“All of this work is broadly applicable to the PC platform, and it’s going to continue to expand over time. Supporting multiple platforms, multiple chipsets, controllers for different machines that are out there and even ones that aren’t out yet.”
[…] Valve’s goal with the OS is to have it compatible with traditional PCs, laptops, portable consoles and any other formats.
Microsoft would have a hard time crushing the biggest gaming store in the industry. I think this is more of a “don’t fuck around or you’ll find out” from Valve to Microsoft.
Valve is put in a weak position if they’re entirely reliant on Windows. Having another option that grows in market share puts them on better negotiating footing, should the need arise.
More than that, by diversifying Valve is getting insurance from Microsoft bad mood in 2 ways
If the experience gets shitty because Microsoft manipulate Valve and games into making gamers getting bad experience, they can say “works just fine in my steam deck”
And if they try to do the “30% subscription/marketplace tax” that iOS and Android pull on devs they can go rogue and say it’s cheaper on steam deck/Linux which would also cause a big kerfuffle
Nah, I agree with the above poster. Valve is treading lightly because it’s still in a weak position. Also if there’s one thing I’m sure of in this world is that microsoft are genuinely evil, and they will do everything to crush opposition. They have the resources, the time, heck, they probably have an army of lawmakers in their pockets too. They’re probably being more benevolent because it’s cheaper than all out war ( see sony ). They’re probably working an EEE angle that I can’t figure out.
They invested 11 figure numbers in xbox and windows gaming at this point, they won’t let that escape. I suspect it’s even possible that they would somehow convince Valve to drop Linux support if it got too much for their taste. Who knows what the relationship is these days between Gabe and his former employer.
On this topic, it’s not about the money (getting paid off, or absorbed) for valve - they will continue their linux projects because the only goal is ensuring they have somewhere to sell games if MS went nuclear. While the immediate threat of windows store monopoly has subsided, SteamOS as a whole is a contingency plan over everything else, since the beginning.
With Microsoft pivoting to the angle of “this is an xbox; that is an xbox; you are an xbox” – I wouldn’t be surprised if they just simply paid their way onto handhelds and turned them all into “xboxes”
Don’t underestimate the power of the darkside.