With speculation and reports signalling that the Steam Machines concept may be "dead," Valve has come forward and promised to give the platform a 'front and centre' presence at the Gamers Development Conference (GDC) in March 2015, reports VG247.
Initially introduced in three related announcements in September 2013, Valve's grand plan included; Steam Machines - a living room console-style PC, the revolutionary Steam Controller, and the Linux-based SteamOS gaming operating system. The devices and OS went into beta in late 2013, then fourteen different Steam Machine partner PCs were introduced at CES 2014.
Steam Machines are dead? No they're not.
The assertion that the term "Steam Machine" was pretty much dead, pointing out that these systems are basically just living room PCs, was made by Origin PC CEO and Steam Machine partner Kevin Wasielewski, during an interview with GameSpot earlier this week.
However, Valve representatives have since reaffirmed the firm's grand Steam Machines/Controller and SteamOS plan by saying: "We're planning a very large presence at GDC with Steam Machines being front and centre."
With GDC being a trade event which is set to run from 2-6 March in San Francisco, Valve's increased presence is to compensate for the lack of a Steam Develop Days event this year. "Steam Dev Days was a great way to brief a large number of Steam developers...This year our focus will be a bit different, so we are planning a larger than usual presence at GDC. So, there will not be a Steam Dev Days this year, but we will certainly consider doing it again in the future," Valve explained.
Steam Controller finalised
Our previous report suggested that the Steam Controller could have been redesigned yet again. We should know in March, as the finalised Steam Controller is said to be making an appearance during the GDC as well, though this has not been confirmed by Valve directly.
Origin PC's Wasielewski told Gamespot reporters. "They came out with the controller, then they got some user feedback, and they had to revamp it; they got some more user feedback and had to revamp it again. So they went through that like three or four times. And now their controller is finalized. So now they're going to production and at GDC is when they're going to announce more stuff."
So while the Steam Machines, Controller and OS package is long overdue, it looks like there is light at the end of the tunnel. Do readers think that the significant delay will hurt the platform's chance of being a success?
