Is Valve Becoming the Google of Gaming?
Many years ago, the Google brand was mostly associated with search engines and to some extent advertisements. The company rode a wave of success since its inception in the late 90s and for nearly half a decade, didn't evolve much on the outside. Fast-forward to now and it is difficult to think about dominating services and brands such as Android and Youtube without associating them with the parent company; a massive competitor to the likes of giants like Microsoft and Apple, giving them a tough time on multiple fronts.
In light of its recent developments, I cannot help but draw comparisons to another company in the gaming industry that has been making waves for a while. Valve, makers of services such as Steam and the acclaimed Half-Life series, have been moving into new business segments fast and with almost unprecedented approaches. They conquered the digital distribution frontier with Steam, which has the largest community of any PC game store platform, and has set a benchmark in keeping their games fresh years after their release with constant updates and free content. They recently announced plans for breaking into the hardware business with Steam Machines, a PC games machine designed for the living room, complete with an innovative controller aimed at the kind of precision that the mouse/keyboard audience is used to.
It is their open approach that compels me to draw comparisons with Google; who, instead of releasing their own iPhone killer, built a platform that best used its strengths. A few years on, Android phones are now the majority in terms of total market share around the world; in spite of Apple's brand strength. The popularity that boosted the platform is in part thanks to its open nature (AOSP or the Android Open-Source Project) and its strong software support with Google's own apps such as Maps and GMail being the primary choice for many when it comes to services.
Similarly, PC Gamers swear by the Steam service and the quality of Valve's support. Steam OS, the software that will be powering their Steam Machine living room Trojan horses, is going to be completely open for modification. In theory, you could have a number of flavours of Steam OS further down the line the same way you can find numerous Android ROMs for your phone today; each serving a different purpose. You could have kernels optimized for capturing games and broadcasting them live without any significant frame rate dips or you can have built in apps that manage your hardware's clocks on the go to drive performance without shorting any circuits (with the hardware of Steam Machines, while upgradeable, still being fixed and all...) - If you look at where the Android platform is today, the possibilities of such applications in PC gaming are exciting.
Video game consoles have remained constant for the most part and have not changed in fundamentals much. The big 3 companes (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony) hire engineers to design the innards of a console. Their software gurus write services, apps and other such software implementations for these machines, which are usually sold at a loss to recover the income from game royalties and transactions made through these services instead. The consoles are shipped and more-or-less remain the same throughout a 5-6 year life cycle.
Steam Machines are a shake-up that is fundamentally different in every way from this approach. Revenues are guaranteed to Valve because the machines will be used to play games from their currently-dominating Steam service. They don't have to invest as much in engineering and factories in China because they have partnered with hardware manufacturers just like Google did with Android phones... And lastly they have a loyal fan base that expects them to do no wrong. This doesn't mean that they may put out the perfect product, though. This is a completely new venture for a company that has mostly been about services up until this point. But if there is one thing you can expect, it is that they will listen to their customers and deliver whatever they ask for.
Looking forward, you can expect next year to have exciting developments for what will then be the Steam ecosystem. Since Valve will have hardware out there like the current console giants do, they will most likely assume larger responsibilities in terms of software support. And I am not just talking about services here. While no one knows when we might see a Half-Life 3, it is a good bet that Valve will grow exponentially as a company to improve its output. Which means more great games from a house that puts quality above everything else. Much like The Orange Box, Valve could easily package Steam Machines with its hottest upcoming games (such as the rumoured Left 4 Dead 3) to boost their sales. The combo would be the perfect match for people who haven't upgraded to next generation consoles by then and could make use of a living room computer that is capable of decent gaming and comes with the kind of multiplayer game that sells itself... Like Call of Duty did for the Xbox 360.
Valve has come very far and despite the lack of a new Half-Life game, their output only seems to be increasing lately. You can expect things to get only bigger from next year, if the progress of Steam-circa-2004 is anything to go by.
