Gabe Newell: Apple Could "Redefine" Consoles

[Plinglebob]

Edit: I suspect a bunch of people will say something about how he is a hypocrit, because his company made steam. I believe their name will begin with s.

Screw it, I'll take the bait (though I'm a P, not an S ). Yes it is hypocritical for someone who has done more to wall off and enclose PC to complain about closed systems.

How the hell is Steam closed?

I can buy from Origin, GoG, or Mojang or whoever.

Steam introduces a really important element in that there is an agreed centralised network for online, updates, achievements, one place to shop for business. Nothing is locked down, you can use any other alternate. It's like those people who say Google has a search monopoly when you are a click away from Bing or Yahoo.

Nothing is walled off, without any fences a part of the PC gaming market has been cultivated and grown where the users can enter and leave at any time with no obligations, there are no subscription fees nor lockdown to proprietary hardware.

PC gaming wouldn't be at the height it is today without steam and it has compromised nothing to get here. DRM is kept to a minimum and with steamworks is given as a rapprochement, in exchange for all the services of the Steam network support.

As I explained in my second post, it is closed because you can't run games without it therefore it is locked down. All other PC digital distribution systems allow you buy the game, download it and never again have to run that systems software again unless you uninstall. This is not the case with Steam. If I buy a game with Steamworks from another DD system (or from a brick and morter shop) I must run Steam to play it. When I buy a PC game I expect to be able to play it on a PC without any extra software the same way I expect to be able to play a console game. Also, DRM is still DRM no matter how shiny you make it.

This again makes it seem like he only complains about closed systems because they won't let him play.

I think it's closer to the fact that he complains about them because they won't let him in. Xbox and Apple still have a monopoly on their consoles. Valve/Steam doesn't create a monopoly, they just have one. As Gabe says, there's no problem with people taking Steam tools and then selling the end-result outside Steam. It's just the greatest used platform.

Ok, thats a fair point and I agree with you with that (someone changed my mind on the internet! I feel dirty, and unique) but the encouragement of using Steam and Steamworks does feel like he's doing his best to replicate on PCs the very thing he's against on consoles. Despite its bad initial bad press, I really hope Origin succeeds as EA is the only company that really has the muscle to stop a monopoly.

 

[Fappy]

Sweet. We might finally have a hipster console. If the goofy cloths and the Indy rock doesn't give them away, surely an apple console will. Too bad they won't be able to bring it to Starbucks so they can play Angry Birds: Console Edition while they write their novel.

 

[Vankraken]

Yes lets enter the Console market when you already make an OS and computers that are well known for being platform of choice for computer gaming. /trollface

Seriously apple's design philosophy of release another version every year is ill suited for the long cycle time of consoles. In addition Apple appeals to the casual consumer (go into an Apple store and you will see a lot of elderly people, middle aged moms, and families) and why would you want to get into a casual gamer war against Nintendo?

 

[Something Amyss]

"You asked for it, now you can talk to other players WHILE playing the game. Only in iConsole2S!"

"Did someone say MULTIPLAYER? Now you can play two-player by passing the controller to a secnod player! multi-controller multiplayer available fall 2013...."

 

[ike42]

I don't know. Nintendo's doing the casual thing well enough, so Apple would be competing against a company that probably knows what they're doing. If Apple does create a console, I would bet that an updated version would be made a year later. It's just what they do; not understanding longevity.

If they can sell an annual tablet, why not an annual game system?

Don't take me as being "pro apple," I'm more "the consumers would buy it if Apple took a crap in a bag and put out "iTurd" in yearly iterations.

Didn't they already prove this to be true with the iphone 4s?

OT: I don't know if this would fly. I mean, iBots would buy it, but apple has historically been shit for games. It would likely devolve into non-serious games like you get on their mobile devices which just can't prop up a console. Also, I don't see a lot of the big studios being willing to submit to the draconian requirements for profit that Apple demands. Can you imagine Activision willingly giving up profit share?

 

[GonzoGamer]

Gods forbid.
The only thing more obnoxious than an MS or Sony fanboy is an Apple fanboy.

It would probably overprice itself out of the market after a couple of years like the neo-geo. If it didn't, we could at least find solace in the fact that every time apple updates a product, they tend to add features rather than take them away...Sony.

 

[Something Amyss]

Didn't they already prove this to be true with the iphone 4s?

Was that the one that could make calls, but still was the top rated smartphone on multiple sites?

 

[ph0b0s123]

Apple already made a console years ago and it failed, failed miserably.

I don't see why people who have been with major companies for years and years would suddenly jump ship to a company who might fail in the modern console market like they did years ago.

Yeah cause those people who had been with mobile phone makers for a long time did not jump ship the iphone came out.

I am not an Apple fan, I have brought none of their products and don't like their very restrictive approach to products. But even I realise that the nay sayers are seriously under estimating Apple with their comments.

The negative comments here are very reminiscent of comments made by first MP3 makers, then phone makers and then netbook makers. Apple have a track record of coming to already established industries and shaking them up, if you agree you are in denial.

And an Apple console would not be a bad thing, though I would not buy one. I now have good smart phone and tablet / netbook (both non apple), purely due to Apple coming into and shaking up those two industries. I don't think console gaming would suffer from the same kind of shake up....

 

[Garrett Richey]

tell

Apple already has a popular console, its called the ipad and its very over priced.

So the tablet that no OEM has been able to beat or even match in price is very overpriced? Android costs nothing and they still can't get a tablet that is price competitive to the market. Even on computers Apple is much more price competitive than they used to be. Intel is spending ridiculous amounts trying to get OEMs producing machines that compete with the MacBook Air and they simply can't produce a machine with similar specs for even the same price, let alone lower.

Check your facts before you make statements.

 

[Worgen]

tell

Apple already has a popular console, its called the ipad and its very over priced.

So the tablet that no OEM has been able to beat or even match in price is very overpriced? Android costs nothing and they still can't get a tablet that is price competitive to the market. Even on computers Apple is much more price competitive than they used to be. Intel is spending ridiculous amounts trying to get OEMs producing machines that compete with the MacBook Air and they simply can't produce a machine with similar specs for even the same price, let alone lower.

Check your facts before you make statements.

The ipad I won was 800, sure it can do some pretty impressive graphics but most things on it are flash games, just with a much greater chance of crashing. Its an over priced toy.

 

[Garrett Richey]

Yes lets enter the Console market when you already make an OS and computers that are well known for being platform of choice for computer gaming. /trollface

Seriously apple's design philosophy of release another version every year is ill suited for the long cycle time of consoles. In addition Apple appeals to the casual consumer (go into an Apple store and you will see a lot of elderly people, middle aged moms, and families) and why would you want to get into a casual gamer war against Nintendo?

So the fact that a company updates products every year in areas where ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE DOES THIS! means that they would in a completely different market?

Also I'm sure all the musicians/recording studios/movie studios that use Apple products and software fit well within your definition of casual consumers, right?

Just because you don't like something does not mean it is inferior. I know that I could do slightly more with an Android powered phone, but the fact is that I simply don't want to waste my time installing custom ROMs and messing around with my phones firmware to get it to do what I want when I can buy something I'm happy with out of the box!

 

[Garrett Richey]

tell

Apple already has a popular console, its called the ipad and its very over priced.

So the tablet that no OEM has been able to beat or even match in price is very overpriced? Android costs nothing and they still can't get a tablet that is price competitive to the market. Even on computers Apple is much more price competitive than they used to be. Intel is spending ridiculous amounts trying to get OEMs producing machines that compete with the MacBook Air and they simply can't produce a machine with similar specs for even the same price, let alone lower.

Check your facts before you make statements.

The ipad I won was 800, sure it can do some pretty impressive graphics but most things on it are flash games, just with a much greater chance of crashing. Its an over priced toy.

It may not be suited to your purposes, but that doesn't mean it's an overpriced toy. It's being used in hospitals to access patient records, airlines are using them to replace many pounds of paper material for pilots. Something capable of replacing paper in industries that have stuck with them up to now is far more than a 'toy'.

 

[Worgen]

tell

Apple already has a popular console, its called the ipad and its very over priced.

So the tablet that no OEM has been able to beat or even match in price is very overpriced? Android costs nothing and they still can't get a tablet that is price competitive to the market. Even on computers Apple is much more price competitive than they used to be. Intel is spending ridiculous amounts trying to get OEMs producing machines that compete with the MacBook Air and they simply can't produce a machine with similar specs for even the same price, let alone lower.

Check your facts before you make statements.

The ipad I won was 800, sure it can do some pretty impressive graphics but most things on it are flash games, just with a much greater chance of crashing. Its an over priced toy.

It may not be suited to your purposes, but that doesn't mean it's an overpriced toy. It's being used in hospitals to access patient records, airlines are using them to replace many pounds of paper material for pilots. Something capable of replacing paper in industries that have stuck with them up to now is far more than a 'toy'.

Ok, its an overpriced flash/pdf player that cant play flash. Tablets can be useful but there are still better things out there.

 

[dmase]

I feel like he's thinking about it wrong. It's not a console market it's a games market. People will play games on almost any platform they can and phones like the iphone and android can do that. It's too much work to break into a market with a home console and like people have said consoles are losing their domination of the market. I don't see consoles going the way of arcades but we'll be able to fit everything from the most recent iphone plus a psp or ds worth of gaming in there too. The only advantage computer's and consoles have over phones is they have a big screen to work with and a bigger control pad.... oh and not everybody wants to put their gaming system, computer, phone, calendar, gps, etc to infinity in one object that can be easily lost or broken.

 

[Treblaine]

The wider evidence is that iPod and iPhones ARE very reliable and only weasel arguments can be made against them.

Actually its been proven that the iPhones have an extremely high dropped call rate but that consumers dont give a shit because nobody actually calls people on them anymore.

That's as bad as the bullshit of "uncontrolled acceleration" myth.

That was ridiculously overblown hysteria fuelled by media circus and retards trying to drive an automatic one footed mix up the brake and accelerator like to blame the manufacturers rather than their own ineptitude.

Same media circus with iPhone, the death grip has a slight effect on signal performance and EVERY PHONE HAS THIS!

The dropped call rate is the same as every other AT&T phone because AT&T is an overloaded and under-invested network. iPhone in other countries on other networks has been absolutely fine.

Conclusion: people still buy Toyotas because to spite all the media sensationalism they can figure out the unexpected-acceleration claims are bullshit, same with iPhone. The pundits who have already made their minds up about the iPhone lap up the connectivity bullshit, but when it comes to people who are genuinely interested in putting money down, they go by verifiable info.

 

[Enslave_All_Elves]

Sick of Apple. Most overrated company ever. While I'm at it, screw Steve Jobs too.

"But he just died! Not cool man."

We all die. I didn't know him. Big deal.

*Edit* Toyota did cover up many of their issues for years. Nobody is buying them because they looked it the issues and decided some were bunk, they buy Toyotas because they are cheap and efficient. End of story. Uncontrolled acceleration wasn't the only thing. The media does hype car issues though. Way back when they said the Ford Pinto would explode if hit. My dad was on the engineering team at Ford tasked with figuring out that issue. Basically even through reproducing the accident down to the same truck that hit the pinto (I mean same models, same loadouts, every damn detail they found) they couldn't get a Pinto to blow. It was a freak thing. Didn't matter, the media ran with it. *shrug* It happens.

 

[Griffolion]

Good luck with that one Apple. You'll have to break MS, Nintendo and Sony in a market you have 0% experience in.

And, unlike the phone market you "revolutionised" back in 2007, this one isn't quite as ripe for revolution as you may think.

Either way, i won't buy whatever you may (or may not) be putting out.

You know, I've bought two iPods in my life, and both of them lasted about twenty days. Twenty days, whereas I just gave a cheap supposedly throwaway piece of shit that I've had for years to a relative of mine.

Err, how did they break? Did you ever consider that you were very careless with this rather high specification technology?

For example, the use of glass screens to be hard enough so it isn't worn down rough with a thousand tiny scratches also makes it brittle (so will likely crack if dropped unprotected), this is not a rough-an-tumble device for people who don't care about a scratched screen, this is a delicate high standard device.

I am still struggling to find a device that comes close to filling the same roll as my iPod Touch in its capability and flexibility as such a light and compact computer and media device.

Sure you can say you don't care about the 960x640 scratch resistant screen, don't care about all the apps, don't care about the music quality, don't care about the gyroscope... but that's not more saying iPods aren't suitable for you, not that they are "shit".

I knew this would come up. Someone saying that I obviously didn't take care of them...

Mate, that's a typical response of an Apple fanchild to someone whose put their products down. I wouldn't worry about it. They can't take the fact that their products may not be the flawed, overrated shiny toys they really are and thus blame the user for any problems encountered.

Broke it? You're using it wrong.

Dropped call? You're holding it wrong.

Missed Alarm? You're just... wrong.