Valve Gets a Jump On Hardware
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Perhaps it's just for someone to help them work on the eyewear stuff they're already working on. They do a lot of R&D, could be nothing.
I don't really see why they'd bother with a console.
I don't really see why they'd bother with a console.
I'm sure Gaben wouldn't notice a few missing stacks of green from his money room enough to warrant a Kickstarter.ritchards said:
This is getting interesting. I trust Valve to pack the punch in order to shake things up in how we play and experience games. My preferred outcome would be a streamlined Linux system that runs Steam and other Windows games out of the box, but which is left open enough to install and configure whatever you want on it. Basically, a customized Linux PC optimized for gaming with integrated support for Windows DirectX games.
I'd welcome a steam box console but i dunno if i'd buy one, i have a big pc which plays everything so i wouldn't really need one but i'd certainly welcome one if it gave Microsoft a run for it's money (hey maybe it will stop this stupid 30 day exclusive crap).
On another note I find it weird how there's always people saying valve never release anything, do they have tunnel vision that bad for half life?
On another note I find it weird how there's always people saying valve never release anything, do they have tunnel vision that bad for half life?
maybe they will make devorak keyboards since querty were a scam from the day they were made and devorak are way way more efficient for actual typing since it groups keys by use, rather than querty which grouped the word typewriter on the top row so they could demo typing typewriter and do it super fast because of that.
who knows though if they looking into it making comments it seems they already have ideas of stuff they can do maybe differently enough to warrant thier entry, or they could just be trying to get a chunk of logitechs business.
who knows though if they looking into it making comments it seems they already have ideas of stuff they can do maybe differently enough to warrant thier entry, or they could just be trying to get a chunk of logitechs business.
Not really tunnel vision for Half-Life, as much as it is tunnel vision for their hate of Valve.devotedsniper said:
A lot of those types of people around here like to make shit up, much like that "they don't make games anymore" nonsense. Usually with the purpose of either sounding "hip" because they hate a popular developer or to ruffle the feathers of any Valve fan gullible enough to fall into the trap.
It's really become pathetic. The go-to arguments now-a-days, from those people, tend to revolve around the following:
1: Valve doesn't make games anymore and only survives because of Steam
2: Valve is a monopoly
3: Valve only makes Half-Life and buys all of it's other properties
4: Valve only wants to make money and plans to own the market and steal both your soul and your first-born
5: Valve only makes multi-player games
'Course, these people tend to forget:
1: Valve's made at least one game every year since 2003
2: EA, Activision, and Ubisoft all own vastly larger portions of the market than Steam/Valve do
3: Valve doesn't buy intellectual properties. They hire talented game designers and give them free reign to make what they want. (like that's a bad thing)
4: Valve's a business. So, of course they want to make money. Difference between them and most publishers/developers out there is they want to make money so they can make games, where-as most make games to make money.
5: Beyond the fact that this is a direct contradiction to point 1, these people seem to forget Portal and Portal 2. And, even if they make primarily multi-player games, many of them are designed to function in a cooperative fashion. What's more, a lot of the people that complain about Valve's games being multi-player are the same sort that complain about there being so few split-screen and cooperative games anymore. The irony is stupidly hilarious.
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Anyway, rant aside, this news is rather exciting. I've heard rumblings about Valve experimenting with biometric input and feed-back systems, modular game interfaces with varied inputs like touch-surfaces and the like, virtual-reality displays, wearable computers, adaptive AI systems, etc, etc.
If any of that makes its way into some new gaming platform or peripheral, it would be amazing. Amazing and a massive step forward for the industry.
Or, it could be "gimicky". I highly doubt that outcome but you never know. Could happen. Either way, I'm excited to see where this goes. And, to see what comes out of Valve's machinations in this area.
They don't appear to be complaining about console hardware, though, but about PC hardware. They specifically call out input hardware as a space needing innovation because mouse and keyboard haven't changed at all. In that same time, console controllers have evolved quite a bit, but haven't really caught on as PC controllers.gigastar said:
Boiler? (EDIT: Damn, ninja'd. This is why I usually read threads through first...)DVS BSTrD said:
Anyway, I don't know why but I have a really, REALLY bad feeling about this. Monopolies, ho!
Some PC gamers are becoming foolish, mouse and keyboard is not perfect. It excels at professional-precision in high skill FPS and RTS but chains users to a desk, actively fighting against comfy furniture and more relaxed atmospheres in titles. It's also terrible for other genres of games such as driving and fighting.
I never understand the argument that PC gaming has always been based around a keyboard and mouse when it patently hasn't; years ago PCs more often than not came bundled with joysticks and control pads - this snobbishness regarding anything else than the status quo is a fairly recent development in the grand scheme of things. I'd applaud Valve pushing new controllers of any type, let's see what they come up with.
I never understand the argument that PC gaming has always been based around a keyboard and mouse when it patently hasn't; years ago PCs more often than not came bundled with joysticks and control pads - this snobbishness regarding anything else than the status quo is a fairly recent development in the grand scheme of things. I'd applaud Valve pushing new controllers of any type, let's see what they come up with.
Well, keyboard and mouse haven changed in 20+ years (other than adding extra side buttons to the mouse) because they WORK; whereas controllers had to continuously evolve because they couldn't keep up.
So yeah, I'm not seeing most PC gamers switching off KBM any time soon.
So yeah, I'm not seeing most PC gamers switching off KBM any time soon.
I get the feeling that the idea behind Valve's comment is that because we're putting extra buttons on mouses, we need a better system. You could call it ease of access that we've got buttons bound to our keyboard for commands, but isn't that just another way of saying that the small cluster of keys on the left side of the keyboard isn't enough for our needs?Sushewakka said:
With more easily-accessible keys, it'd be easier to make those immersive, expansive gaming experiences we've been wanting these last few decades. I know I'd like to have an extra key beside my WASD setup which uses functions typically restricted to my F7-F12 keys, or the right-hand side of my keyboard.
And finding a good and cheap joystick these day is a pain in the ass. (Wish I had money to spend on aGoaThief said:
Saitek X series flight stick, would be the best for when I play some of the few space sim that still come out)
Sushewakka said:
Yes, sticking to a 150 year old keyboard disposition that was made with typewriter's hammers in mind, in an environment where those hammer no longer exist is such a perfection.
Not that I got anything against keyboard in itself, just the disposition of 99% of them, for it will most likely be the most reliable and universal input we have, until the day of my death, short of going cyberpunk and everyone having neural implant.
Mouse if currently the best at pointing thing, but it is actually the easier to innovate of the two and the solution is based on the eyes, which is the fastest thing that can point in the human body. Actually once eye movement detection become a viable input, visual keyboard can become a very efficient input system.