Not exactly Half Life 3

Lest we forget, Valve Software isn't only working on separating their primary business, the Steam storefront, from Microsoft's Windows OS. They're also devoting significant resources to VR technology, an R&D spent which apparently includes Valve-branded VR hardware, likely iterating on HTC's Vive designs, and supporting software, including a sequel prequel to Half-Life 2.

As reported by UploadVR:

Images of a prototype VR headset with a Valve logo visible on the circuit board leaked on the image sharing website imgur. Our independent sources tell us these are in fact prototypes for an upcoming Valve HMD.

We’ve also heard the field of view will be 135° with “Vive Pro resolution.” It may also come bundled with ‘Knuckles’ controllers as well as a Half-Life based VR game that could be a prequel rather than the much-anticipated Half-Life 3.

Cue the Half-Life 3 jokes in 3... 2... 1...

And now, with that out of our collective systems, let's talk about the potential impact of this.

Valve finally kills the Steam Machine

Was it only a year ago that I was writing about how Valve might not be done with SteamOS? Well, that was then, and this is now, and it turns out that Valve had only disappointment in store for me on the SteamOS front. From PC Gamer Magazine:

Remember Steam Machines? Valve seems to be trying to forget its bid to get everyone playing games on expensive little boxes from Alienware, Asus and the like, as it’s removed the Steam Machines section from Steam. It’s been a while since anyone really talked about the living room PCs, but this looks like the final nail in the coffin.

Steam Machines never really got their big moment. Valve envisioned a new ecosystem following on from Big Picture mode, where people would play PC games in their living room using a Steam Machine, Steam Controller and SteamOS, but the big launch at the end of 2015 only saw a handful of the boxes appear, and none of them exactly tempted people away from their desktops or consoles.

[...]

The Steam Machine launch wasn’t helped by Valve’s second bid for domination of the living room. While their Steam Machine partners were designing their first boxes, Valve was busy making their own device: the Steam Link. It essentially did the same thing: allowing people to play Steam games on their TV, but instead of being a desktop surrogate, the Steam Link was a streaming device. And it was much, much cheaper.

As someone who bought a Steam Link, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised by this, but it's still something of a disappointment. There was a moment in time, during the darkest days of Windows 8 & 10, when it really did look like consumers generally, and gamers in particular, might be needing a viable alternative to Windows, and I was hoping that Valve might put some actual weight behind SteamOS in order to help make that happen. It turns out that Valve really is too busy with SteamVR to care about SteamOS, though, and thus the end arrives.

Of course, we now know that Microsoft's Windows strategy is changing, and the first steps of that new direction are looking remarkably pro-consumer, so the death of Valve's SteamOS initiative isn't likely to have much of a real-world impact. It's not like anybody was using it, after all. Still, even though its time is past, and its purpose might no longer be relevant, it's a little sad to see that the dream of a viable Linux-like gaming environment won't be coming to fruition... in spite of PS4/Orbis having proved that it really can work. C'est la vie.

Farewell, SteamOS. We hardly knew thee.

So, about that SteamVR support...

Remember just over a week ago, when Microsoft were hyping the "fact" that their shiny new Mixed Reality headsets would be compatible with Steam VR? Apparently that's actually not so much the truth. Surprise!

From Sean Chan at MSPowerUser:

Unfortunately, as it turns out, Windows Mixed Reality won’t support content from SteamVR on its initial launch. According to German site ComputerBase, Windows Mixed Reality’s communication director Greg Sullivan stated that support for SteamVR won’t be available on the launch day. In fact, Sullivan mentioned that the companies have just started working on the integration — and it’ll probably take a while before Windows Mixed Reality users can actually run content from SteamVR on their new headsets.

When it comes to gaming  (or any other software) development, an old adage is that you should always buy a product for what it has now rather than based on promises of future features. Despite the number of software launch partners Microsoft announced, the lack of support for SteamVR’s large catalogue from the outset has just made the product a lot less interesting, and will probably mean I will hang on a few months to see if it will really materialize before spending hundreds of dollars.

Microsoft had already walked back the SteamVR announcement a bit by announcing that the new MR headsets would require Windows 10's Fall Creators Update to work (creating an obvious incompatibility with SteamVR, which has no such restriction), this isn't too surprising, but it is a little disappointing. It's difficult to imagine what sort of MR/SteamVR integration will even be possible, as long as Microsoft are determined to use MR as a tool to drive adoption of their walled-garden Windows 10 ecosystem... something which isn't in Valve's interests at all.

For VR, it's really the worst of all worlds. The first generation of hardware will be rendered obsolete by the new MR headsets, but the new MR headsets won't be able to build their user base, either, thanks to Microsoft's pathological monopolistic tendencies. The Fall Creators Update is already launching a month late (in October, and not on-schedule in September), and if the Anniversary and Creators Updates are any indication, the FCU will take months to be "fully" rolled out. Making MR inoperable without the FCU puts any potential MR customer in a position of having to wait months for their OS to be updated enough to even work with the hardware... and then more months of waiting for the hardware to be compatible with the biggest available library of VR content. It's idiotic. Microsoft literally couldn't have planned it any worse.

But, then, we are talking about Microsoft, here. We really shouldn't be at all surprised, at this point.

New PCVR headsets to work with Fall Creators Update Win10 only?

Was it just last week that I was praising Microsoft's new openness towards SteamVR?

From Gears of Biz:

Microsoft announced that a major update to its Windows operating system will be released globally on October 17. Release of Windows 10 “Fall Creators Update” will come the same day that Windows Mixed Reality headsets powered by the software hits the market, Microsoft executive vice president of operating systems Terry Myerson said in a blog post.

Unlike virtual reality gear already available, Windows headsets made by partners such as Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo will not require cameras to track user movements, according to Myerson.

Windows headsets will be priced as low as $299, and will need to be plugged into computers powered by the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft said. [...] At [the company’s annual developers’ conference early this year ], Myerson said the update will offer, among other upgrades, “enhancements in gaming, security, accessibility, and immersive new experiences made possible by Windows Mixed Reality.”

Sigh... Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Microsoft appears to be banking on VR/AR/MR/whatever-R being a major driver of Windows 10 adoption, in the same way that everybody connected to VR seems to think that consumers will rush to the technology and drive all kinds of things in the process, but there's a major problem with that logic. Consumers haven't been interested in VR at all, up until now, and 48.43% of them are also still using Windows 7... and are, therefore, not interested in Windows 10, either. So, why would these same consumers suddenly decide that VR is so exciting that they'll switch to Windows 10 in order to pay hundreds of dollars to be early adopters the tech?

The existence of low-cost VR headsets, which are both easier to set up and more portable than existing gear, will almost certainly be enough to doom HTC's Vive and Oculus' Rift, but chaining the new headsets to Windows 10 guarantees that only 26.77% of the market will even consider buying one... having given zero fucks about VR headsets, up until now. If the new headsets were Windows 7 compatible, then at least you could sell them to most of the PC market, but nailing them to Windows 10 means that, for all the talk of SteamVR compatibility, they really aren't fully compatible with SteamVR, either, closing off a huge chunk of the one VR distribution platform that might actually be big enough to matter to VR's future.

Although, in one sense, I guess it's a match made in heaven. Nobody wants VR, and Microsoft can't give Windows 10 away, so bundling the two together at least makes for a package whose components are uniformly unpopular. GG, Microsoft! Well played.

Sarcasm aside, though, Microsoft really need to stop trying to force people to adopt Windows 10. I can't stress this enough; this kind of heavy-handed, borderline-coercive approach is the thing which is preventing Microsoft from rebuilding their relationship with their customers, something which they absolutely must do if they want to avoid having Windows 7 turn into the next XP.