What Does It All Mean?

What do the three announcements from Valve this past week mean for the gaming industry? My guess is potentially a lot, and certainly little, depending on the segment of the industry you are considering.
The announcement of the Steam Machines and SteamOS are the two most important announcements from the week, with the third, the controller, being interesting, but perhaps not very important in the grand scheme of things. I doubt the regular PC gamer is going to adopt the controller, unless they are using it with a Steam Machine. No, the OS and Machines are what may affect the industry, in my opinion.

Third and Final (For Now)

Well, I didn't see that coming. The final Valve announcement is indeed a Steam controller. The most interesting features are definitely the touchscreen in the middle and the two trackpads, instead of joystick or other, more traditional directional input method. Sadly it is still a part of the beta, like the Steam Machines, so you to enter the beta you have to have a different controller already. Really would have been nice if this were launched today, so it could be used to count toward the beta, but Valve never asked me.

Two Down, One to Go

Before getting to the Valve stuff, the Humble Mobile Bundle 2 has launched. Offers 4+2 Android games and 4+1 soundtracks, with Child's Play and EFF as the two charities.

Valve has announced that Steam Machines are going to be a thing (as opposed to the Steam Box). They have their own design, which I assume are what will be given out during the beta, but are forming partnerships with hardware companies, so a variety of hardware options will be available to consumers. Think Android or Windows and how you have widely varying hardware specs for the complete devices you can purchase. Some are more powerful, some are cheaper, and some are quieter.
So long as they can get some good hardware out at the beginning, this should do well.
Also, there is a beta program you can apply for, but there are requirements you have to satisfy first. You can find those on your own because I want in!
This leaves just one announcement left, with the two circles being added together. Some are speculating it will be a controller, which would be nice (especially if it is launched immediately), but that does not really seem to fit with the image. The circles are SteamOS after all.... I still think it is going to be some kind of connectivity thing, like some special multiplayer system. We'll find out on Friday!

One Down

As I said, my guesses wouldn't be true, though they are looking to be a little more right than I thought. Valve has just announced SteamOS, which will have the ability to do the things I suggested a console running Steam would be able to do; syncing saves and friends between devices.
I will admit, I hadn't thought that Valve would announce the OS for a Steam box or other console-like system, but it does make sense. This lets them focus on the features for two days, then the hardware. I'm guessing the hardware announcement will be on Wednesday, because the icon for today's announcement was the circle, and the next announcement has an icon with a circle between two brackets, or in a box.
The final icon, the two circles added together, is now a little more puzzling. Does it concern multiplayer, or could it be that SteamOS devices can work together? Don't know. What I do know is that since it is based on Linux, people will give it kernals to be run on mobile devices eventually. May not work well with gaming, but the audio and video streaming could work well. We'll just have to wait and see.

Super Secret Steam Surprise Soon

Just about anyone who follows gaming news, especially PC gaming news, will have read about an announcement of future announcements. from Valve Software, the company behind Steam. There are to be three substantive announcements this week that are related to expanding the service into the living room.
Now, when I first heard this news, I immediately had an idea about what the three could be. Naturally one of them will be the so-called Steam Box, a console-like device for playing PC games on a TV, according to almost everyone's speculation. The other two ideas I had would be absolutely amazing, if they are accurate. They aren't, but why not imagine the possibility for a bit longer? The ideas are that Steam is going to be developed for the two upcoming consoles; the xBox One and Playstation 4. Many of you may scoff at the idea, thinking it is impossible, but it is! Both systems are going to be x86 based, which means they can run conventional PC software, like Steam, and even PC games, though not particularly well. Optimized versions would still have to be written for the most intense games, as the APU-graphics would not be able to run those games at high framerate otherwise. Imagine that setup though: the ability to purchase console-versions of games through Steam, along with PC versions, and having saves synced between them, using the Steam Cloud. Also the friends lists and joined groups could be synced. That arrangement, I am confident, would bring in additional console sales as  PC gamers purchase them for their living rooms, and get access to the console games as well.
As I said though, those ideas are not accurate, this is not going to happen, and I have two reasons to believe that. Both are on the webpage Valve put up about the announcements: Living Room. If those ideas of mine were correct, the announcements would all be made at once, but the placement of the countdown clock indicates that the three announcements will come at separate times. (If they were to come together, the clock would be in the middle, and not under the first icon.) The second is the icons for the three announcements. The first is a circle. The second is a circle between a pair of brackets, off-centered to the left. The third is two circles, with an addition sign between. These would not agree with my idea.
What would the icons agree with? Well, if we assume the circles are meant to be people, then the one person would likely be the Steam Box announcement, for one person playing. Assuming that is correct, the circle could also indicate the Steam Box itself. The second icon, with the brackets, is harder to guess. One possibility, though admittedly remote, is that the brackets represent a screen, like 3D goggles or something akin to Google Glass. Rumors have indicated personnel at Valve have interest in both technologies, though that is not an indication of company interest. The final icon, two circles added together, suggests multiplayer, whether you interpret the circles as people of consoles. One issue with that interpretation though is why would it be the final announcement? Multiplayer would be expected, as would any social connectivity between a Steam Box and the computer clients, unless it is a new service, not totally analogous to Steam.
Of course, these are all just guesses (now recorded so if I'm right, I can show people) and we will not know until tomorrow when the clock winds down.
I hope it isn't running on Valve time!

Good Things Come...

Or so the saying goes.
After multiple (successful) non-indie game bundles, Humble bundle has finally rolled out the Humble Indie Bundle 9 that includes such games as Mark of the Ninja and FTL: Faster than Light. Already it has risen to be the second most sold Humble Indie Bundle, with only the mighty Humble Indie Bundle V ahead of it, in sale counts. Of course there is still over a week left for HIB 9, so we may see that record broken.
This progress I strongly believe is a result of non-indie bundles, such as the Deepsilver and Origin Bundles. Both of them brought in new customers and new customers can easily become regular customers.
I wonder what games will be added at the midway point?

If I recall My History...

Right now it is fairly hard to turn on any news channel or check a news website and not have something about the possibility of attacking Syria thrown in your face, at least if you live in the US and/or are checking a US news site. A lot of it is one side saying we should because there is a moral imperative, while the other says the American people do not want to be involved. If I remember what I learned in school correctly, that other side is much more correct than the side claiming a moral need.
If you consider what has happened int he world during the history of the United States, you will find numerous examples of genocide and genocide-like tragedies that we did nothing about. The reasons for that largely stem from our disinterest in intervening in another countries affairs, outside of normal political operations. Even when we know about the genocide, we want to leave it alone and be left alone. Look at modern North Korea, where people are starving under they tyrannical, communist regime. Look in modern Egypt where Christians are being murdered and churches burned. I'm sure there are many other nations in Africa that are also suffering similar tragedies, but I cannot name them. Look to the past though and you can find even more genocide and genocide-like tragedies that we did nothing about. Stalin of the USSR starved millions of Ukrainians to death during the Holodomor, and we did nothing. Even the Holocaust under Hitler did not lead us to take action, and we did know some of what was going on there. That is part of the reason why, at the time, many people did want to go to war, to stop Hitler and what he would do to Europe, but they knew the American people detest war, so it took the war coming to us to ultimately force any direct action.
You can take the point I am trying to make one of two ways. Either America does not have an interventionist history, because the people did not want it then and do not want it now, or that if we are to claim the existence of a morale obligation, we have a lot of work to do to satisfy it.

Got nothing

Seriously, I've got nothing to say today. No interesting thoughts. No news on recent projects (that I can share). Nothing at all.
Just have a good week people.