Implications of Valve's New Console

Long time no see. I've tentatively decided to continue updating this blog after a long hiatus. No idea how long this will last, but let's just see where it goes.

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, Valve has announced their first entry into the console market which they are calling Piston. They're backing hardware manufacturer Xi3 for production of the console, and they've already showed off a prototype model for it. There's a lot to like about its features that make it stand out compared to the other Big Three, but it also comes with one major drawback which I will get into later.

For now let's talk about the good stuff though. First of all it's really only a "console" in the sense that it's meant to be hooked up to your TV instead of your computer desk. Beyond that it is basically just a miniature PC. Now you might be thinking at this point, "So what? Big deal. Haven't you heard of HDMI cables?" And yes, it's true that you already can just run a cable from your computer to your TV to accomplish the same thing, but it's still really inconvenient unless you've dedicated an entire PC to your TV, because I don't know about anyone else, but lugging my desktop back and forth isn't exactly a one-step process with all those cables and accessories that I've got to attach to it. The nice thing about the Piston is that it will be a PC specifically built to work with your TV, so I can play my favorite PC games on the big screen with relative ease. But it goes much further than that. Because this is a system marketed toward console gamers, this could finally provide a window into the PC market that many budget gamers have been waiting for, as well as a window for those who aren't as tech savvy as the rest of us. That means more of your friends will finally be able to play with you in your favorite PC games. Another big deal about this system is the possibility that it will run on Linux, and that means we can finally expect to see a large library of AAA-quality games coming to the free and open source operating system. In the future PC gamers may at last have other options besides Windows as their operating system of choice thanks to this device, and that's a huge game changer right there that could really throw Microsoft for a loop. The Piston is also very upgradeable. In the demonstration Xi3 showed us, the system can be disassembled pretty easily into individual parts and replaced with new ones. However, because of the Piston's unique and small form factor, the price for parts could be more expensive than normal since you likely won't be able to buy any 3rd party PC parts for it. Still, the fact that it's upgradeable means that you never need to completely toss it out. You can keep upgrading it over time instead.

Well hello there, little guy.

Probably one of the most interesting possibilities with this system is the fact that it could make motion controls viable on PCs, because as far as I know, no one likes to flail their Wiimotes around at their computer desk. And then of course there's all the usual benefits you can expect from essentially being a PC. 60+ frames per second for most games, true 1080p resolution, user-created mods; it'll do your laundry, make you a sandwich, get you laid.

OK, maybe I made up a few of those.

So with all these positives going for it, what could possibly be so bad about it you might be asking. And the answer is Steam. This console could potentially serve as a death sentence to any remaining non-Steam options for game distribution, and that could have some very unsettling consequences for the industry. I seem to be the only one nowadays that still remembers Steam is a DRM platform. I know this has apparently become a radical idea these days, so brace yourself for what I'm about to say, but I still strongly believe we should be allowed to actually own our games when we buy them. Under Steam's distribution platform, we never truly own the games we buy. You can't resell them, and they all require an online activation even for single player content. And yes, it has an offline mode, but it doesn't matter because you still can't use it until you at least once go through online activation with your games. That means all your games are held hostage to Steam's authentication servers, so if the Steam service shuts down for any reason, the next time you try to install any game from your library, even if you created a backup physical copy you won't be able to play it because it can't be authenticated through Steam's servers. Of course some people might say at this point big deal, it's not like Steam is going to be shutting down any time soon. But there's still plenty that can go wrong by putting such blind trust into a corporation. Maybe down the road Valve might decide that the Steam store is just getting too big or some of the games are too old and it's just too much hassle for them to keep on their service, so they stop supporting them. If any of those games happen to be among your library, they're now gone. Or consider another scenario. Gabe Newell isn't going to be around as the benevolent dictator forever, what if he suddenly decides to step down? Maybe the new man in charge might make Valve go public with its assets, or worse sell it off to another faceless giant like EA. Since the Steam terms of service can be changed at any time, and you HAVE to accept them or else again you lose your entire library, do you really want to put your trust in EA dictating those terms to you? This isn't entirely outside the realm of possibility; EA has considered acquiring Valve before.

What? Nothing could possibly go wrong with me in charge.

But most importantly this principle of treating "games as a service" makes preserving the history of the industry so much harder. When all these games keep getting tied down by online services that fluctuate, change their terms, and shut down all the time, it's nearly impossible to be able to go back and revisit them several years later without just resorting to piracy. To me it seems like a really depressing future for the industry if we continue to view games as so disposable that we don't care to try and preserve the classics for future generations, because we're not going to be around forever to appreciate them. It just really frustrates me that gamers have so quickly become submissive to the encroachment of DRM and have almost completely forgotten that they used to despise Steam and for good reasons which are still valid to this day.

What all this boils down to is that I foresee this system continuing to erode consumer rights and taking away ownership of our games. After all, when PC developers look at how they want to distribute their game, why limit your market to just PC gamers as a standalone product when instead you can grab both that audience and console gamers by putting your product on Steam? To me this is a terrible prospect, but I'm sure most people probably won't even think twice about it.

But hey maybe I'm forgetting something. This is basically supposed to be a miniature PC isn't it? Then I can just buy non-Steam games for it anyway, right?

Nice try.

Except for one problem; there's no disc drive. But then you might say hey, no biggie, it's got a bunch of USB ports, I'll just buy a USB disc drive for it. Except for one problem; it runs on Linux. What PC games are you going to find on Linux besides those available on Steam? Not very many.

So as much as I'd love to get on board with this little experiment, I just can't as long as Valve insists on Steam being an anti-consumer DRM platform. No benefit is worth handing over all ownership of your games, and as much as Gabe has been a benevolent dictator so far, he's still a dictator. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there right now who will disagree with me on this, and I get that, because Valve has done a lot of other nice things for the industry as well, but I hope after considering these points you can at least understand where I'm coming from. Until next time folks.