Valve founder talks about 'Steam Deck', a mobile gaming machine that allows you to play PC games anytime, anywhere


by

Dota 2 The International

Valve , the game company that developed the ' Half-Life ' series and 'Dota' series, and the operator of the online game sales platform Steam, launched the portable PC game machine ' Steam Deck ' on February 25, 2022. Released on the same day. Shortly after the launch of Steam Deck, Valve founder Gabe Newell interviewed gaming news sites Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamers.

Gabe Newell talks Steam Deck, crypto risks and why the PC industry “won't tolerate” closed platforms | Rock Paper Shotgun
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/gabe-newell-interview-steam-deck-crypto

Valve has no plans for a'Steam Pass,' but would help Microsoft put Game Pass on Steam | PC Gamer
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-no-plans-for-a-steam-pass-but-would-help-microsoft-put-game-pass-on-steam/

Q: Q:
Is Steam Deck a handheld game console that Valve has always wanted to make? Also, how satisfied are you with the workmanship?

Gabe Newell (hereinafter referred to as Newell):
I am very satisfied. From the very beginning, when I started playing PC games, I thought it would be possible to reflect the experience of playing PC games on my handheld device. Finally, MIPS around 1W of power has reached a feasible level.

This is like a transition between BlackBerry and iOS. BlackBerry was basically a single application, but since the advent of iOS, more versatile mobile computing devices have become available. The input method, excellent display, sufficient battery life, GPU and CPU performance, etc. have improved, and it seems that a portable PC game machine can be realized at a price of 399 dollars (about 46,000 yen). Therefore, I am very satisfied with this result and have high expectations for future developments. It would be even more satisfying if we could ride the rising curve of performance and power efficiency per price already expected by the PC industry in the future.



Q: Q:
Valve's Valve Index is a high-end VR headset. Steam Deck is also high-end, but at a much lower price than a PC. How did you get into this price range?

Mr. Newell:
I think the challenge when thinking about VR is to build the most compelling experience. In fact, we believe there are fundamental improvements in VR, such as ergonomics, visual reproducibility, and tracking quality. On the other hand, handheld game consoles were originally a price-sensitive category. The key is not to radically change the definition of PC games, but to provide mobile users with a gaming experience in a price-efficient manner.

That's right, the Valve Index and Steam Deck are aiming differently. In retrospect, keeping the Steam Deck price range down wasn't that important. We were very particular about low prices, but there were pre-orders for the most expensive SKUs , far beyond our expectations. I thought most of the sales would be cheap SKUs, but the opposite was true. In other words, the customer's voice is that 'it is not enough' and 'it can be higher' in terms of memory, storage, and performance. This is interesting. The situation will change in the future, and eventually Steam Deck's SKUs will increase.

Q: Q:
Do you have any particularly recommended titles among the games you can enjoy playing on Steam Deck?

Mr. Newell:
I'm doing ' FINAL FANTASY XIV '! (Laughs) I played ' World of Warcraft ' for a really long time until my brain broke, but I finally retired. Have you ever had a video game like 'I can't do it anymore'?

Q: Q:
There is, there is.

Mr. Newell:
One of my sons is addicted to FINAL FANTASY and I'm screaming to let me play. He was always crazy about the equipment ... At one point, when my son was wearing materia on some equipment, the equipment seemed to break 10 times in a row, so he came to complain to me. I say, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' So, when I play it, this is a pretty good game, and the controller support is also substantial, so I feel like I'm playing as it is.



Q: Q:
What did you learn from Valve's past hardware, such as the Valve Index and Steam Machine (Steam Box), that you were aware of when creating your Steam Deck?

Summary to understand what the next-generation stationary game machine 'Steam Box' is --GIGAZINE



Mr. Newell:
From the experience of Steam Machine, I strongly felt the need to provide our own products rather than relying on third parties. Various trade-offs and decisions are required to bring the core concept to the customer in a box. We learned that it's very valuable to do everything ourselves, whether it's support or packaging issues, the out-of-box play experience, or pricing. Giving our customers a framework to provide value does not allow them to make the same set of choices as they do. It just encourages you to make such a choice.

And if that happens, we can expect to solve all the software and input problems needed to run games like FINAL FANTASY XIV on handheld devices. Now that we have a proven model that shows what your success will be, we won't make any random tweaks.

Q: Q:
Steam recently banned games that incorporate NFTs and cryptocurrencies, but the industry as a whole seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Do you think these blockchain technologies will play a role in the game?

Rival Epic Games commented that games that can trade NFTs and cryptocurrencies on Steam will be banned-GIGAZINE



Mr. Newell:
It is necessary to consider the underlying technology and the people who use the technology separately. For example, if you're a chemist and you're new to nitrocellulose (a material for gunpowder), you'll think, 'You can do something really interesting with it.' But when everyone buys a gun and shoots a person, they think, 'Chemistry is great, but it also produces bad results.'


by Pierre Lecourt

Shooting people with NFTs is not the same. I think the basic technology of blockchain, the concept of digital ownership, the metaverse, all of these are very rational. However, people involved in NFTs and cryptocurrencies tend to be involved in many criminal and dubious behaviors. In other words, the user is far more important than the basic technology or rationale.

Steam once allowed cryptocurrency payments, but as a result, it made customers terribly angry. The problem with virtual currencies is that their prices fluctuate in tandem with the market price. You don't want to know that there are tremendous fluctuations when you actually shop every day. For example, 'One day I bought a game for $ 497 (about 55,000 yen), but the next day I spent only 47 cents (about 50 yen), what's going on! 'When. Value volatility is not suitable as a medium of exchange. One problem was that the high volatility of the value caused more pain to customers than the option of using virtual currency.

Another problem is that most of the transactions related to cryptocurrencies and NFTs were fraudulent, such as not trading for some reason or using illegal sources of funds. This can't be helped anymore, and companies that are active in the field of NFTs are not the ones they really want to trade with. This is not a criticism of the underlying technology, but a problem for those who see cryptocurrencies and NFTs as 'for stealing money from customers and doing money laundering'. I'm just looking at it.

Q: Q:
Valve was one of the leading companies on Linux gaming, including Steam Deck. Do you think Valve has succeeded in increasing the feasibility of Linux and open source games?

About 80% of PC games sold on Steam are compatible with Linux, and Linux is growing as a PC game platform-GIGAZINE



Mr. Newell:
of course. It took a lot of effort and unprecedented flexibility to achieve what we wanted to do. Achieving a system that makes Linux-based gamers unaware that they are using Linux, that is, an OS-transparent experience, is an important achievement we have achieved in the last few years. It is one.

Q: Q:
When it comes to uninstalling and reinstalling Steam Deck's OS, did you have any plans to make it more restrictive? Or did it have to be open from the beginning?

Mr. Newell:
I think the openness of a PC is lovable. I guess so? We don't want to limit anything. You can't find value in keeping people in something. The core of the strategy is not to understand later whether it is good or bad to be open, but to start from an open state and build it. I don't know what makes it really powerful by being created by users or third parties. However, I think that will happen sooner or later. That's why we released the Steam Deck CAD file.

Valve announced that it will sell replacement parts for 'Steam Deck' in partnership with iFixit, and iFixit immediately disassembled 'Steam Deck' into pieces and scored --GIGAZINE



If there's something obviously great, we'll adopt it. Or if someone comes up with something surprisingly cool that no one can think of, I think it makes Steam Deck and similar products more attractive. I don't know where it will come from, but sooner or later it will. That is part of the power of the open world.

I think this is a rather optimistic view of collaboration and motivation to be part of the community, rather than a rigid centralized one. This is contrary to my way of thinking about blockchain. Everything is completely distributed. Centralized ledgers do not require centralization at all! (Lol)

Q: Q:
Microsoft is rolling out a paid subscription service, the Xbox Game Pass , which has grown to have millions of subscribers on both Windows and Xbox, and these games run from their own apps, not Steam. Will be done. Is Valve thinking of its own subscription service like the Xbox Game Pass? Or are there plans to run Xbox Game Pass games on Steam?

Mr. Newell:
For now, I don't think it's necessary to build a subscription service. However, it is clearly a popular option for our customers. It would be great if we could work with Microsoft to be able to play Xbox Game Pass games from Steam.

Q: Q:
Mr. Newell was involved in the production of the 'Half-Life' series, and (at the time of writing the article) was also involved in the development of the latest ' Half-Life Alyx ', so he made more games for one person in Valve. You said that the momentum to try has increased. Did Steam Deck also influence Valve?

Valve announces new work 'Half-Life: Alyx' for the first time in about 15 years of the masterpiece FPS 'Half-Life' as a full VR game --GIGAZINE


by Niranjan

Mr. Newell:
I have high expectations for Steam Deck. I think this version provided an indescribable mobile gaming experience, that is, the experience that the Steam library runs on your mobile device as it is. And I'm interested in thinking about features that will give software developers the opportunity to deliver new gaming experiences.

For now, both the PC version and the mobile version have the same functions, but in the future I would like to focus on functions that are only available for mobile. For example, 'Pokemon GO' could have had a bigger impact on people thinking about the potential of mobile games, but it wasn't. Valve has also built a very important set of components to expand the possibilities of mobile games. And we are in R & D mode.

Looking at the CPU and GPU roadmap over the next few years, the cost performance is steadily improving and it is very exciting. But the evolution of software that prototypes some new ideas that can extend the mobile gaming experience is also very exciting. Sometimes I go to a software developer and say 'silly' or 'pretty good'. I'm very excited to be able to prototype software together with hardware prototypes and try them out, not just to be able to do something, but to be open to what it can do. .. So we're pretty enthusiastic. We are motivated to continue to be innovative.

Q: Q:
Is it a firmware update or feature update? Or is it the next generation of hardware called Steam Deck?

Mr. Newell:
I think it's good that the software is updated and that many features on the hardware side continue to improve. For example, it is an update like 'behind the curtain', such as parts with low power consumption and parts that are a little lighter. All of these updates will be highly transparent to our customers.

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