I went to bed last night thinking I was designing a new Valve game for steam Looks like. It’s pretty much because I just read an interview with Gabe Newell in Edge magazine, where they asked him regarding Valve developing a first-party game for mobile viewing, and he said that Valve thought regarding it but decided to put its resources elsewhere – like doing Dota and Counter Strike It works better on the device.
So I was a bit surprised this morning to see Valve announce Opening console function, a free-to-play game/technical illustration thing set in the Portal universe. There’s enough wiggle room here that I wouldn’t be too concerned regarding Newell’s misleading comments – Valve points out that it’s “short” and not a game, for one person. But it got me thinking regarding the value of having a dedicated first-party build with the release of new material.
A few decades ago, it was almost impossible not to own one. There’s no world where the Nintendo 64 didn’t start Super Mario 64or Saturn with virtual fighter. That started to change with PlayStation and the move away from console mascots, but most consoles still came with a dedicated launch game that helped show off the hardware and justify the purchase.
In recent years, however, the idea of the console has started to change, especially at Microsoft, which constantly talks regarding its strategy of turning consoles into access points rather than isolated boxes. When Microsoft is late infinite aura And it ended up launching an Xbox Series X with no first-party core game, which was disappointing, but it felt like it went along with Microsoft’s strategy of not needing generations of obvious hardware.
Ever since Valve announced the Steam Deck, I’ve put it in the same category in my head. This is hardware designed for playing Steam games on mobile devices. It is a new access point to an existing library. So it didn’t even occur to me that the studios would design games dedicated to him. There’s nothing you can’t do with a standard console, is there?
Opening console function It looks like the game will answer that question. The way Valve announced it – asking gamers to “lower your expectations” and give it away for free – suggests it will be a small project, perhaps akin to a VR tech demo. laboratory. compared to something like infinite auraI imagine the investment is hundreds of millions of dollars less.
But there’s something nice and comforting regarding people making custom software to show off.