Valve has #announced that it will not be running its annual #SteamDevDays, but instead will have a larger than usual #presence at GDC 2015. Reports from Origin PC company Kevin Wasielewski also indicated that Valve will have the final release version of the Steam Controller on display. Unfortunately, he was reluctant to say anything more about Valve’s plans for the year.
“At GDC, they’re going to have more information, and we’ll be there. That’s the official stuff we can say,” he said.
“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 are going to production and at GDC is when they’re going to announce more stuff.”
The Steam Controller was first revealed alongside the Steam Machine concept back in 2013. The Linux-based OS is designed with gaming primarily in mind, and since Valve’s announcement of it back in 2013 the number of Linux-compatible Steam titles has grown exponentially. In February 2013 there were 60 Linux games, now there are more than 700 (not to mention there’s still no sign of Half-life 3).
The Dev Days event was an opportunity for Valve to share its progress over the past year on the SteamOS, the Steam Controller, and Steam Machines, but this year GDC is seen as the proving ground for everything it’s been working on.
Indeed, Wasielewski made a couple of other comments suggesting the PC industry has gone cold on the idea, too, and that the term “Steam Machine” is “pretty much dead”.
“Living room PCs have been around forever. That’s not anything new either. But it seems like there’s a legitimate demand and push for living room PCs,” he said.
GDC is going to be pretty interesting for Steam fans this year; Valve is planning to have a larger than usual presence, to make up for the lack of a Steam developer Days event this year. GDC runs March 2 through 6 in San Francisco.
