After a bit of a false start, the Switch Pro was announced last week...and to everyone’s
surprise, it was made by Valve.
The Steam Deck is a powerful handheld PC designed specifically for gaming, which takes more
than a little inspiration from Nintendo’s hybrid console.
When we asked for your questions about the Steam Deck in a community post, the response
from a couple of you was: why?
Just…why?
Why is Valve of all companies making a Switch competitor?
Indeed, it’s likely that plenty of people at Valve have been asking the same question.
The base model of this decently powerful handheld is barely more expensive than the upcoming
Switch OLED Model.
According to Valve CEO and magnificent beard owner Gabe Newell:
“We’ve had to be very aggressive in terms of pricing on the Deck….
“Price point was…painful, but that was pretty clearly a critical aspect to it.”
The Steam Deck, then, is not priced at a point that will make Valve a lot of money per unit
sold, if any money at all.
It seems, though, Valve is not necessarily in this to make a short-term profit.
As the owners of the phenomenally popular Steam storefront, Valve gets a cut from the
vast majority of all PC game sales around the world – and that means that the company’s
best strategy for long term growth is to expand the number of people who are playing games
on PC.
Said Newell: “These are long term decisions that we’re
making about how we can contribute to the health and vitality of this ecosystem.
We’re always going to be successful as long as that’s continuing to happen.”
Valve is often accused of abandoning the games development sphere the moment that Steam proved
successful, but that’s not strictly true.
Instead, with a guaranteed revenue service, Valve has been using this freedom to undertake
weird, risky research projects that won’t necessarily turn an immediate project.
For example, the company has invested heavily in virtual reality in recent years, developing
Half Life: Alyx to try and coax more of their dedicated fans into giving VR a try.
This, though, is small potatoes compared to the impact that Nintendo is currently having
on the gaming sphere.
The convenience and portability of the Switch, coupled with a quality games library has helped
it to reach many customers who might not have otherwise given gaming a try.
Speaking from experience, there are three main challenges to convincing console gamers
to embrace the PC: price, comfort, and compatibility.
Unlike a Nintendo Switch, it’s difficult to play a PC game whilst sat on the loo – hardware
and software developers have been trying to solve this problem for several years, with
mixed results.
Traditionally, it’s also not always easy to get a specific game to run on any given
hardware.
The complexity involved with PCs makes them feel impenetrable to many console players.
Valve’s solution has been to develop SteamOS, an operating system that’s specifically
streamlined for ease of use, mimicking the console dashboard experience.
Valve’s hope is that this operating system won’t just be used for the Steam Deck: the
goal isn’t to dominate the portable PC hardware market, but rather lay the foundations for
other manufacturers to create their own products that will further increase the appeal for
non-PC gamers.
Said Newell: “Our view is, if we’re doing this right,
then we’re going to be selling millions of units, and it’s clearly going to be establishing
a product category that ourselves and other PC manufacturers are going to be able to participate
in, and that’s going to have long-term benefits for us.”
The logic is that a rising tide raises all ships: once the Steam Deck has proven both
the player base for this kind of device, and overcome many of the obstacles to making these
devices work well, then plenty of manufacturers can produce their own portable PCs.
Many developers can specifically target handheld play on PC.
Many new gamers will start buying these devices, spend more money in the Steam store, and increase
profits for Valve.
Everybody wins.
This is only even feasible because of Steam’s current PC market share.
Valve doesn’t need to worry about short-term wins, nor even set specific targets for success.
Said Newell: “We don’t have some time ratio.
We don’t say, ‘we have to sell eight games incrementally for each one of these otherwise
it doesn’t make sense’.
Our calculus is more: is this the right product?
Is it a great way to test out the assumption that there’s a huge amount of value to game
players and game developers to extending the PC ecosystem in this direction?”
This is certainly a nice attitude to hear from a massive gaming company.
Especially considering that one of the other questions that proved popular this week was:
why is Nintendo seen as so greedy?
We’re going to leave that particular issue to one side, but the fact remains: Valve is
not working from the typical tech company playbook here.
The goal isn’t to be competitive, but to reap the benefits from creating greater opportunities
for the industry as a whole.
The moral of this story: life isn’t a competition.
Or, rather, life doesn’t have to be a competition.
If we all work to create, in Gabe Newell’s words, a better “ecosystem”, we can all
enjoy nice things together.