“Dear Valve Software, please just let 3rd parties use SteamOS and make the [hardware] with many different configurations,” wrote Ybarra. “SteamOS will take off and your Store revenue will only go up.” Ybarra went on to note that using SteamOS like this would also be a great move for Xbox, rather than the company sticking to Windows.

“This is what Xbox should do, btw,” his post continued. “But they will likely be forced to push Windows with AI, co-pilot, teams, and more. They could do GREAT if they embraced SteamOS on HW.”

It is worth noting that, since it is a Linux-based operating system, SteamOS is quite open even in its current form, with some users even finding success when they attempt to use the Steam Deck’s SteamOS recovery image on a desktop PC with AMD hardware. However, Valve hasn’t yet released SteamOS on its own to the public, and the operating system is still largely limited to specific sets of hardware, like the aforementioned Steam Deck and Lenovo’s Legion Go S.

The decision to not open it out the public is likely a technical one, since the operating system would need wider driver support in order to run on more hardware. Currently, the company is more focused on ensuring that its own hardware – the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame – and is working with AMD to ensure the correct drivers are available in for the operating system. In fact, the company is likely keen on opening the operating system up to more hardware companies, but doesn’t have the bandwidth to ensure that all of the required driver development for different hardware configurations can be supported.

While SteamOS on its own might be “officially” limited to only Valve’s hardware releases, the Linux community has stepped up to fill in the gaps on its own. One of the more popular Linux distribution that offers a SteamOS-like experience is the Fedora-based Bazzite, which allows users to set it up to be quite similar to SteamOS, including booting right into Steam’s Big Picture mode.

On the subject of Xbox and the Steam Machine, NYU Stern Schoool of Business professor and industry analyst Joost van Dreunen has referred to Valve’s upcoming compact gaming PC as “Microsoft’s worst nightmare”.

“Steam Machine basically turns Microsoft’s worst nightmare into a shipping product,” said van Dreunen. “It pushes Microsoft further down the path it’s already walking, where Game Pass and cloud access matter more than plastic boxes.”

The Steam Machine is slated for launch some time in early 2026, alongside the new Steam Controller and the Steam Frame VR headset.

Asus’ handheld, internally codenamed Kennan, is still planned for release later this year. Microsoft has seemingly decided to prioritise handhelds made by third-party hardware companies for the time being. These handhelds will still be considered Xbox systems owing to extra button, which will act as the Xbox Guide button we see on modern Xbox controllers.

As for the company’s own handheld, according to the report, it has decided to focus its teams on instead improving the gaming performance for Windows 11 instead. These improvements will likely end up affecting desktop users as well, but the priority seems to be to improve the operating system’s compatibility, performance, and power consumption for handheld systems, like Asus’ Kennan handheld.

The decision by Microsoft likely comes in the wake of Valve recently releasing its Linux-based SteamOS operating system for more handheld systems, essentially boasting compatibility with a wide variety of handhelds, like Lenovo’s Legion Go S. SteamOS has also been reported as offering better gaming performance as well as improved battery life when compared to Windows 11 on the same hardware.

It is also worth noting that, as an operating system, Windows has offered a notoriously sub-par experience for devices that rely heavily on power management, such as gaming laptops and handheld system, for quite some years now. One of the operating system’s key weaknesses – the lack of a consistent way to put the device to sleep mid-game and wake it up to continue playing – has been touted as one of the key strengths of devices like the Steam Deck.

According to Windows Central, the development teams working on improving the gaming experience on Windows 11 will be focusing on overall improvements between the operating system and handheld gaming systems. The improvements born of this maneuver will also likely end up paying dividends for Microsoft for when it ultimately does decide to enter the handheld gaming market with its own device.

As for Kennan, photos of the system were leaked through the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Going by the photos, Kennan is quite likely based on Asus’ own ROG Ally line-up. It does, however, sport an extra button between the left analogue stick and the display, which is likely the Xbox Guide button. The system also seemingly features grips on both sides similar to what we see in standard controllers.

The system is speculated to run on an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip with a TDP of 36 W, and LPDDR5-8533 memory that is likely shared between the main processor and the GPU present on the chip.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has previously acknowledged that Xbox should have its own gaming handheld, but has also noted that such hardware would still be a few years away for the company.

Ronald spoke about Microsoft wanting to tie in the gaming experiences on Xbox and Windows more closely. It certainly helps that the operating system on Xbox consoles is already built on top of Windows, which gives the company a leg up in its efforts at streamlining handheld gaming on Windows.

“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” Ronald said. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”

One of the key ways Microsoft wants handheld gaming on Windows to be more intuitive and simple is by making the experience closer to that of console gaming and simplifying the interface.

“We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience,” he explained. “Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”

It is worth noting that Microsoft has been actively updating Windows and the Xbox app to make the interface simpler to use. Ronald refers to these as investments that users are starting to see already. More will be revealed later this year, however.

“I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see a lot of investments over time that you’re starting to see already, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year,” said Ronald.

Unlike Valve’s approach to its operating system, however, Microsoft isn’t looking to hide away the core Windows functionality. According to Ronald, the goal is to make gaming in Windows in general a better experience, regardless of the hardware it is running on.

“I think, at the end of the day, our goal is to make Windows great for gaming on any device,” he said. “The reality is the Xbox operating system is built on top of Windows. So there’s a lot of infrastructure that we built in the console space that we can bring to the PC space and really deliver that premium gaming experience on any device.”

However, the company is still working on changing the interface in a way where it will feel like a gaming system rather than a full-fledged desktop when it comes to trying to use it with analogue sticks. Windows, on its own, requires its users to have a keyboard and mouse or touchscreen available, for example, making navigation through the OS difficult on systems that might be lacking in those things.

“There’s fundamental interaction models that we’re working on to make sure that regardless of the operating system details it feels very natively like a gaming-centric device and a gaming-centric experience,” said Ronald.

Microsoft has stated in the past that it wants to make handheld gaming on Windows better, with potential additions like Quick Resume, and an improved Windows UI. Since the release of the Steam Deck, the space has seen several competitors to Valve, including Asus with the ROG Ally, MSI with the Claw, and Lenovo with the Legion Go.

Valve itself also recently announced that SteamOS wouldn’t be limited to just the Steam Deck anymore, announcing a partnership with Lenovo for the new Legion Go S.

Valve has been quite clear about the Steam Deck having issues if the ambient temperature gets either too hot or too cold. The company has stated in the past that the handheld gaming PC works best in weather between 0 degrees celcius and 35 degrees celsius.

Earlier updates to the Steam Deck have also added quality of life features, including improving battery life, a new lock screen, and other improvements.

The Steam Deck has been quite popular for Valve, and has been facing shortages since its release. The company has revealed recently that production on the system has been ramping up, however. The company even announced back in June that its shipments would soon be doubled.

Steam Deck shortages are largely because of COVID-enforced shuttering of manufacturing facilities, and the planned docking station for the Steam Deck has also been delayed.

Valve’s other hardware efforts haven’t fared much better either; HTC Vive, a VR headset made in collaboration with Taiwanese company HTC, was praised for its incredible tech, but always trailed Oculus and PlayStation VR; Valve Index, Valve’s own attempt at VR hardware, was, again, praised, and has seen reasonable sales in the wake of last year’s Half-Life: Alyx, but again, in terms of sales, it’s been a bit player in an already small market. Arguably Valve’s biggest successes in the hardware arena have been Steam link (a remote play extender for your Steam games) and the Steam Controller – but they were both also less than $100 apiece, indicating that Valve’s hardware success has been contingent on selling cheap hardware at best.

Which was why when Valve head Gave Newell promised some “console efforts” from Valve later in the year, the initial reaction from many was to assume that he was talking about Valve games for consoles again, rather than another Valve hardware entry to the market. Since then, a lot of speculation has centered on a potential new Valve hardware platform again, however, though the crux of the discussion has always returned to the central question – why? Why would Valve attempt to do something like this again, given how poorly their debut effort went?

To be fair, the original Steam Machine initiative may have been a total bust, but Valve did end up getting a lot from it. SteamOS, a Valve produced Linux distro, was originally developed in conjunction with Steam Machines, but has outlived those, and in turn given rise to Valve’s Proton, a compatibility layer that allows games developed for Windows to run on Linux without any extra effort or resources necessary from the developers. Big Picture Mode, Steam’s console-style UI, was developed for Steam Machines, but it ended up outliving them, and remains a popular way for users to interact with Steam to this day. Steam Link, the hardware, may have died out, but the brand and the streaming tech both live on in the form of Steam Link remote play apps for smartphones and tablets. So even while the Steam Machines themselves were colossal misfires, everything else that came out of it was extremely successful in the long run – in and of itself, one could always argue that is reason enough to justify a second attempt. 

But the whole discussion got a new interesting angle associated with it in light of recent leaks about what Valve’s upcoming hardware efforts may entail. Recent SteamDB leaks have unearthed evidence of a new Valve controller associated with a new Valve system, codenamed “Neptune” and “SteamPal” respectively. Based on some findings in this code, a lot of speculation has been recontextualized in light of the belief that Valve’s next hardware attempt may not be a set top box console such as PlayStation or Xbox at all – instead, it may be a Switch-style hybrid handheld console. Which makes things a whole lot more interesting.

You see, one important reason that Steam Machines failed was that there was literally no reason for them to exist. There was no niche that they were addressing that hadn’t already been addressed, and addressed better (and cheaper); there was no question they were answering; they were providing no utility or value that hadn’t already been provided by other devices on the market. If you were in it for PC gaming, everything a Steam Machine could do, actual PCs could do better, given that unlike Steam Machines, they ran Windows (and Proton wasn’t a thing yet back then). If you were in it for console gaming, everything Steam Machines did, actual consoles did better (especially since, again, Steam Machines couldn’t run most of the popular consoles games because they ran on Linux, and they were more expensive while providing often more compromised specs and experiences). If you were just in it to get a living room extension of your gaming PC, Steam Link did it better, while also being a fraction of the cost. If you just wanted to tinker with SteamOS or Big Picture Mode, you could already did it on your existing PC (Valve offered SteamOS for free for everyone, and Big Picture Mode was added to the Steam Client for everyone as well). So there was literally no reason whatsoever to go for a Steam Machine – it almost felt like Valve went out of its way to hobble whatever potential appeal the platform may have had by offering that same appeal elsewhere, better, cheaper.

But a portable Valve console, in the same form factor as a Switch, ends up sidestepping these problems and opening up a market for success for itself, in much the same was that the Switch itself was where traditional set top Nintendo consoles had clearly struggled to sell consistently for almost decades by the time of its release. You see, portability in and of itself is a huge selling point. There is clear utility to offering you the chance to play the exact same games you play elsewhere on the go, whether in bed, or in the bathroom, or just on the go. Portability has huge appeal – there’s a reason so many third party games sell the most on Switch, and people keep asking for Switch versions of most games even when it is clear that the Switch is far less capable than other machines those games are already on. People are willing to compromise on the graphics and presentation to get the utility of being able to play their preferred games on their own terms, rather than being tethered to a TV or monitor.

Portability in and of itself, then, adds utility to a Switch-style Steam Machine, giving Steam players an actual reason to purchase one – because buying one will let them do something that their current Steam enabled PCs can’t. And while the Steam Link app can let you stream your games on a tablet or smartphone with a paired controller, that is a significantly more compromised experience than playing games natively on an integrated package, like the Switch is (again, this is one reason for why the Switch has seen so much success even in the face of remote play offerings from, well, just about everyone else in the industry).

So a portable Steam Machine gets a reason to exist by having an actual shot at market success by virtue of providing actual meaningful utility to end users, things that the older ones never had or could. The issue, of course, is that while portability is clearly a killer app to some extent that provides actual assurance of success, it’s not enough in and of itself. The history of video games as a medium is littered with the corpses of dead portable systems, all from companies who legitimately thought they had a shot at market success, and then failed in spectacular fashion. Arguably, getting a portable gaming system right is even more difficult than getting a home console right – while there are at least five companies that have managed to deliver successful home consoles more than once, there are only two companies that managed to deliver successful gaming handhelds, period, and only one that has managed to do it with any consistency. That one company is Nintendo, who were able to survive and fend off portable competition in the market from entrants such as Atari, Sega, Sony, and even Nokia. 

So, making a system successful needs more than just it being a portable. Which means that even with a portable Steam Machine (or Steam Pal, going by that codename), Valve has their work cut out for them. There are several things they will need to do to be able to gain any traction with this hypothetical Steam handheld – though the one good thing is that many of the initial obstacles a new portable entrant might face are already surmounted due to some of the groundwork Valve has been laying down over the last few years (unwittingly or otherwise).

Let’s talk about those things that Valve needs to get done right, though. The most important factor here is price – as I’ve said several times, clearly portability is a killer app that offers a lot of utility in the gaming sphere, but it also has a hard cap in terms of the price the markets willing to pay for it. Your portable system can not be too expensive, because it simply won’t sell otherwise. The most expensive price a purely portable system has ever been able to sell at in the past is $200 – beyond that, portable systems have outright failed, with even Sony and Nintendo being unable to make $250 price points work for their handhelds.

There is, of course, always the chance that Valve makes the Steam Pal a hybrid like the Switch, so it’s not just a handheld, but can also dock in and become a home console. At that point, they give themselves some leeway to be able to sell their system at higher prices (the Switch sells at $299 currently, and rumours for the Switch Pro peg it at an even higher price point). But in general, especially given that Valve lacks the pedigree in the portable arena that Nintendo has, or even the reputation for long term support of their hardware initiatives, they can’t really afford to price the system too high. $250 is the max they can and should go – and at that point, they’re already basically consigning it to sell to a niche of presumably existing Steam customers. Realistically, with the Steam Pal, the lower Valve prices it (without it becoming a loss generating initiative to a ridiculous degree, at any rate), the better.

At least as important as the price, though, will be the library. The Switch didn’t just sell like it did because of the form factor, it got the traction and momentum that it did because of its amazing library, a significant part of which is exclusive to it. The Switch is one of the most widely supported systems of all time, and the catalog of indie, third party, and especially first party games that it has built has been the reason behind its ongoing success.

The thing is, unlike Nintendo with Breath of the Wild, Valve is almost certainly not going to be launching the Steam Pal with any big killer app exclusive game. In fact, it’s up in the air as to whether or not Valve launches any game alongside Steam Pal at all. The Steam Pal doesn’t have to launch with an exclusive, strictly speaking – even it launching alongside, say, Portal 3, which can be played on it, allowing players to play the exciting new game in the beloved franchise on the go in addition to their PCs, would be enough. But Valve is extremely slow in terms of releasing new games (last year’s Half-Life: Alyx was their first new premium release in eight years; in those intervening eight years, Valve only released two free-to-play titles, and some tech demos), and also, none of their previous hardware platforms have launched alongside new games. Steam Machines lacked any “launch title”, and so did Valve Index. So not only is it unclear, based on precedence, whether or not Valve would have a flagship launch game for a hypothetical new Steam Pal, it’s unclear that they would be able to give it any consistent ongoing game support at all. Which means the Steam Pal would end up having to succeed, largely, on the basis of third party titles.

That’s actually not the death sentence one might think it is, though. The very appeal of a Steam Pal would be that it interacts and allows continuity with your existing Steam library. In other words, the appeal is that you get to play your existing Steam games on the go, not that it’s a new system with a distinct library of its own. But this, again, requires some actual effort on Valve’s part, not just in terms of the technology (where, with Proton, they have laid down the groundwork already), but enforcement of policies for developers and publishers.

Given that by definition this Steam Pal is going to be weaker than many PCs, Valve will have to ensure it mandates a certain minimum level of optimization and, preferably, a single optimized profile of preferred settings and controls, for developers and their games. Of course, Valve and developers can then allow users to go in and start tweaking settings to their liking – after all, the very strength of PC gaming is in the flexibility it gives users, and that shouldn’t be taken away here – but a minimum baseline of optimization in terms of how the game runs, and the controls, should be mandatory for games to be allowed to be whitelisted for the device. Otherwise, you are giving users an extremely janky and poorly optimized experience, which doesn’t really make the most convincing case for itself, particularly since there’s already an existing inconvenient method to play your Steam games portably. The whole point of this kind of a Steam Pal is that by being a fully integrated package that plays your games locally, it’s giving you a more convenient, better experience overall.

The question then becomes – would developers even bother with hitting those thresholds of optimization? After all, they can just not spend the time and resources on doing that, and still sell to the existing universe of 100 million+ Steam users. Here, again, the onus is on Valve as the custodian of the ecosystem to incentivize developers to support the Steam Pal where technically feasible. While initiatives such as Proton obviously help (presuming this thing runs on a fork of SteamOS), Valve can probably try some monetary and financial incentives as well. Things like a lower cut of revenues, for example, where they take only 20% of your game sales on Steam rather than 30%, if you also make it Steam Pal compatible, is likely to make a lot more developers put in the work to make their games compatible with this new hardware. Other incentives Valve can offer can include better placement on the Steam Storefront, better co-marketing pushes, and so on. But Valve needs to do whatever it can to have these developers support the Steam Pal – otherwise, imagine a situation where, for example, Hollow Knight Silksong is available on Steam and Switch, but not whitelisted for Steam Pal. At that point, why would Steam players buy a Steam Pal when a Switch fulfills that promise better? Especially given that so many Switch games already allow cross-save with their Steam counterparts, such as Hades, Divinity: Original Sin 2 and so on?

Ultimately, that’s actually a good and concise summary of what Valve needs to do to ensure that the Steam Pal isn’t the latest in a not short line of hardware failures and misfires from them. They have to be involved and engaged with trying to make it a success. They have to actually market it, incentivize developers to make sure their games run on it, and generally make a constant, ongoing, active push for it for it to succeed. being hands-off with to – as Valve typically is, and has been in the past as well – will only cause it to fail, much like Steam Machines did. Even if it’s an actual good bit of hardware, it won’t sell without a concerted, ongoing, and coordinated push and campaign for it. Being a platform holder comes with responsibilities to generate and equally important, maintain momentum. being hands-off doesn’t do either. You end up with something like the PS Vita or the Steam Machines, which never get off the ground, because they never get the support of their platform holders once they hit the market. But if Valve does something entirely uncharacteristic of them, and if they keep pushing for the Steam Pal on an ongoing basis even after its launch, then I think the platform would stand a chance at some pretty good success, and a healthy and rich library not unlike the Switch. It can also serve as a friendlier entry point into the Steam ecosystem for many who traditionally may be daunted by PC gaming, but would be willing to get a portable – and who knows, those people might well transition to full-blown PC players in the future too.

It’s important to remember, however, that in spite of all this potential for success, one must keep their expectations properly calibrated and in check. It’s never going to become a 100 million selling Switch-level success (most importantly, it lacks the exclusive Nintendo first party games that give the Switch an edge that simply cannot be contended with by any other platform holder on the market). It probably will not even match the 3DS, which is Nintendo’s lowest selling portable system of all time. But at the very least, I can see it selling more than any other Valve hardware platform has in the past, and at least a few dozen million units, if handled right – which automatically makes it more successful than all but one non-Nintendo portable platforms ever. And, as mentioned, it has a lot of other intangible benefits as well, on the customer and developer support side both. 

Of course, right now, there are a lot of questions in the air – in addition to all the speculation I’ve already listed out, the biggest question to begin with is about whether or not this thing is even real (or if it’s indeed a portable system at all). But, assuming that this is real, and it is a portable, and that Valve plays its hand right, I think there is a legitimate chance for a Steam handheld to succeed where no other Valve hardware has in the past. Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Valve’s Steam Machine initiative was the PC gaming giant’s bid to try and take over the living room- the attempt to push console like gaming PCs that would be ready for living room gaming. The entire initiative hinged on trying to bring PC gaming to the console toting masses, by presenting it in a console like box, and hinged on the success of the Steam Controller and SteamOS.

However, the gambit failed- Steam Machines are an indisputable flop; there are multiple reasons why this happened. SteamOS is Linux based, and while the state of Linux gaming continues to improve, most major AAA game releases remain on Windows. SteamOS also lacked, at least out of the box, compatibility with Origin, Battle.net, and other gaming clients, meaning that the biggest PC games on the market – League of Legends, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and Battlefield – were all incompatible with it. Then, too, SteamOS lacked any centralized brand identity and push, with Valve doing nothing apart from specifying a set of standards for their hardware partners, who were left to flounder on the market against the marketing might of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

However, even though the idea may have failed, it was still sound- PC gaming remains the best avenue for gaming, all else being equal, and making it more palatable or accessible to the masses is a noble push. Which is why Microsoft’s Play Anywhere concept, in conjunction with the Xbox One Scorpio, as well as Microsoft’s new development tools, that essentially have games developed in the Scorpio development environment, before they are scaled up or down for Xbox One or PCs, is so interesting- it’s almost as if Microsoft themselves are trying to bring PC gaming into the living room, under the guise of a friendly console that most people are familiar with.

Consider the fact that Microsoft are making attempts to unify the Windows Store and the Xbox Stores; consider the fact that games (limited to their games at this point) bought on one run on the other, and even have Cross Play and Cross Save capabilities. Consider the fact that Microsoft’s development binaries apparently treat Scorpio as a standard PC configuration that is targeted, that developers then scale up or down from, as necessary. Consider the fact that Microsoft have announced keyboard and mouse support for Xbox One and Scorpio. A picture begins to form- for Microsoft, Scorpio is their equivalent of the Steam Machine, a Trojan Horse to bring Windows based gaming into the living room, without asking the customer to muck around with alternate OSs, or editable registry entries, and the like. All of a sudden, UWP makes far more sense, with all of its limitations- it’s not meant for traditional PC applications, it’s meant to bring traditional PC applications to non PC environments, living room set top boxes among them.

Will this pan out for Microsoft? That remains to be seen. Xbox is no longer the targeted standard for development for most of the gaming industry as it was last generation, UWP and the Windows Store have failed to take off so far, Microsoft’s next generation APIs like DirectX 12 have not yet seen widespread adoption, and the Xbox One itself hasn’t seen customer uptake this generation like Xbox 360 saw the previous one. The success of all of these is intertwined and interlinked- if one of these fails to pan out, the entire structure crumbles.

So while Microsoft may have a vision of the Scorpio becoming a living room gaming PC, the fact of the matter is, this will not pan out without developer support of their backend, and customer adoption on the front end- right now, Microsoft are lagging in both of those regards. But if somehow they can get everything ready and in place ahead of the Scorpio launch? Why, the Scorpio may just end up being the Steam Machine vision that Valve had, actually properly realized this time around.

Been wanting to play Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition on Mac, Linux or SteamOS since it launched in October for PC, PS4 and Xbox One? Well there’s good news – the Enhanced Edition of the award-winning RPG is now finally available for these platforms. The SteamOS support means you can play it on your Steam Box in the living without any issues as well.

It also seems that Larian updated the PC version to keep it “in synch with the Mac & Linux version” along with having “fixed a number of stability issues reported by players”.

Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition builds on the original release in numerous ways, adding new quests, lots of bug fixes, narrative changes, more choices and much, much more. PC users who already own the original game can receive the Enhanced Edition completely for free which is a neat bonus.

Will you be picking up Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition for Mac, Linux or SteamOS? Let us know in the comments.

The long awaited Steam Machines are now available in North America and Europe starting today, as is the Steam Controller and the Steam Link extender. Steam Machines run on SteamOS, which is a Linux based variant, which is compatible with over 1,500 of the 6,000 games available on Steam.

Earlier this fall, Valve announced dedicated Steam Sections in most GameStop, GAME UK, and EB Games stores. The sections will feature the Steam Hardware devices, as well as a variety of Steam prepaid cards. That’s not the only way to get Steam Machines either, as in addition, Steam Machines will be available from their respective PC manufacturers, and the Steam Controller and Link are available via Amazon and directly from Steam.

Steam Controller retails for $50; Steam Link goes for $50 as well. Steam Machines are available from Alienware, Zotac, Cyberpower, and other manufacturers, starting at $450, but going up to far more expensive (and full featured) variants.

Now that the Steam Machines are finally launching, they will need a unified retail presence if they hope to compete in the market. And it is good to see Valve finally take a decisive step when it comes to the otherwise scattershot Steam Machine initiative this time around- Valve today announced dedicated Steam Sections launching this fall in GameStop (USA), GAME UK, and EB Games (Canada) stores. These sections will feature the Steam Hardware devices launching November 10 (Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines), as well as a variety of Steam prepaid cards.

“GameStop, GAME UK, and EB Games are leading retail destinations for core gamers and early adopters,” said Gabe Newell of Valve. “Creating a ‘store within a store’ across North America and the UK is a significant win for getting the first generation of Steam Hardware products into gamers’ hands.”

Steam has helped grow PC gaming into a leading platform for games,” said Bob Puzon, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, the exclusive retail partner in the U.S. for Steam Hardware. “With millions of gamers already enjoying the Steam desktop experience, we anticipate a strong demand for the upcoming Steam Hardware products and are looking forward to serving as the exclusive non-digital retail launch partner.”

“Steam continues to grow and has become synonymous with PC gaming, and as the UK’s number 1 gaming specialist retailer we are excited about bringing these products to GAME in UK,” said Charlotte Knight, managing director at GAME. “With the innovation that the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and the Steam Machines give gamers in the living room, we expect to see significant demand for these new products. The first signs of this can be seen with the sold out Early Bird launch of both the Steam Link and Controller on October 16th exclusively at GAME in the UK. GAME are delighted to be partnering with Valve on the new technology and support the continuing growth of this category.”

The Steam Machines launch on November 10. They will ship with the Steam Controller, and run the Linux based SteamOS. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

Project CARS has received Patch 2.5 for its PC version today, and it is a pretty substantial update, addressing a lot of the longstanding issues and problems that the community has had with the title, ever since it first launched in early May.

The issues are far ranging, fixing everything from the handling model to the controls, from the online to the general overall crashes that the game suffers. All said and done, once you install this update, your experience should become substantially better than it is right now.

The full changelog follows:

Game Crashes

• We spent a lot of time working directly with a number of users who were struggling with game crashes, and resolved as many of these as we could. The various fixes in this patch should help a great deal in making the game more stable for those of you who were experiencing these instabilities.

Pitting, tuning, setups

• Fixed a case where the in-game tuning Setup was not being saved under certain conditions.
• Fixed the issue with cold and current tyre pressure mismatches in pitstop strategy, as well as cold pressure not being correctly applied in the tyre system.
• Ensure that the Default pitstop strategy is selected as the Active one when starting a new session.
• Fixed an issue where the wrong vehicle setup would at times be applied to the player’s current vehicle.
• Fixed another case of where cars would sometimes leave the pits with an invisible reattached wheel.
• Fixed an issue with the Pit Strategy screen where the displayed values did not reflect the saved settings.
• Fixed an issue in online races where the pit crew would ignore any changes made to the pit strategy once the player’s car was stationary in the pit box.
• Reworked some tyre compound names as displayed in the setup screen to ensure that all compounds are named to be indicative of the type of compound it represents in the pit strategy screen.
• Restrict the selectable pit strategy tyre compound types to only those available for the current vehicle.

Online

• Fixed an issue where the Drive button would remain permanently locked when joining an in-progress session.
• Fixed an issue where, when the player progressed from qualifying to the start of the race, the player’s car would sometimes begin moving without player, resulting in false jump-starts.

Controls

• New Feature – Implemented the ability via menu sliders for the user to manually tweak the menu spring strength, stationary / low speed spring strength, and overall steering gain.
• New Feature – The Force Feedback Calibration screen now features a multiple force feedback profile selection whereby the user can select a base FFB style that suits personal preference, and then tweak it further as desired. This will then create a ‘Custom’ entry in the profile selection list in addition to the current options: “Default” (matches the FFB default settings in Patch 2.0) and “Classic” (matches the FFB settings in the original release).
• Fixed an issue with sudden loss of FFB after a crash.
• Reduced the strength of the menu spring for custom wheels.
• Fixed an issue where Mouse controls were showing a deadzone in the centre regardless of deadzone setting.
• Fixed an issue where rumble on the gamepad could at times cause the game to slow down.
• Added support and profiles for the Logitech G29 and G920 on PC
• Added accelerator slip vibration to the wheel rim of Fanatec wheels where available, and fixed brake rumble not working.

Vehicles

• Formula A – Added a new tire set which now includes two slick tires – soft and medium. Also rebalanced the heating and wear across all four tyre sets. Wear will now more closely match real-world Formula cars. Heating is more even front to rear also. Further rebalancing of the AI speed as was required, and tweaks to the base setup to accommodate the heat change.
• Modern street cars – New stiffer tyres for improved drivability to more closely match the real world experience, making these cars more fun and engaging to drive. Made tweaks to the individual setups of the FWD and most Supercars to accommodate the change.
• Mclaren P1 – Stiffened up the default suspension to help prevent bottoming out at tracks like Nordschliefe.

Project CARS is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a version for SteamOS and Wii U planned for later this year. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted on future coverage.