Live, from sunny Seattle.
Since Valve’s Steam Dev Days event is closed to the press (it’s billed as an “off the record” place for developers to hang out and listen to conference chats,) there isn’t a whole lot of detail emerging from it at present. However, many of the developers attending are interpreting “off the record” as “tweet about it immediately,” which is great news for the rest of us.
Here are a few of the things to emerge from the opening pair of conferences “Steam Machines in 2014” and “The Steam Controller.” Update: Now with proper twitter links, wuu.
For a start, every developer attending got a freebie prototype Steam controller:
Lolly what we have here, it’s controller! #SteamDevDays pic.twitter.com/PUip4Kd1Pi
— Edwin Smith (@edddeduck) January 15, 2014
And Steam Machine to fiddle about on:
OMG it seems we’re all getting a free Steam Machine to develop on!!! #SteamDevDays — Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) January 15, 2014
In case you’re wondering what the conference rooms look like, here’s a sneaky pic:
#SteamDevDays ready to go. One of the many rooms where speakers will be talking. pic.twitter.com/eTPVed71As — Matthew An (@Matt_An) January 15, 2014
Also, all of the conferences will apparently be put online at some point, so we’ll all be able to watch this stuff. No date given for that, though:
All Talks from #SteamDevDays will be put up online. — Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) January 15, 2014
There’s no pressure to switch your gaming habits to the living room, if you don’t want:
“Our goal with Steam Machines has never been to force customers into the living room if they don’t want to go” #SteamDevDays — El Oshcuro (@DaveOshry) January 15, 2014
SteamOS doesn’t have an official launch date at present:
No specific date yet for launch of Steam OS. #SteamDevDays — Becky (@omglazerkittens) January 15, 2014
Apparently, Steam itself is still rather popular:
Steam now has 75 million active users! #steamdevdays — Ben Sullivan (@sulli_ca) January 15, 2014
Greenlight is, like, so over, man:
“Our goal is to make Greenlight go away. Not because it’s not useful, but because we’re evolving.” #SteamDevDays — El Oshcuro (@DaveOshry) January 15, 2014
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There aren’t any minimum specs or certification processes for Steam Machines:
Greg Coomer: “There is no min spec or certification process for Steam Machines” @UnitedFrontGame #SteamDevDays — Jose Ilitzky (@jilitzky) January 15, 2014
And, as expected, Valve wants music, TV and software on there too:
Valve wants other properties such as TV, music, and Software on Steam Machines. #SteamDevDays — Becky (@omglazerkittens) January 15, 2014
Valve won’t be the only company making Steam controllers:
3rd parties will be able to make Steam Controllers #steamdevdays — Andy Payne (@PercyBlakeney63) January 15, 2014
And you’ll be seeing them sold through Steam itself, and at retail:
Steam controllers will be sold though steam and retail. #steamdevdays — DaFox (@DaFox) January 15, 2014
I don’t know what this one means, but it sounds cool:
Steam Controller can be reprogrammed on the fly so context changes use in game. #SteamDevDays — Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) January 15, 2014
You’ll be able to share neat controller bindings with other Steam users:
Controller bindings for games get shared and “up voted” the more they get used and eventually become default for the game. #SteamDevDays — Becky (@omglazerkittens) January 15, 2014
Valve is getting a lot of beta feedback about the controller, so it’ll see changes before release:
The Steam controller will see more changes before it goes on sale. They’ve gotten tons of feedback from the beta. #SteamDevDays — El Oshcuro (@DaveOshry) January 15, 2014
Steam will support 16 of the buggers at once.
Steam will address up to 16 Steam controllers, 16 player @AndroidCactus bonus mode on its way #SteamDevDays
— Tim Dawson (@ironicaccount) January 15, 2014
For more Steam Dev Days tweeting, keep an eye on Steamdb.info’s dedicated page.
