when asked if the hieroglyph stuff has anything to do with that game.
Last edited by sub on 22 July 2021 at 12:02 pm UTC
In that game you're an antihero who beats old grannies to get some money for beers from liquor store. Of course if you beat a single granny all the cops will come after you. There are three ways to die: if the energies run out or you die of hangover or overdose of alcohol. You must be drunk all the time because otherwise the game will end. Of course there are other characters like for example, skinhead who beats you with ape's rage or bouncer who takes all your well earned money sometimes on each level's exit.The game is won if you reach the end where qognac bottle awaits you. And this game is it real? Of course it is!
What a game with humour. Well seriously speaking maybe some other game would be better ofc like Half-life 3 for Steamdeck. It should attract gamers attention more.
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: TeodosioI would like to see a new game from Valve, released on GNU/Linux only.Exclusives are bad.
yes they are, but for once it would be "fun" to hear the Windows crowd huff and puff over the evils of "exclusivity". At which point we can just tell them how easy they could just dual boot :)
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: TeodosioI would like to see a new game from Valve, released on GNU/Linux only.Exclusives are bad.
If Valve is serious about Linux, I'd still propose charging like 5 % less Valve fee if the published game features a Linux build.
they should make their next game... linux exclusive.
otherwise people will keep seeing windows as capable of doing everything linux does, while they dont see linux as capable of doing everything windows do.
it need to be at least temporary exclusive.
Portal?
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: TeodosioI would like to see a new game from Valve, released on GNU/Linux only.Exclusives are bad.
say that to microsoft with their directX stuff.
there is no such thing as an world without exclusives, there is either what we have on consoles where sony, microsoft and nintendo make their own exclusives and get 1/3 of the market each, or what we have on pc where an single player get 90% of the marketshare and the others strugle to grow because they only have an subset of windows games/softwares.
its either "every one make they own exclusives" or "everything become windows exclusive" and we strugle to build tools like proton.
i would love to see valve make something exclusive and ask gamers to direct their anger toward sony/nintendo/microsoft for locking mac/linux users out of their content for so long, be mad at then, not us, if they stop doing it, we will stop.
it has been proven again and again that you cant grow without at least temporary exclusives.
Last edited by elmapul on 22 July 2021 at 12:48 pm UTC
So, having a couple of games that are optimized for the Deck, maybe from Valve, maybe from partners would be a smart move.
Quoting: TeodosioI would like to see a new game from Valve, released on GNU/Linux only.Better solution is Linux nativ exlusive, but with WSL as linux compatibility layer on windows :-)
QuoteI think they would be a bit silly to do Left 4 Dead 3 right now, considering how Back 4 Blood is releasing in October with it being widely reported as a spiritual successor and Turtle Rock Studios are the original developer of Left 4 Dead.
While I really would like to Back for Blood to be successful (I even question them about Linux support years ago, without answer) I have a feel that it will Evolve into another failure from Turtle Rock, judging by the way they are managing the game lately.
Sometimes I also think that we don't have anything new of Left 4 Dead franchise due to some conflicts between Valve and Turtle Rock, like how people responsible for the last stand update doesn't have any access to the main game code, or how Valve wants you to forget that the first game exist (this one may be due to technical reasons)
Back on topic, I think they'll first update their existing relevant games to be more friendly to Steam Deck, then pushing some new one aiming to it.
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