Valve confirm plan to get Steam Deck's SteamOS on the ROG Ally and more handhelds

Valve's commitment to be truly platform agnostic never ceases to impress me. While most tech platforms work tirelessly to build walled gardens, Valve seems to be constantly building new paths and still making boatloads of money. I really hope the rest of the industry takes note.

Well… the walled garden is the shop with the games. The device is just a gimmick to sell more games, so it makes sense for them to supported other hardware.

Oh, it's just Valve casually putting in work to fix and improve their competitors' products. Nothing big.

(Yes, I know the reason they do it is because their main business is the game store and not the hardware. Still impressive and unusual for these days of platform lock-in)

This reads like thesis, antithesis, synthesis. ;)

Valve's commitment to be truly platform agnostic never ceases to impress me. While most tech platforms work tirelessly to build walled gardens, Valve seems to be constantly building new paths and still making boatloads of money. I really hope the rest of the industry takes note.

Well… the walled garden is the shop with the games. The device is just a gimmick to sell more games, so it makes sense for them to supported other hardware.

Oh, it's just Valve casually putting in work to fix and improve their competitors' products. Nothing big.

(Yes, I know the reason they do it is because their main business is the game store and not the hardware. Still impressive and unusual for these days of platform lock-in)

I got my hands on a steam deck a few weeks ago and played around with it. Great console OS, awful computer operating system.

What did you expect from an immutable OS? The desktop computing is going to be limited because the only thing that would never get wiped whenever a new SteamOS update get installed is the Home directory. You can use distrobox or Nix if you ever need software that's not available on the Discover store but anything you want to do with it would still have to be done on the Home directory.


Last edited by ToddL on 14 August 2024 at 4:07 pm UTC

(Yes, I know the reason they do it is because their main business is the game store and not the hardware. Still impressive and unusual for these days of platform lock-in)

Not really that - people are generally going to get their games from Steam regardless of whether they're using Windows or Linux. The strategic aim of the Deck is as a Linux gaming demonstration device so that Valve's own customers aren't the handcuffs that tie Valve to Microsoft. The other handhelds coming with Linux out of the box is the best scenario, but Linux being easy (and desirable) for customers to put on themselves is a pretty good second choice.

(Yes, I know the reason they do it is because their main business is the game store and not the hardware. Still impressive and unusual for these days of platform lock-in)

Not really that - people are generally going to get their games from Steam regardless of whether they're using Windows or Linux. The strategic aim of the Deck is as a Linux gaming demonstration device so that Valve's own customers aren't the handcuffs that tie Valve to Microsoft. The other handhelds coming with Linux out of the box is the best scenario, but Linux being easy (and desirable) for customers to put on themselves is a pretty good second choice.

I got the impression that Linux actually is the better base for handhelds, so this decision would be independent of showing off an alternative to Windows.

Well… the walled garden is the shop with the games. The device is just a gimmick to sell more games, so it makes sense for them to supported other hardware.

I know why they are doing it. Steam is their money maker. Valve recognizes that less friction will lead to more purchases, so they absolutely have a financial interest in making their platform as accessible as possible.

However, I wouldn't call Steam a walled garden at all. Valve doesn't do anything to prevent developers from selling on different platforms. They just made a platform that has so many good features, people generally prefer to use their product. I think that's a good strategy for a company to have. It actually encourages innovation in the market.

Valve is by no means altruistic. Companies exist to make money and they aren't your friend. However, I think a lot of the tech world would be better off if more companies operated like they do... well maybe not game developers... >_>

However, I wouldn't call Steam a walled garden at all. Valve doesn't do anything to prevent developers from selling on different platforms. They just made a platform that has so many good features, people generally prefer to use their product. I think that's a good strategy for a company to have. It actually encourages innovation in the market.

It works out that way anyways… All the games on GOG with missing Linux versions and missing updates. I don't think store exclusivity is a good thing and while they don't pay developers/publishers (unlike Epic) it often ends up that way.

What I don't like is that they apparently prevent deeper discounts on other stores.

The sentence about innovation… I don't see any innovation in the market at all. Humble has turned into a Steam key reseller from an innovative concept – drm free, cross platform, real pay what you want, charity donations. Epic with the barrage of free games and exclusivity bought by endless milking of Fortnite players. GOG is getting worse all the time – partly because their own mistakes (e.g. the timeout when not using the ‘optional’ client caused by bad programming in their Steam crack that is used by most releases in the last years) and partly by the publishers/developers abandoning their customers.

The only real innovation (i.e. investing lots of money into Linux) is happening because Valve is afraid of Microsoft destroying the market. Obviously this has huge benefits for us, but it is dangerous when it all depends on one company (or really one person that controls the company).

It felt like with SteamOS v1 and v2 that manufacturers made hardware that was expensive and then had a lot of hardware problems (similar to Xbox 360 red ring of death -- looking @ you Alienware.)

Seeing SteamOS make it to Asus ROG Ally would make the device actually interesting for me (currently I am 0% interested without Linux/SteamOS).

I would prefer a device with removable wings (using those 4 metal dots that are actually for USB keebs connecting to tablets) -- similar to the Lenovo's design -- however due to their history (superfish 2015), their hq, and manipulating criticisms on the Internet I refuse all devices from them.

I am curious what parts of the market are untapped -- a higher spec'd handheld? The problem I see is that the lower cost to entry device really does a lot at building trust. Having bought the Deck, now I know what baseline in quality I can expect in future Valve Decks -- and so I am not as apprehensive about spending larger amounts of money on such a device.

Ally isn't like that -- It's Gen 1 or (Maybe Gen 2 by now with the X?) -- all I know about it is that it shipped with a garbage Windows interface, meh drivers, and a obnoxiously small interface not designed to sell the device at all. I won't even hold the drivers thing against ASUS, I had seen Windows screw up the unscrewupable. Windows isn't fun. This is a very welcome story -- I look forward to having greater interest in their SteamOS stuff. That shit just works and the content available is already beyond vast.

What I don't like is that they apparently prevent deeper discounts on other stores.

While it's proving difficult to research and I don't have time to really dig into it at the moment, from various statements I've read from developers the situation is more that developers shouldn't sell Steam keys for their games at significantly lower prices elsewhere on a permanent basis…which all makes sense, because Valve takes no commission on Steam keys, so everyone would just sell keys for their games elsewhere at 30% off, pocket 100% of the proceeds (making the same amount they would selling on Steam), and Valve would be stuck honoring those keys and supporting the distribution and hosting of said games without getting any money.

What I don't like is that they apparently prevent deeper discounts on other stores.

While it's proving difficult to research and I don't have time to really dig into it at the moment, from various statements I've read from developers the situation is more that developers shouldn't sell Steam keys for their games at significantly lower prices elsewhere on a permanent basis…which all makes sense, because Valve takes no commission on Steam keys, so everyone would just sell keys for their games elsewhere at 30% off, pocket 100% of the proceeds (making the same amount they would selling on Steam), and Valve would be stuck honoring those keys and supporting the distribution and hosting of said games without getting any money.

There's absolutely not a formal requirement for games sold elsewhere except that devs can't take the piss with Steam Keys. The "don't take the piss" provision of the Steam Keys agreement is widely known and games are cheaper than on Steam literally all the time.

If it comes to Valve's attention that Steam customers are getting a bad deal Valve will sometimes contact the publishers to find out why that is, and if there's anything that can be done about it. The extent to which one might say there's an informal requirement is discussed at length in the court filings of the Wolfire case - Attachment 1, Attachment 2.

Linux people brace yourselves. When the day comes, we will be installing SteamOS on every device within close vicinity

It works out that way anyways… All the games on GOG with missing Linux versions and missing updates. I don't think store exclusivity is a good thing and while they don't pay developers/publishers (unlike Epic) it often ends up that way.

True, but again, I don't think that's because of anti-competitive behavior by Valve. Steam is a mature platform with a lot of features, and building a true competitor takes more time and money than most companies are willing to risk.

GoG's idealism is great, but unfortunately I think it scares away a lot of game publishers that still believe DRM is required to remain profitable. But again, that is GoG's decision, not Valve.

What I don't like is that they apparently prevent deeper discounts on other stores.

I wasn't aware of this, but that's a good point. Humble Bundle seems to do this often, so I wonder if they have some sort of exception?

The sentence about innovation… I don't see any innovation in the market at all.

This is kind of my point and why no platform has been able to dethrone Steam on PC. Valve has made Steam the most appealing option for decades, and every attempt to make a competitor seems to either have trouble attracting content or gives up development before they come even close to Steam in feature parity.

Valve barely needs to do anything to stay on top at this point. The only time we saw rapid Steam development was when Epic Games started getting developers to sign exclusivity deals with them. I personally think it's refreshing that they responded by actually making Steam better instead of all of these other scummy tactics we're so used to like fighting an exclusivity battle like on consoles or just pulling a Microsoft and trying to buy them.