Valve quietly removed the Steam Machine section from Steam.
Previously on Steam, if you hovered over the Hardware category there was a Steam Machines link in the drop-down, which is now gone while the links to the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Vive remain. In fact, the entire Hardware page on Steam is now gone and anyone using the link is redirected to a basic search page. Looking back on it and doing a bit of quick research, it seems the change came this month.
I'm not surprised they did this, since currently no one is announcing new machines and the whole Steam Machine idea from Valve never really gained any steam. While it didn't really do the big splash many were hoping, it has done quite a lot of good for Linux gaming overall. As a result of the initial push from Valve, many developers and game engines have moved into doing regular Linux support. This is important, because many of the barriers involved in getting games on Linux have been removed.
We know for a fact that porting companies like Aspyr Media and Feral Interactive started doing Linux versions thanks to SteamOS and Steam Machines, with them both still continuing the effort. It's also likely what pushed GOG to support Linux on their store too, since they didn't want to miss out on the possibility of more Linux gamers to buy games.
Realistically and looking back on it all, the time just wasn't right. There were long delays, not enough "big" games to make people truly interested in the platform (especially when the likes of The Witcher 3 was confirmed and then never happened—still hurts) and various other reasons.
The question remains: What will become of SteamOS?
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Valve has directly responded to the Steam communities' worries that Steam Machines and by extension SteamOS, Valve's Linux powered gaming OS, were silently being discontinued. tl;dr: No, they aren't dropping SteamOS or the Steam Machine. In fact, they have more in the pipeline for Linux so stay tuned.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1696043806550421224/
We've noticed that what started out as a routine cleanup of the Steam Store navigation turned into a story about the delisting of Steam Machines. That section of the Steam Store is still available, but was removed from the main navigation bar based on user traffic. Given that this change has sparked a lot of interest, we thought it'd make sense to address some of the points we've seen people take away from it.
While it's true Steam Machines aren't exactly flying off the shelves, our reasons for striving towards a competitive and open gaming platform haven't significantly changed. We're still working hard on making Linux operating systems a great place for gaming and applications. We think it will ultimately result in a better experience for developers and customers alike, including those not on Steam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @04:28AM (7 children)
The hardware support wasn't there.
They did a huge push to get the R600g/RadeonSI stuff up to snuff, and just as it was, it got dumped for Vulkan.
On the bright side, Vulkan turned out to be pretty straightforward to implement and the Radeon Vulkan driver came along pretty well, nouveau got OpenGL feature parity up to 4.3 for Kepler based hardware, despite no support, BUT neither VR headset hardware nor unusual peripheral devices have made it over to Linux yet. It basically seems like for every 'win' Linux gets with a needed feature for gaming on it to be viable, 3 new pieces of hardware come out that are proprietary, undocumented, and tied to Windows. Once that situation goes away, then we will see the era of Gaming on Linux. Personally though I think when that happens we will find linux running a proprietary software ecosystem atop it that defeats all of the benefits of running linux in the first place, as has happened with Android, and is starting to happen with the major distros.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 01 2018, @04:37AM (3 children)
The problem is the same as it's always been with gaming and Linux: Big names don't target it for anything more complicated than Tux Racer. The best you're gonna get is a collection of early-90s Apogee games.
You don't need "custom peripherals" and VR shit to make gaming viable on Linux. You need either (a) Microsoft to fuck up terribly enough to piss off their gaming audience, like making every game an "app" or some shit like what was pointed out in the comment section, or (b) super-organized multidisciplinary homebrew teams who make games because they enjoy making games free of corporate political bullshit, who can also manage that delicate balancing act of cohesion.
Aren't there some racist rich-kids out there who could fund Ethnic Cleansing: 2020?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by vux984 on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:12AM (1 child)
I think the steam OS push was a reaction to the Windows 10 app store, Windows 8 RT, Windows S, and so on with all the signs pointing to Microsoft making a hard push to wall garden Windows, and in turn push Steam out. They saw the writing on the wall, and the steam OS was a way out for them.
When Windows phone withered on the vine, Windows 8 RT flopped, Windows 10 S is all but ignored, and the microsoft app store remains a joke among gamers; Valve realized that they were safe for the time being at least, so the immediate impetus for Steam OS was reduced. It's still around as a hedge against Microsoft, and in creating it they've greatly improved their reach on OSX and Linux, which will help secure their future.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @08:30AM
Exactly! My moment of realization came when I read an article (I am finding it difficult to correctly google for it) in which Gabe Newell proudly proclaimed that the moment he heard his engineers saying that games on Linux run faster than on Windows (~16% gain of FPS), he immediately asked his PR team to publish it everywhere so Microsoft can read it, and his strategy worked because the very next day Microsoft execs called him, and their team worked closely with Valve to improve DirectX so that all such gaps are filled. When I read that, I saw the writing on the wall. Steam and Windows feed of each other, and the whole Steam Machine thing was just a power move. I am not surprised that The Witcher 3 didn't come on Linux (even though Wither 2 did). I will be deeply surprised if execs at big productions houses didn't the same thing coming.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Sunday April 01 2018, @08:18AM
Wrong... Completely...
While Bethesda, EA, and Ubisoft do not touch linux at all; what do you expect from the group of companies that essentially pump out the latest crap/fad/uncreative games that can be sold quick, get money and never properly supported. In the world of gaming they are like the big music studios, unwilling to take any big risk, using only ideas that are proven to generate a ton of cash, avoid any real support, then move on to the next one. Just like top 40 music everything sounds exactly the same, and anything slightly different is avoided like the plague by rich executives unwilling to try something different.
Right now, there are over 4,000 games for linux; native (just on Steam alone)... not including games using WINE. Large enough where crapware is a problem. Many mid level publishers support linux, some larger ones do as well. Not to mention indie studios. Civilization V and VI run natively on Linux. So does Beyond Earth, Tropico, Serious Sam, F1-2017 (and F1-2015), Saints Row, X-Com, DOTA, Company of Heros, Portal, Counter-Strike:GO, Warhammer 40k:Dawn of War, Stellaris, Age of Wonders, Cities:Skylines(the Simcity-like game that is better than the crapware called Simcity from EA), and a bunch of other recognizable mainstream titles. Top quality indie games as well... Factorio, Rimworld, Space Pirates and Zombies, Surviving Mars, Oxygen Not Included, Prison Architect, World of Goo, Darkest Dungeon, Transport Fever, Rocket League, Hunie Pop, Tabletop Simulator, RUST, Railway Empire, Slime Rancher, Opus Magnum and plenty more. Even the old Bioware D&D games have all been remade and now support linux, including Neverwinter Nights which was released last week (joining Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape:Torment.)
There are plenty of great games that run natively on linux. Admittedly there are a lot more on Windows. I remember back when both Android and iPhone were new, they would compare the number of titles in their respective app stores... at a certain point it does not matter. For me, linux is already at that point, and it is expanding rapidly. If linux has a dozen good FPS games, does it really need the 1000 more that Windows has? While linux is at the point that crapware is a problem, that same problem is much worse on windows. There are plenty of good games to satisfy most gamers on linux.
The one group that really will not be happy are the group of people that always need the newest fad release on Day-1. While a lot of games come out on linux the same day, a significant number do come out later on linux, anywhere from a few days to a few months. However, if you are the type that needs the latest fad, day 1, you are probably better off on a console, not windows.
As for Microsoft between the UWP, their marketplace, and telemetry... they are pissing off a bunch of people... only a small segment... but the leak is there and it always starts small. It has become a bloated company that innovates through reorgs now... they will fall, but as big as they are, they are entrenched and it will take a long time. Look at IBM... Microsoft is following in their footsteps... Once the only game in town, and now slowly losing any relevance.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Touché) by SomeGuy on Sunday April 01 2018, @05:22AM (1 child)
So in other words, SteamOS was just a bunch of hot air. :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @09:00AM
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday April 01 2018, @11:55PM
> "Once that situation goes away, then we will see the era of Gaming on Linux.”
MS isn't walking away from the PC until it's dead and buried under a vast heap of proprietary cloud SaaS. Until then, they aren't giving up so long as controlling the platform makes them money. And once they do let go, will there even be a PC market to cater to?
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:19AM
The Vive Pro launches this month (April). Available for pre-order now but you have to have existing controllers and lighthouses. They could be doing something with the hardware page to prepare for that launch?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @07:35AM
they didn't / haven't push it enough!
with the disaster that windows continues to be, done right, steamOS would steam-roll windows as a game OS.
professional gamers with that 10% more FPS per same setup (or most expensive that monies can buy) will twitch kill to the top.
if top supercomputer run linux then gamers totally ... well.
i have a VR-ready PC with a 1080, 16 GB RAM and a meltdown and specter enabled CPU and dread every new month w/
new m$ "updates".
if more games *sigh* would run on steamOS and the linux Geforce had physX (*) support then my home would totally be free from m$ ...
considering what m$ had to do over 25 years to get to their dominate position today, the effort put up by steam so far is like a drop in the bucket ... ocean.
let's hope they wont resort to similar shady practices and that people ... errr .... gamers will see the light of a superior operating system, soon.
(*) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WPZxeaqALg [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by hamsterdan on Sunday April 01 2018, @02:21PM
They are all identical. My 2001 PS2 runs games exactly the same as the last one they made. Yes now they have two different PS4 and XB1, but not 25 different ones. THat's the strong point about consoles.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday April 02 2018, @12:06AM
I quietly rooted for Valve when they pushed back against Microsoft's laughable, ham fisted attempt to crash the mobile party they were late for with Windows 8. Then Windows 10 came along and fixed all the glaring UI issues while silently fucking everyone even harder with spyware aka, telemetry. Windows 8 was so user unfriendly that spyware was more appealing. By then, everyone forgot how fucking bad windows 8 was and status quo returned. It was right about then when SteamOS fell of the planet. A number of games were ported but mostly small titles and indie games. Besides Valve games, AAA titles were Windows only. I've played a few games on Linux but honestly, gaming was just easier on Windows for obvious reasons. Why play half of your games on one platform and the rest on the other? Easier on one PC.
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Wednesday April 04 2018, @03:03PM
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 04 2018, @04:09PM
> It's also likely what pushed GOG to support Linux on their store too, since they didn't want to miss out on the possibility of more Linux gamers to buy games.
GOG were obstinate when asked to support Linux for games they sold which supported Linux, claiming that if they did so *at all*, they would have to support every Linux-capable machine, including the Raspberry Pi (and, presumably, dead badgers [strangehorizons.com]).