Oddbean

It’s too bad Gabe Newell isn’t in this Xbox documentary. He used to work at Microsoft and was actually critical to its early development. But maybe Microsoft doesn’t like that Valve has become the biggest proponent of PC gaming, outshining Microsoft.

I think the Steam Deck is the true heir to the original Xbox. You got to understand that the original Xbox was a PC built with off the shelf components that attracted developers due to DirectX. In fact the original name was DirectX Box but was shortened to Xbox. Now look at the Steam Deck. It’s built with off the shelf components and plays DirectX games.

Thing is, PC gaming and console gaming has always been two different audiences. Especially in the 90s. PC gaming was about Doom, Microsoft Flight Simulator, SimCity, and Civilization. Console gaming was about Mario, Castlevania, Megaman, and Parappa the Rappa. PC gaming and console gaming rarely intersected, and when it did it was awkward. Until Xbox that is. Of course, there was arcade gaming too but that’s another story.

I think most PC gamers always wanted the PC experience on a console. It’s why Doom and Civilization was ported over. But it just was never convincing. Xbox made console gaming more like PC gaming, but in my view, not enough. Steam Deck is the closest we’ve ever got to the dream being viable, but I’m still waiting for my set top PC box that I hook up to my TV that delivers the console experience.

For PC gaming to actually be viable for the living room, you need three things: Linux instead of Windows—unless Microsoft is willing to make a version of Windows that boots into a game launcher. But probably Linux since Linux can be customized for specific hardware. A good controller with a trackpads and assignable buttons. Valve got really close with the Steam controller but it lacked a right analog joystick. Some way to access a keyboard, either virtually or with physical buttons. Many PC games run well on TVs nowadays, by the way.

Some people are like, “Why do you want a consolized PC for the living room instead of a dedicated console?” One reason: the PC’s deep, deep library of games. You look at the most popular console of all time, the PS2, and how many games were released for it? 2,501 games. That’s it. Now how many PC games do I own personally? Around 5,800 games. Not a typo, I really do own that many PC games. And here’s the thing. My library of PC games is only a fraction of all the PC games that have ever been released. By some estimates, there are hundreds of thousands of games that have been released for PC. Obviously, I want to access these games on any form factor.

Some people ask me, how did you get all those PC games? Most of them were bought in bundles where I paid an absolute pittance. Others were in crazy sales where it was 90% off. And quite often, I got these games for free. The other thing about PC gaming is that unless it’s for big box variants, there’s no collectors market for PC games—not like there is for console. You walk into a used game store, and you see used Nintendo games selling for an outrageous amount. And then you walk into the PC section of that same store, they’re selling PC games—often in the box with shrink wrap—for something like $1. Speculators completely ignore the retro market for PC gaming.

@Chris Trottier Right; but I think notably, none of these games garnered a whole lot of clones or likes or sequels, or even spiritual sequels. Nobody is making Halo Wars/Army Men: RTS-likes like people made Doom-likes on PC, nor are the developers pulling a 007 Goldeneye -> Perfect Dark trajectory. Even ignoring the following of Medal of Honor/Call Of Duty/etc. on later consoles.

@6c4168c2 There’s no way to have a good RTS experience on console unless you have a controller with a trackpad. But I don’t know, I feel like RTS games are no longer as big as they used to be. Not that there aren’t good games, but I remember when they were as big as MMORPG and FPS games. By the way, have you ever played Ashes of the Singularity? That one is pretty good.

@Chris Trottier meh, it's more the heir of Steam machines, and the third step in a decades-long effort by Valve of becoming independent from Windows, Microsoft and DirectX. Supporting DirectX isn't the intent, it's the stop-gap

@40ec4379 Steam Machines never took off. I don’t know about anyone who ever bought one. Anyway, my point is that the Steam Deck supports DirectX games – as it should since that’s what most PC games use. As much as I hope Vulkan eventually replaces DirectX, I still want to play all those DirectX games. And Proton does a great job. It’s rare when I find a game that completely doesn’t work on Steam Deck.

@Chris Trottier the Steam Machines lack of commercial success doesn't invalidate the time they played in the development of the SteamDeck. In fact, it was one of the driving factors behind the redoubled investment of Valve in Wine/Proton development to improve DirectX support. As for the API transition, I don't think anyone actually expects it to happen overnight.

@40ec4379 Sure, Steam Machines was an incremental step towards the Steam Deck and was a key learning event. But I don’t think it was intended as an experiment. Valve actually wanted the initiative to be a success. Many people wanted it to be a success. The problem was that even though the library of Linux games was bigger than Xbox One or PS4, it was still dwarfed by what was available on Windows. It also didn’t help that most Steam Machines were not only expensive, they were huge. Anyway, I think Valve found the killer idea: make a handheld, dock it to a TV if you want.

@d380c590 Yeah, Microsoft knew that if they called it “Microsoft Xbox” out of the gate, and made it a Windows machine, it would have been the kiss of death. PC gamers were fine with Microsoft but console gamers saw the company as a bunch of interlopers.

@87cadf05 They talk about that in the documentary. It happened because the Microsoft Office department asked about putting spreadsheets on the console and the Xbox team thought that would wreck the whole purpose of what they were trying to accomplish. So someone from the Xbox team literally stole Windows from a server – without permission – and hacked a more streamlined version for the Xbox. Bill Gates was completely incensed and said that Xbox team were destroying everything he was trying to accomplish. They almost canned the whole project. But then someone at the meeting said, “But what about Sony?” So Bill Gates was stuck with a dilemma. Either let Sony take over the living room or don’t run Windows on Xbox. Both were situations that he simply hated. However, he finally said, “Let’s do this.” By the way, that meeting eventually became known as the St. Valentine’s Massacre because Bill Gates completely went off on the Xbox team for hours on end.